Audrey Elizabeth Kenmir

Audrey’s family (Rob, Caitlin, Stefan, Alfie, Maggie and Matt) would like to invite all who wish to attend to a reception of family and friends on Sunday, June 21 from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Jerrett Funeral Home on St. Clair West.

A more fulsome gathering to celebrate the joy and warmth and intelligence Audrey brought into this world will take place sometime later in the summer. Details will be forthcoming closer to the date.

A few members of Audrey’s family and close community will be making short remarks celebrating Audrey around 5:30.

Of course, as Audrey would have it no other way, light fare and refreshments will be served.

Audrey was born on May 19th, 1960, to Marietta Ruth Kenmir (nee Stamp) and Alan Francis Kenmir. She passed away from multiple myeloma plasma cell leukemia and primary central nervous system lymphoma on the morning of June 12, 2026, age 66, one year to the day from her first myeloma diagnosis. During her last days in palliative care, Audrey was surrounded night and day by her family who shared with her all the love and support that she had always shown them.

She leaves behind a heartbroken family: Rob, her love and constant companion of almost 40 years; her cherished daughters, Caitlin (Stefan), Maggie (Matt), and her adored grandson Alfie. Audrey will be deeply missed by her sister Allison (Bryden), her brother Brian (Nancy) and her nieces and nephews, Tait, Jeffery, Thatcher, Jenny, Connor and Alexa.

Audrey was simply an incredible person, with a quick smile and laugh that could light up any room. Smart, beautiful, and understanding, she abounded with empathy and compassion… and believed there really is only one correct way to load a dishwasher.

Born in Fort Erie and raised in Niagara Falls, Audrey was the consummate middle child, organized, independent and lived what could be considered a pretty typical childhood for a kid of the 60s and 70s. Family trips to see the cousins in Kitchener, vintage dresses during Canada’s Centennial year, longer trips to Myrtle Beach over March break; a bothersome older brother, a doting little sister and a dog who liked to bring home the odd dead pheasant as a gift to the family.

In the late 70s, Audrey moved to Toronto to pursue nursing, graduating from Seneca College with a nursing diploma in 1980. Her first foray into the world of healthcare was at North York General Hospital where she set out to do that which she did the rest of her life… challenge herself. She worked in the toughest parts of any hospital, the Neonatal ICU and the Adult ICU, as well as becoming a Charge Nurse. Audrey’s final bedside nursing tour of duty was in the Pediatric ICU at Sick Kids where on every shift she was caring for one of the 20 sickest kids in the country.

Audrey had a penchant for going back to school. First to George Brown for Critical Care Nursing. Then, while continuing to work, to TMU (Ryerson), where she completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and finally, with Caitlin and Maggie underfoot at home, she graduated at the top of her class from U of T with a Masters in Nursing. When it came to academics, if you look up “determined", "persistent “and “perfectionist” in the dictionary, you’ll find a picture of Audrey looking back at you.

During her 32 years at Centennial College, teaching in the Collaborative Nursing Degree program, Audrey inspired and challenged a couple generations of nursing students. Audrey had a reputation of being a very demanding but equally understanding professor. She was, as more than a few students have commented online, awesome. Her reputation for meticulous and detailed lectures meant that even if she had only 45 students in her class, the lecture hall would be at capacity when she was at the podium. Hers was the class students loved that they wanted to attend; her preparation and presentation were just that good.

Not surprisingly, as Audrey got swept up in the cancer health care system, more than a few of her former students became her caregivers. And I think what may have made Audrey proudest is these were students who had moved on to challenge themselves in the tough parts of nursing; in the stem cell transplant program at Princess Margaret; in the cancer clinics, and in the Neuro-ICU and ER at St. Michaels.

Her students and patients weren’t the only ones who benefited from Audrey’s kind wisdom and gentle care. Audrey was an extraordinarily generous friend, always available when someone needed to talk; always ready to lend a hand and always showing up with the most thoughtful gifts. Even if she hadn’t seen friends in a while, Audrey could pick up on their last conversations, remembering the minute details of their lives, asking about their extended families, inquiring about both their joys and their challenges. When you were with Audrey, she made you feel at the very centre of her world.

But I think Audrey’s greatest achievement in life – her greatest source of pride, unmitigated joy and sometimes worry – are Caitlin and Maggie. Of all the things of which she could be proud, and there are plenty, raising two strong, caring, smart, funny, compassionate, joyful and loving women was the one thing that made everything else worthwhile. The families they were and are building for themselves with Stefan and Alfie and Matt also made her exceptionally happy.

Audrey just loved life and everything about it. She loved, loved travel. Although if truth be known, she took almost as much joy from organizing the trip as the trip itself. Her meticulous planning (and cribbing the itineraries from friends who had gone before) guided her and Rob from the beauty of the Galapagos and the Ecuadorian rainforest to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. She and Rob explored just about every part of Newfoundland – twice. London, Paris, Florence, the Amalfi Coast, Rome, Sonoma, Napa, New York – they loved them all.

But for all the worldly places they had the good fortune to visit, the travel she loved best was the 3-hour car ride to Billie Bear each and every summer for the last 25 plus years. There, fortified by her world renowned ‘Billie Bear List’, Audrey would truly leave all her cares behind. For the kids, she made it a magical place, with game nights, movie night popcorn in the lodge, paddle boat excursions to Betty’s Island, boat rides and long walks along Second Sandy, and for the adults, with the kids well entertained, incredible potlucks dinners tucked around a too small table in the screened-in porch and really, really good wine.

And whenever Audrey returned from her travels, nothing gave her more joy than home. She just had a way of making it welcoming always. Whether it was the place the kids and their friends hung out after school (and it was) or the way she made it shimmer at Christmas. A home in every way, Audrey and Rob’s place on Highview was the focal point for all the joy life bestowed on them. In their backyard, Audrey created a garden oasis. A place where in the still quiet of a summer’s eve, Audrey and Rob would sit and talk and share their hopes and dreams for what was to come next.

What comes next now will be very different from what Audrey envisaged. But some things will not change. Leaning on Audrey’s example, and remembering her with love and gratitude every day, it will be a life lived with love and laughs and optimism and compassion… it will be the life Audrey would want us to embrace and cherish.