Iris Ball

Iris Helena MacDonald Ball 

July 19, 1934 – December 21, 2025

With deep love and gratitude, we announce the passing of Iris Helena (MacDonald) Ball—strong‑willed, generous, witty, and delightfully stubborn to the very end. Born in Sudbury to Arthur and Madeline, and raised in Cobden, Iris built a life defined by service, friendship, and fierce devotion to those she loved.

A proud graduate of the Lorraine School of Nursing (Class of 1955), Iris spent her early career in Pakistan before returning home to serve at Pembroke General Hospital, where she became Head of the Surgical Floor and later Head of Admitting. In 1957, she married “Barty” Ball, and together they built a life filled with travel, laughter, and cherished friendships. They welcomed a daughter Connie a few years after they married, and later became devoted grandparents to their beloved Emma Kate.

Iris was a woman ahead of her time—a working mother in the 1960s, a voracious reader, a sharp bridge player, a loyal friend, and a steadfast member of her church community. She believed deeply in helping others without expecting anything in return and lived that philosophy every day.

She will be remembered for her hair obsession, humour, her opinions, her compassion, her love of shoes and shopping and all things sweet, her dislike of beans and all types of fish except for Norm’s pickerel and possibly some good Haddock, her devotion to the Canadiens and Blue Jays, and her unwavering pride in her family—especially her granddaughter, Emma.

Predeceased by her husband Barty, her sister Lynne, and her parents Arthur and Madeline, Iris leaves behind her daughter, granddaughter, sister Barbara, extended family, and countless friends who were touched by her kindness and strength.

After nearly 92 remarkable years, she was, in every sense, a force: steady, loving, opinionated, and endlessly giving. And so, as of 9:45 a.m., on the 21st day of December 2025, heaven has its hands full.

To remember my mother, please consider carrying out a good deed for someone who needs it — a small kindness, freely given, just as she so often did. If you would like to make a memorial donation, Holy Trinity Anglican Church, in Pembroke, would be a meaningful place to do so.

There will be a service of celebration for Iris at Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Pembroke on Thursday, January 8, 2026 at 11:00 a.m. Inurnment in the Parish Cemetery in the spring.