Kimberly Anne Myrans: Mudlark. Adventurer. Artist. Wife. Born Nov. 13, 1979, in Oshawa, Ont.; died Nov. 11, 2024, in Oakville, Ont., of a brain tumour; aged 44.
Kimberly MyransCourtesy of family
When the tide is out in the River Thames people known as mudlarks search for artifacts in the London mud. Mudlarking takes keen eyes, imagination, a sense of adventure and an appreciation for small treasures often overlooked by others. Kim loved mudlarking – she had all these qualities in abundance.
From an early age, Kim Deir had an eye for design and a gift for drawing and painting. Her maternal grandfather would encourage her to draw what she saw – things of interest in the world around her.
Her Bowmanville High School art teacher, artist Jane Eccles, inspired Kim to study illustration at OCAD (now OCAD University). She graduated in 2001, with a specialty in illustration.
Soon after graduation, Kim went on to design greeting cards in Cambridge, Ont., before working as a graphic designer for Mount Sinai and Bridgepoint hospitals in Toronto. Kim’s cat inspired a freelance greeting card series: “Cozy-at-home” featured Meesha curled up in her cat bed and was popular during the pandemic.
Kim met Iain Myrans on Thanksgiving weekend in 2008 at the Evergreen Brickworks in Toronto. A mutual friend wanted to learn more about autumn photography in the park, but Kim and Iain’s focus fell on each other.
By December, Iain was making snow angels with her in a park and learning the finer points of making good coffee. In 2013, they became engaged at sunset on a beach in the Dominican Republic and married the following year, honeymooning along the Pacific Northwest coast. Iain remembers Kim painting at Crater Lake Lodge, surrounded by snow in June, and a sunset campfire on Cannon Beach.
Kim appreciated small things, perhaps because she knew heartache. Her much-loved father, Gary, died when she was a child, and Kim was diagnosed with brain cancer in her late 20s, leading to three craniotomies, two rounds of radiation and chemotherapy.
While recovering from a second craniotomy in 2013, she put her creative energy into writing and illustrating a children’s book, The Star-Breasted Blackbird.
Kim’s creativity also expressed itself in the unexpected reorganization of furniture, should some new layout suddenly occur or appeal to her. When they lived in Toronto years ago, Iain sometimes returned home to find the apartment entirely changed around.
Kim loved vinyl records and searching for great albums in a record or antique shop with Iain. Her uncle Jack Bradley’s love of 80s music made an impression, and she combined music and design in the cover art she would make for her “Kimotoland Mixtape” series of playlists. Her tastes were eclectic, from Bill Withers and Michael Jackson, to Dave Brubeck and Daniel Hope’s version of I Giorni (to which Kim walked down the aisle at her wedding).
Kim enjoyed hiking, rock-climbing and mountain-biking. Creatively, she loved the colour and artistry she found in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, especially the playful work of mosaic artist Anado McLauchlin, whom she met.
Her interest in mudlarking included historical research about artifacts found in the riverbed and correspondence with British author Lara Maiklem, an expert on the topic. Maiklem knew of Kim’s worsening illness and the two exchanged artifacts from afar – whether from the Thames riverbed or an Ontario antique shop.
Kim chose to live life to the fullest. In 2023, she pushed through the constraints imposed by her illness to visit Croatia.
During the pandemic, she ended each day sharing three things she was grateful for and asked Iain to do the same. Her list included sharing jokes with her mother, Judy, or sister, Katherine; seeing a classic car her father would have liked; and hearing trumpeter swans at LaSalle Park in Burlington, Ont.
She continued this practice while in palliative care and stayed creative – writing, painting and drawing from her hospital bed into her final days.
Being with Kim made everyone feel better. Her smile and laugh conveyed gratitude, warmth and contagious strength.
Always the organized one, Kim called herself Iain’s co-pilot and would often run through a predeparture checklist before leaving home.
To the end, she and Iain began almost every day with coffee together. French press. Dark roast. Lots of cream.
Iain Myrans is Kim Myrans’s husband.
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