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Appreciation by Christine Jamieson, Montreal, QC
Volume 41 Issue 7, 8, & 9 | Posted: October 5, 2026
I never met Catherine O’Hara. I was a fan of Schitt’s Creek where I came to experience O’Hara’s talent and comedic ability. Schitt’s Creek came to be a place of comfort during the loneliness of the pandemic. Each character was comforting in their own special role in the bizarre, homely, comedy that brought so much release in a time of anxiety.
But my true purpose in speaking about Schitt’s Creek is Catherine O’Hara as Moira Rose, partly because she died today generating a shock across the many venues and lives her life touched. It is often said that mothers hold families together and I ponder this when I think of Moira Rose who plays an actress, a wife, a mother, and a citizen – four roles she portrayed in Schitt’s Creek. Strangely, she managed to portray integrally all these roles, given the limits or expanse of the lines and scenes she was given in this immensely entertaining comedy.
Strangely, something about Catherine O’Hara’s portrayal of Moira Rose communicated, at times, O’Hara’s own true character which came through despite the self-absorbed, almost narcissistic personality of the wife of Johnny Rose and the mother of David and Alexis Rose.
There are many scenes in episodes that allowed O’Hara’s depth of meaning and caring to come through. The one I think of spontaneously is her mentoring of Stevie Budd as Stevie played in the town’s production of the play Cabaret.
I have heard many interviews that O’Hara gave prior to and after Schitt’s Creek. I was always struck by her genuine, authentic personality. What she had to say rang true. Her honesty touched me deeply. I was struck by her wisdom in not taking her success too seriously and in keeping close to her heart what mattered most to her – in particular, her family.
I feel bereft at her passing. I think of her family at this moment, reeling at her passing, distraught that they will not again experience her enormous presence and the gift of who she was. Yet, strangely, I feel this too.
I have no claim on her person, yet I feel she gifted me with something of who she was. This was a tremendous gift; one I cherish and mourn on this day of her passing. Goodbye, Catherine O’Hara. Though I never really knew you, I thank you for what you gave to humanity and to me; a sense of lightness in all the heaviness of existence. I thank you for your authenticity and your refusal to allow the glitter to turn you into something you were not. I thank you for being a person who could look the depth of desire in the face and not allow it to rule you. May this last journey you travel be one of peace and consolation in at least the same amount of peace and consolation you gave others.
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Appreciation by Christine Jamieson, Montreal, QC
