Dev K. Dhindsa, age 87, of Old Hickory, Tennessee passed away on Friday, September 30, 2022. Dev was born October 25, 1934 in Sahoran, Punjab, India to Thakar Singh and Hoshiar Kaur. Her father was a lifelong educator and inspired in her a passion for teaching. He encouraged her to attend college at a time when it was not common for women to do so. After getting an undergraduate degree at D.A.V. College, Jalandhar and a Bachelor of Education at Government College in Chandigarh, Dev began her teaching career at Henderson Memorial School in Kharar, Punjab where she taught math.
She married Harbans Singh Dhindsa, also an educator, on May 3, 1959. It was a marriage built on mutual love, respect and commitment, and would last 63 years. The couple shared a love of teaching and eventually the family moved from India to the United States in 1969 for a better life and education for their children. Harbans settled first in July and Dev would follow three months later, traveling across the world with three small children and her mother-in-law. She often recalled that she only had forty dollars in her pocket. A courageous journey to leave behind her family and the only life she had ever known. Dev and Harbans started their new life in the U.S. in Portland Oregon. It was not easy. Dev went to college while at the same time raising three young children. She would go on to graduate from Portland State University where she received a Master's Degree in Education. After graduation the family traveled across the country to Alabama, and then to Nashville, Tennessee in 1973. Nashville would become their home for the next 50 years. Dev taught all levels from elementary to high school, but what she loved most was being a teacher at the Tennessee School for the Blind from which she would retire after 25 years in the classroom.
Her retirement years were filled with the things which brought her the greatest joy- her seven grandchildren. They loved her homemade Indian food, taking trips with her to places like the Smoky Mountains and Disneyworld. She could always be counted on to stitch a well-loved stuffed animal or favorite blanket. Although small in stature she had the biggest heart, and the grandchildren loved teasing her the minute they surpassed her in height. "Nani" was a role model and friend to them all. She took great pride in watching her grandchildren grow up, graduate and start lives of their own. But no matter how far away, they were always close in her heart and Nani and Papa's house in Nashville was always "home". She had a wonderful sense of humor. Well into her eighties she continued to have a love of learning, going regularly to the YMCA, playing with her iPhone or iPad, and she often joked that the only way to reach her grandchildren these days was by texting or Facetiming.
Those memories and her legacy will live forever in those she leaves behind.
Dev is preceded in death by her parents and her beloved sister, Balwant Kaur Rangi. She is survived by her loving husband Harbans Singh Dhindsa; her children and grandchildren; her devoted brother, Kuldip Singh Tiwana, and his wife, Kuldip Kaur Tiwana; brother-in-law, Bhagat Singh Rangi; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services will be private.
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