Biography
Carla-Antoinette Aranka Kuky de Szegheo was born in Innsbruck, Austria on August 8th, 1947 to Charles de Szegheo and Carla Foytenyi. Aranka and her family came to Canada by boat in the early 1950s. Like so many other immigrant families of the time that walked through the now famous Pier 21 in Halifax NS, Aranka’s parents came here to pursue a new life and new opportunities in North America.
While attending public and high school in Toronto, Aranka (then still referred to as Carla-Antoinette by her teachers), excelled in the arts and sports winning awards in design and archery in her senior year. Aranka entered the Ontario College of Art (now OCAD) for her post secondary education and later the Sutherland-Chan school for massage therapy.
While also in her 20s, Aranka had many jobs in Toronto including working for a cabinet minister as a secretary (she used to take a limo to buy stationary), working as a puppet-maker, as well as an assistant to a music executive which resulted in her having to entertain his clients when they were in town (one of which being a young folk singer by the name of Cat Stevens). There is another story from this time of Aranka spilling salad all over a young and obviously annoyed Jack Nicholson at an after party for the screening of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”, an evening she remarked on with fresh embarrassment and her enduring innocent smile.
After the birth of her three children, Teia (Feb. 27, 1974), Justin (Valentines Day, 1976) and Damon (New Years Day, 1977), Aranka moved out of the city to eventually settle in the small rural hamlet of Buckhorn, Ontario; a place she loved dearly and a time she would later describe as the happiest years of her life. While there she grew accustomed to country life, learning how to use power tools to fix up the modest summer cottage her and her children called a home for those years, as well as learning how to finally drive at the age of 40 in order to make it to work.
During these years, Aranka began her massage practice in Peterborough, Ontario, first in other clinics then opening her own. The Pain and Stress Treatment Clinic would bring together Aranka's giving and healing nature with her impeccable artistic and decorative abilities. She would also go on to teach at Fleming College and sit as the Chair of the Massage Therapy Advisory Committee. Her clinic was a mainstay for the sore, wounded, and aging in Peterborough that served to heal thousands of people over her 25 + years in service.
Aranka passed away after a month long fight with a sudden debilitating sickness. Her illness was sudden, as if she finally had to release the years of sickness she had removed from so many. We, who are left behind are better for knowing her. She had a strength and determination in life that was always modest, deeply caring and unswervingly generous. We will remember her as a great healer, mother and friend. What can be said in the end, but that all who knew her will feel a great loss, not easily filled. She gave so much and never wavered in her compassion for others, even at the worst of times. For that she will always be remembered.
Damon de Szegheo: December 3rd, 2010