Mrs. Catherine Helen MacDonald of Ottawa, Ontario, was the 1948 National Memorial (Silver) Cross Mother. During the national Remembrance Day ceremony in Ottawa on November 11, 1948, she laid a wreath at the base of the National War Memorial on behalf of all mothers who have lost a child in military service to Canada.

On April 30, 1941, her son, Sergeant Neil Richardson MacDonald, was lost at sea while serving with the Corps of Military Staff Clerks.

On October 20, 1941, a second son, Sergeant Ian Alistair MacDonald, was killed in action while serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force.