Obituary of Mrs. Ludwina Sebastian

Ludwina, beloved wife to Sebastian for 51+ years, passed on at age 82 on August 24th, 2023. She is the loving mother to Sam (Tracy) and Sean (Swapna), grandmother to Lily, Sarah, and Stephen. 

Born November 23,1941 to Manuel Abraham and Margaret in Kollam, Kerala, India, Ludwina was the eldest of her six siblings – Julius (deceased), Sr. Claudia Mary, Michael, Wilfred, Joseph and Jolly. After finishing nursing school in 1964 and starting as a registered nurse in Mumbai, she worked at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi before she immigrated to Canada in 1969, arriving in Cochrane, Ontario. After getting married in 1971, she and Sebastian started their family in Toronto, working as an RN for many years at Central Hospital, as well as other hospitals in the city.

Family and faith were most important to Ludwina. With Sebastian, they were among the initial Malayalee Catholic families in Toronto in the 1970’s. At St. Boniface parish in Scarborough, she was involved in the Legion of Mary as well as other aspects in the life of the church. Ludwina’s brothers, Joseph (Marykutty) and Jolly (Metilda) also immigrated to Toronto, with her being aunty/ammachi to their children and grandchildren here, in addition to her many nephews and nieces in Kerala. She was the matriarch who everyone respected. She was influential in our Malayalee community, hosting many parties and providing a strong shoulder for anyone to lean on. Though she had slowed down in the past few years, she was still a force to be reckoned with. She will be missed greatly by everyone she touched in the time she was with us on this earth. She was the wind and we were the seeds – we have only been able to travel as far as we have because she carried us.