Obituary of Layton MacLeod

The fam­ily of John Al­bert “Lay­ton” MacLeod is ex­tremely heart­bro­ken to an­nounce his pass­ing on June 17, 2021. Fol­low­ing a rare form of liver dis­ease, re­ceiv­ing a liver trans­plant, and bravely fight­ing mul­ti­ple other health emer­gen­cies dur­ing the past year, it was Lay­ton’s final wish to re­turn home where he passed peace­fully with his en­tire fam­ily by his side.

Lay­ton grew up in Glace Bay, Cape Bre­ton; it was here where he de­vel­oped his love for lead­er­ship, com­mu­nity in­volve­ment, cubs, base­ball, and hockey. From coach­ing mos­quito base­ball, to being on the ex­ec­u­tive of PC Youth, he cre­ated many pre­cious mem­o­ries that he shared for years to fol­low. Some of his fond­est child­hood mem­o­ries were from work­ing with his grand­fa­ther at his gas sta­tion, where he began his life­long love for Diet Pepsi. (If you know, you know!) Lay­ton’s heart for­ever stayed in Cape Bre­ton, al­ways telling his chil­dren “the Is­land is my home.” Fol­low­ing many years of base­ball, hockey, and ad­ven­tures in Cape Bre­ton, Lay­ton grad­u­ated from Mor­ri­son Glace Bay High School; it was from here that he went on to at­tend Aca­dia Uni­ver­sity and Uni­ver­site Sainte-Anne. He was al­ways very pas­sion­ate about fur­ther­ing his ed­u­ca­tion, cre­at­ing many mem­o­ries and life­long friend­ships along the way. Dur­ing the sum­mers, Lay­ton spent count­less hours as the camp di­rec­tor at Camp Aite­breagh, in the high­lands of Cape Bre­ton. Telling ghost sto­ries, tak­ing new campers to “haunted” lo­ca­tions, night­time dri­ves to Mar­ble Moun­tain, stand­ing on the steps of Aite­breagh yelling “Uggie Uggie Uggie, Oy Oy Oy”, lead­ing conga lines and jok­ing with the campers, were just many of the few mem­o­ries that he often spoke of. It was also here where he adopted Breagh, the lit­tle ter­rier, which ended up being a “gift” to his par­ents. Gift mean­ing, ended up leav­ing with his par­ents as he went off on his next ad­ven­ture!

After many years re­turn­ing every sum­mer to Cape Bre­ton, Lay­ton even­tu­ally made a per­ma­nent move to Wolfville. It was here where he met the love of his life, Kim­ MacLeod, at a local base­ball field. She was his great­est pride and joy, pro­vid­ing him with his chil­dren Sara, Billy, and Angus. He could never show her enough how much he loved her and the life that they had made to­gether, bring­ing her home a red rose every sec­ond Fri­day, pick­ing up count­less over­time shifts to en­sure that not only she had every­thing she could ever need, but also to be able to pro­vide for his chil­dren the best qual­ity of life he pos­si­bly could.

Lay­ton was the most gen­er­ous, self­less per­son, con­tin­u­ing even to his final hours.

He never stopped doing the lit­tle things and would never let his fam­ily for­get how loved they were.

Lay­ton served proudly as a para­medic with EHS for al­most 30 years. He had an ex­treme pas­sion for car­ing for his pa­tients to the best of his abil­ity, as well as ad­vo­cat­ing and car­ing for his co-work­ers. He was the provin­cial union pres­i­dent of the NSGEU Local 911, where he rep­re­sented Nova Sco­tia para­medics and ac­tively ne­go­ti­ated the col­lec­tive agree­ment be­tween the province’s am­bu­lance op­er­a­tor and the union. He was ex­tremely proud of this ac­com­plish­ment, often speak­ing of this to his daugh­ter Sara dur­ing count­less hours of union/para­med­i­cine sto­ries. He wanted to be known for­ever as a voice of what is right for equal­ity in all as­pects of the work­place, con­tin­u­ing to study union con­tracts and tak­ing notes even when his own health was at stake and he was fight­ing for his own life in hos­pi­tal. He lis­tened tire­lessly to union meet­ings, dis­play­ing ex­treme pas­sion for gain­ing health and well­ness ben­e­fits for his fel­low co-work­ers, even though he him­self would never re­ceive these. Lay­ton was in­cred­i­bly proud to call him­self a para­medic, com­plet­ing his manda­tory work ed­u­ca­tion prior to and fol­low­ing a liver trans­plant with his daughter Sara. He was de­ter­mined to prove to all that even though he was ill, he was still pas­sion­ate about his cho­sen ca­reer and wanted so badly to go back to work.

Lay­ton is sur­vived by his wife, Kim­ (Snow) MacLeod and their chil­dren, the light of his life, Sara, Billy and Angus. His cat, “Fatso”, as well as his grand­pup­pies/kit­ties, Ted, Chloe, Bo and Mo. He is also sur­vived by his sib­lings, “the 4L’s”, Lau­rel-Beth, Lisa, Low­ell, and Lin­coln, as well as his broth­ers- and sis­ters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews. Lastly, Lay­ton leaves his mother Ruby to mourn, not­ing that if it was not for her and his late fa­ther “Sonny” MacLeod, he would not have been who he was.

A spe­cial thank you to the en­tire team on 6B, 3 IMCU, 3A ICU, Med A as well as the Val­ley Re­gional ER, par­tic­u­lar thank you’s to Ali­cia RN, Sue NP, Dr. “David”, Emma RN, as well as James RN. You all made the largest dif­fer­ence in our lives, con­tribut­ing in every lit­tle way to his qual­ity of life and even­tual peace­ful rest. Also, an ex­tremely spe­cial thank you to EHS, par­tic­u­larly the comm team and 4 medics (you know who you are) who took him for his last am­bu­lance trans­fer home. We have no words for how spe­cial this was to not only him but our en­tire fam­ily. Lastly, thank you to the anony­mous fam­ily that chose to do­nate a liver. It is with this he had a sec­ond chance at life, even if it was only months. It is be­cause of this he had a pain free, self-choos­ing end of life at home. If it hadn’t been for the in­cred­i­ble gift of life, he never would have left the hos­pi­tal. This is a gift that forever will impact our family in the most heart-warming way.

A Service will be held in Acadia Manning Memorial Chapel, July 6, 2021 at 2:00 pm, COVID-19 restrictions will be implemented. A cremation has taken place as per family wishes. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Canadian Liver Foundation or Diabetes Canada.

As per Lay­ton’s re­quest, he would like to end his obit­u­ary on this note:

“Be kind, tell the truth, love oth­ers.. Also, “I’m still pretty!"

Arrangements have been entrusted to Serenity Funeral Home, 34 Coldbrook Village Park Dr., Coldbrook, NS, B4R 1B9 (902-679-2822).