Tribute

Sadly, our mom has left the building and embarked on her next journey.  Irene, “Queenie Rene”, or just “Rene” as she was known to family and friends, passed away at the age of 92.

Rene leaves behind her children, Margaret (Gord), Richard, Alison, and Adrian who adored her and were equally annoyed by her in varying degrees.  She also leaves her grandchildren Sacha (Ian), Crystal, Trevor (Carlee), Cameron, Evelyn, and Isabelle, and great-grandchildren Hannah, Mary, and twins Connor and Jack.  Rene was predeceased by her husband Peter in 2013 and missed him dearly until she passed.

Born in Maltby, a village in South Yorkshire, England, Rene lived through an extraordinary time of change.  WWII dominated her formative years, and the experiences and lessons of that era never left her.  She was proud of her accomplishments at a time when women were generally not expected to go on to higher education.

Rene met Peter while teaching in England and after marrying in March 1957, they answered Canada’s recruitment call for educators and embarked on what would be a grand, lifelong adventure.  The bus from Vancouver dropped them off at Black Point from where they resolutely walked back to Stillwater with their suitcases along what was then a dirt road.  They made their new home in the Teacherage at Stillwater School and taught there until 1962, forging lifelong friendships and experiencing an exciting new life they could never have dreamed of growing up.  In 1962 they moved to the house they built on Whitby Street.  Rene raised her children there before resuming her career in the 70’s, teaching Primary grades at Cranberry, Edgehill, Kelly Creek, and JP Dallos until her retirement.

Rene was fiercely intelligent, incredibly shrewd and had an astounding memory.  She had a flare for fashion and style, both personally and in the home she loved and lived in for 62 years.  Things that brought her joy were travelling, art, poetry, music, literature, embroidery, crosswords, detective novels, and her family.  Yelling at the tv when the news displeased her was something we got used to and was part of her charm.

She enjoyed lifes’ pleasures despite what doctors told her, and we are grateful for her longevity and that she was her sharp and witty self until the end.

“I am the Master of my fate, I am the Captain of my soul.”