Katherine McCallin Arsenault

Date of Death

October 18, 2025

Location

Brunswick, Maine

Who She Was

Her Story

Katherine McCallin Arsenault, 35, of Brunswick Maine, passed away unexpectedly on Saturday, October 18th while en route to the hospital. She was 30 weeks pregnant with a boy, Benjamin Lou Arsenault, who also passed.

Katie was born in Rufford, Ormskirk, England. Her family relocated to Kokomo Indiana in 2004. She attended Purdue University, and graduated in 2014 with a Doctorate of Pharmacy. Became a United States Citizen in 2017. Pursued a career in retail pharmacy, and was continuously given challenging jobs because she was known to make an impact.

Katie was survived by her son, Thomas, her husband, Joe, and their dog, Dave. She was also survived by her parents, Joshua and Moira, her sister and brother in-law, Louise and Michael, her uncles and aunts, Gordon and Ruth, Shaun and Frances, Peter and Sharon, and her cousins, Wendy, Christopher, Jared, Anna, and Uel.

On Joe’s side, she was survived by her in-laws, Bob and Lisa, her brother-in-law and his wife, Brian and Erica, and their son, Julian. She was also survived by Joe’s uncles and aunts, Joe and Doris, Steve and Candi, Brian and Cyndy, Wendy, Kurt and Carol, Lynne, Eric and Jaime, and his cousins, Chris, Matt, Tonya, Stephanie, Melissa, Jesse, Simon, Katrina, Tracy, Michelle, Gregg, Katelyn, Matthew, Adam, Kelley, Aaron, and Erica.

She was preceded in death by her cousin, Christie.

From Katie’s husband Joe:

Okay, now that we’ve gotten the formal stuff out of the way- this is her husband, Joe. I am in utter shock, and never in my worst nightmares would have predicted I’d be writing my best friend’s obituary while still in our 30s. But here we are. I couldn’t have found the words to memorialize Katie’s life formally, and I don’t think she would have liked that anyways. So here we go:

I met Katie in early 2010, and it didn’t take long to feel like I had known her my whole life. We were very instantly in sync, even making the same jokes at the same time as each other. I quickly realized what a good friend she was. Later in that same year, I had a wild series of events happen to me which left me very anxious. Katie made the time for me, despite the fact that it was a very important finals week for her success in Pharmacy school. It was her actions that week which suggested to me she might want to be more than friends, and I felt the same.

The next few months were complicated, with us figuring out how to turn a friendship into a relationship. Early on in our friendship, we played a game called “Questions”, which was literally just us asking questions, and the other person answering them. At some point in time, I asked her what her favorite flowers were, and she told me. For some crazy reason, I recorded the list, thinking it might be useful someday. Skipping back to the present time of this story, her birthday was approaching. I told her I wanted to get her a gift. She told me I was under no circumstances allowed to spend more than $25 on her. So, I did what any dope who was crushing on their best friend would do. I spent exactly $25 buying her a margarita glass, inscribed with “British Katie’s Mexican Water”. Then, I called a florist, gave them that list I had saved of her favorite flowers, and told them how much money I had left in my bank account. I asked them to make the best thing they could, and deliver it anonymously (so I could claim I hadn’t spent more than $25). Of course, she loved it, and we played a game for a week or so where I wouldn’t admit I sent them, and she wouldn’t admit that she knew I sent them (she did).

Soon after that, we had our first official date (but, truthfully, it was probably our fourth or fifth), and had our first kiss. It was on the walk back from our date, and I was just begging for a moment to make the move. When she pulled away 5 seconds later, she said “really, here??”. We were standing in the parking lot of her apartment building next to the dumpster!!! We relocated and spent the night just being together.

We began dating on March 23rd, 2011. My parents and friends could tell it was something real. When I graduated from college, I returned home to Maine, where I stayed for 2 years until she graduated. We dated long distance during that time, which bolstered our communication skills even further. We talked for hours daily. When she graduated, I moved in with her and her parents in Kokomo, Indiana. From that day forward, we always shared a bed we called ours.

A few months later, our first apartment. A couple of years after that, our first house, and soon after our dog, Dave. She encouraged me to take a risk on an online business, even financially supporting me through the transition. That business proved massively successful, and completely changed our lives.

I proposed to her in February of 2019, quietly in our living room. We were married August 3rd of that same year, in our backyard surrounded by our immediate family. We celebrated the union with our friends and relatives around the globe at three separate parties – one in our backyard, one in Northern Ireland, and one on Cabbage Island in Maine. We honeymooned in Tokyo, isolated by our inability to speak the language, and completely absorbed in each other.

We spent the covid lockdown doing our favorite thing – being together. Katie loved her home life more than anything else, and was always the most loose and free when it was just our family.

On January 18th, 2022, we welcomed our son, Thomas, into the world. Let me tell you- that woman sacrificed everything to make sure Thomas had the best chance to grow, thrive, and succeed. We followed the 3 hour feeding rule to a T for much longer than we were supposed to. She never missed a session to make sure he would be properly fed, whether working or on a 9 hour car journey. In fact, she had a great reminder set up – an alarm on her phone which would play “Mooo!” by Doja Cat (look up the words for a chuckle). Thomas has grown into a wonderfully smart and compassionate boy. At his 2 year doctor’s appointment, his language was evaluated at a 3 year old level, and he’s not showing any signs of slowing down.

In 2023, we began the complicated process of moving across the country to be in Maine nearer to my family. This process involved selling our first home, packing all our stuff into a trailer, and shipping it to Brian and Erica’s house, where it would live in their garage for nearly 9 months. After a stint of living with both of our parents, we found a wonderful house in Brunswick, Maine – an area which we both thought would provide the best potential for ours and Thomas’s lives.

In late 2024, we became pregnant for the second time. 7 weeks in, we suffered a miscarriage just a few days after Christmas. We were destroyed, but committed to each other. Our family still felt incomplete, and we wanted to try again.

In early 2025, we became pregnant for the third time. It was a boring, normal pregnancy. In fact, it was so boring that we were struggling to take the time to appreciate it. Over the past 8 weeks or so, we had been feeling the baby move around, and it was bringing us both back into nesting mode. The rest of our year was going to be spent doing mini projects around the house to prepare for the baby, and celebrating him.

But now, it has all been ripped away from us. My wife, my best friend, Thomas’s mother, is gone. Our Christmas this year was very likely going to feature a newborn in our house. Now, tragedy. She was ripped from us so suddenly that it feels like a nightmare. But every time we wake up, her spot on the couch is still empty. Her side of the bed is still made. There are no half-empty bags of chips on her bedside table. Thomas misses his mummy. I miss my best friend. We all miss our Katie.