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Eva Kato

Child refugee, writer, photographer, veteran cancer survivor. Born on Feb. 16, 1946, in Budapest, Hungary; died on May 28, 2015, in Toronto, of brain cancer, aged 69.

In 1956, Eva Kato and her parents fled Budapest during the chaos of the Hungarian Revolution. The Russian communists had liberated Hungary from Nazi occupation, but they, in turn, were viewed as occupiers; during the uprising, Hungarian communist sympathizers were being hung from telephone poles. Because Eva's mother was Jewish, the Katos had initially welcomed the Russian presence, but they no longer felt safe in Budapest.

An only child, Eva was 10 when her family started a new life in Niagara Falls, Ont., but the hopeful adventure was short-lived. Her well-educated parents (her father was a history professor) were reduced to working as janitors and house cleaners. When her father died in 1961, her mother used the $7,000 insurance policy to buy a house, rent out rooms, and start a hairdressing business in her living room.

Eva, however, embodied the positive spirit of the new world. She attended the University of Toronto, graduating at 24 with a B.A. in English literature. She was immediately hired as a copywriter for Eaton's catalogue. Three years later she met Ken Dawe, a fellow copywriter, who became her lifelong partner. In their 42 years together, they travelled the world – sometimes for a year at a time – while maintaining careers as freelance copywriters and designers. From their early travels on, Eva honed her skills as a photographer.

When she was 40, Eva was diagnosed with breast cancer, which eventually required major surgery. Over the next three decades she was diagnosed repeatedly with potentially fatal forms of the disease – in her lungs, bones, lymph glands – but she never complained. After every onslaught of radiation and chemotherapy, she would pick herself up and cheerfully carry on.

In the 1990s, Eva was president of the Toronto Camera Club, one of the largest such clubs in North America. Her fascination with people and places found expression in award-winning photographs and her images appeared in magazines, on book covers, in art galleries and international photo salons. She created slide-show travelogues accompanied by a recorded musical score and presented them to the public at camera clubs, libraries, community centres and senior citizens' residences.

She was also a skilled storyteller. In her illustrated, self-published 2011 book, No Speaka da Language, about culture clashes on roads less travelled, her polished narratives gleam like her best photographs.

Eva's great sense of humour and vitality made her seem indestructible. But when tests revealed a mass of tumours in her brain, she knew it was a battle she couldn't win. She fought hard for six months, amazing doctors with her tenacity. She passed away in a Toronto hospice, leaving rich memories of her enthusiasm for life's brightest things.

Ken Dawe is Eva's partner; David Stouck is a good friend.

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