Dorothy "Dot" Irene Carswell

Dorothy (Dot) Irene Carswell (McCreadie) passed away peacefully in her sleep on November 6th at Sunnybrook Hospital, sadly just a few weeks short of her 104th birthday on November 25th. She was surrounded by her loving family and her wonderful caregivers in her final days, with great care from the Sunnybrook hospital staff.

Dot was born in 1921 in a sod house in rural Plenty, Saskatchewan to John and Elizabeth McCreadie. John was a stone mason from Dumfries, Scotland who had emigrated to farm. He worked in the winters for Imperial Oil in Sarnia, Ontario where he met his wife, Elizabeth May Hardy, and they eventually moved to Sarnia permanently in 1922.

Dot was one of five McCreadie girls with sisters Ann (Smith), Marg (Scott), Nettie (Sands), and Kay (Houghton). Their sister Marian died in childhood of Scarlet Fever. Dot worked at Imperial Oil as an Executive Secretary in Sarnia and transferred to Toronto where she met Andrew (Andy) Carswell, a pilot and war veteran, at the Palais Royal dance hall. They fell in love and married at the Old Mill in 1947.

Andy was studying Architecture at U of T but rejoined the RCAF as a pilot in 1949. They had five children, Anne, Margaret, Jim, John and Tim. Due to Andy’s RCAF career, the family moved often, living in Ottawa, Vancouver, Scarborough, Goose Bay and finally Downsview. They eventually bought a house on Wanless Avenue in North Toronto in 1970 after Andy’s retirement from the RCAF when he became an Aviation Inspector with Transport Canada.

The life of a RCAF wife and mother was not easy, especially with five children. Dot embraced it and was a fixture of the Protestant Chapel and the Officer’s Wives and Curling Clubs. She was an active member of the United Church, Bedford Park in North Toronto and Washago United when Dot and Andy moved there in 1988 after his final retirement. They moved back to North Toronto in 2001 to a Condo on familiar Wanless Ave. Dot lived at her Condo with her great caregivers until her recent hospitalization.

Dot was the only McCreadie girl to leave Sarnia, but the sisters stayed close. The Carswell family spent many Christmas and summer holidays with their Sarnia relatives with very fond memories. The Carswell’s were a camping family, first in a huge tent that held their seven family members and then in a 16 Passenger School Bus that Andy converted himself into an original RV.

Dot was an accomplished Pianist and loved their cottage on Kahshe Lake in Muskoka. She was a dedicated walker, despite having two knee and one hip replacements. She collected and refurbished antiques, often attending estate auctions to find her treasures.

Dot was the last of her four sisters and brothers-in-laws. Her beloved husband Andy passed away in July 2021 at Sunnybrook Veterans Centre after complications from a broken hip. She was predeceased by sister-in-law Yolanda Solholm (Carswell) and her husband Rolleiv of Oslo, Norway. She was predeceased by Andy’s brother Jim and is survived by her sister-in-law Beatrice Carswell of Huntington Beach, California.

Dot’s daughter Marg Spina sadly passed in 2017. She is survived by her daughter Anne McConnell and husband Ian, and their daughter Skye and husband Darrell, daughter Hayley, and daughter Sheena and husband Liam; late daughter Marg’s husband Ross, daughter Christina and husband Riley, son Peter and partner Joanne, son Vincent; son Jim and wife Marika, his son Christopher and wife Jenny; son John and his wife Kim and their daughter Rachael and husband Lee, son Colin and his wife Marie-Pier, and daughter Natalie and her husband Leo; and son Tim. Dot has fourteen greatgrandchildren: Eirelyn, Dane, Casey, Lachlan, Zelda, Cordelia, Andrew, Alex, Emily, William, Frederick, Charlie, Rae, and Caleb. She leaves behind many beloved nieces and nephews in Sarnia, Norway, and California.

Donations to the Sunnybrook Foundation for the Sunnybrook Veterans Centre and the John McDermott House and/or Veterans House Canada for the Andy Carswell Veterans’ House in Ottawa.

The funeral service and Celebration of Life will be held at Giffen-Mack and Trull Funeral Home at 2570 Danforth Ave. Toronto, M4C 1L3 , at 2 pm on Saturday, November 29th with the visitation starting at 1 pm and with refreshments following the service.