Donna Margaret Lowry

Donna was a beloved sister, mom, grandmother, nurse and friend to the many people she touched in her lifetime. She was a light-bringer, a woman filled to the brim with kindness, love and above-all humour.

She will be greatly missed by her sister Sandra Lowry, daughter Katie Lowry, grandchildren Mani and Senan, son-in-law David Doran, cousins’ Denise Crawford and Francis McCready and countless friends and colleagues.

Donna was born in Toronto on 31 May 1940 (“the day they evacuated Dunkirk”) to George and Elizabeth Lowry. Donna attended North Toronto Collegiate and graduated from Toronto General Hospital School of Nursing in 1962 and embarked on a long and varied career in nursing.

Donna’s sense of adventure, and love of travel, took her to London England and the Aran Islands in Ireland where she trained as a midwife and worked as a district nurse. Donna travelled all across Europe, including a memorable trip to Soviet-era Russia.

Returning to Toronto in 1974, Donna worked as a public health nurse and at the Toronto Rehabilitation Centre as a social worker for many years before returning to district nursing with the Victorian Order of Nurses.

Over her lifetime Donna was a great lover of words and ideas, and could recite from memory reams of poetry. Donna enjoyed listening to Bruce Springsteen late at night, over a glass of Irish whiskey, with her son-in-law Dave.

Donna was life-long student and her intellectual curiosity burned brightly. Donna took her deep spiritual beliefs from many sources and said that her religion was kindness.

To her family, her true legacy will be her humour. Anyone who know Donna will remember the laughs (along with her use of that “word that rhymes with truck”).

The family would like to thank Dr. Anne Wideman and Tina Mishrigi in the Family Practice Clinic at Sunnybrook Hospital who took such wonderful care of Donna over many years.

The family thanks all the medical staff at Sunnybrook in the Emergency Department, on the D5 wing and in ICU who supported her in recent days.

We also thank Michelle Araujo, who was so supportive in her care and friendship of Donna.

We are all heartbroken but thankful for the spark Donna lit in our lives. We take great comfort to see that spark alive in her grandchildren Mani and Senan.

Well, now, everything dies, baby, that's a fact

But maybe everything that dies someday comes back

Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty

And meet me tonight in Atlantic City

Atlantic City, Bruce Springsteen