Dorothy Georgina (Wallin) Chalmers

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, Dorothy Georgina Chalmers (nee Wallin), on Saturday, September 20, 2025, at the age of eighty-seven.

Dorothy leaves her daughters, Barbara Holmes, Pattie Chalmers (Evan Kroeker), and Carolyn Chalmers and her grandchildren, Amanda Holmes and Logan McNabb, to mourn her. She was predeceased by her loving husband of 63 years, Jim, her parents, Vern and Elsie Wallin, her brother, George Wallin, and her sister-in-law, Elaine Forrest (Jim).

Dorothy was born on August 1, 1938, in Kenora, Ontario, to Vern and Elsie Wallin, who raised her and her brother, George, to appreciate nature, family, friends, good stories, pickled herring and coffee with cinnamon buns. Growing up, she was very close to her father, who taught her how to be handy, how to fish and to hunt grouse, and how to drive. (Dorothy was issued her driver's license at thirteen years old; this was a point of pride, she loved to drive, and it was always her preference to be behind the wheel on road trips.)

At Kenora-Keewatin District High School, Dorothy completed secretarial and stenographic training, with these skills leading to a job in the offices of The Ontario-Minnesota Pulp and Paper Company in Kenora, starting as a stenographer, then a switchboard operator and finally the teletype and two-way radio operator. It was in this last position that she first met her husband, Jim, who would call her "Dirty Gerty" because she was often covered in ink from the teletype machine. Jim's teasing turned to romance, and the two were eventually married in Kenora at Bethesda Lutheran Church in 1960.

The couple left Kenora in 1961 and eventually moved to Winnipeg after spending a year in Lafayette, Indiana. In Winnipeg, they started their family, first in an apartment on River Avenue and then in their new home in St. Vital. Dorothy loved her neighbours and friends, the neighbourhood coffee breaks, shopping trips, Grey Cup parties and yearly holiday gatherings that she shared with them over the sixty years she lived on their street. She had an especially long and treasured friendship with her next-door neighbour, Anne Chalmers, and her daughters, Lynn and Liane. In recent years, Dorothy was fortunate to have been loved and supported by her neighbours Jez, Eric, Donna, Lynn, Terry, Rick, and Sue. (Her family is very grateful for the kindness and affection that these neighbours have shown to both their mom and dad.)

Raising three girls and Dorothy's best-behaved daughter, a toy poodle named Ginger, was the focus of many of the early years in their home. But even with all the shuttling to lessons and appointments, Dorothy continued to curl (the St. Vital Business Girls 1962-69, the Fort Garry Ladies Club from 1971-77 and the St. Vital Curling Club Curlettes through the 1980s), and she created beautiful arts and crafts; she was accomplished at needlework, sewing and an extremely skilled knitter. Dorothy was also an enthusiastic pianist, playing all the old favourites, usually at an energetic tempo and was especially pleased when her daughters would join her for the occasional singalong.

Dorothy made time during her life to serve her community. She volunteered with the St. Vital Girl Guides from 1977- 1983, serving as a Tawny Owl, then the Brown Owl of the 31st Winnipeg Pack, and finally Division Commissioner of Glenlawn District and Division Treasurer. She donated blood over thirty-five times. She also volunteered in the St. Vital School system, eventually working as a teacher's aide in shop and home economics classes with students who needed extra help. And for many years, she knocked on doors in her neighbourhood collecting for the Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

Dorothy loved her girls, her grandkids, her son-in-law, her friends, "her” dogs, beautiful flowers and cute animals. She liked to tease, and be silly, and laugh. She was the source of information from how to can jelly, to who lived where on her street, to how to pickle a herring, to how to knit socks. Her absence has left a big hole, and she is painfully missed. We love you too, Mom!

The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the heart and Stroke Foundation in memory of Dorothy.