Doris Charlotte Hamilton

Passed away peacefully in her Teddington Park home on Sunday, June18, 2017, at 101 years. Lovingly remembered by her children Mary (Julian) and Judith (Robert), her brother David (Bess) and their children, the Snively, McMillan and Gavish families. Predeceased by her husband Arthur (2005), her son Jay (2015) and her daughter Janet (1998). Also remembered by Howard, husband to Janet, grandchildren Michael (Joan Marie), Andrew, Charles (Kate) and Jacob, and by great-grandchildren Matthew, Andrew, Patrick, Ruby and Barnaby. Doris was born in Galt, Ontario, daughter of a dairyman who took her around on his work visits to his client farmers on the weekends. She learned to drive at 16 and never had an accident until she had to give up driving at 92. She graduated from the first Sociology class at University of Toronto, and became a social worker, in Toronto and later in Saskatoon. Her most satisfying employment was as a high school English teacher in Sault Ste. Marie. She began her married life with Arthur, a United Church minister, in Dawson Creek, BC (in the Peace River country, the most northerly mission of the United Church at that time). She had four children over seven years, and moved from Dawson Creek to Strathmore, Calgary, Sault Ste. Marie and Nobleton/Kleinberg, retiring finally in Toronto in 1979. After Arthur died, Doris had three years with Mary in Victoria before returning to The Teddington residence in Toronto.

Although she had many moves, Doris had many continuities through her life. She valued her college friends and later her church friends. She had a lifelong joy in the colours, shapes and sounds of the world, from her days canoeing in Muskoka as a teenager to her years piecing quilts in a circle of her friends. She knit many simple and complex sweaters for the members of her family, and in her retirement years made a quilt for each one. She put on a Sunday family dinner every week until she was 95. She read widely and constantly and even wrote a book about their early married life in the Peace River country which was enjoyed by many family and friends.

The family would like to acknowledge the care and appreciation that many of the residents and staff at The Teddington offered our mother over the last 3 years of her life with them. She acknowledged its value to her every day.

Arrangements are with the Trull Funeral Home - Yonge Street Chapel. A memorial service will be held at The Teddington, 4 Teddington Park Ave., Toronto, on Monday, June 26, at 2:00 PM, with her Teddington family, her next of kin and anyone else who would like to join us. A later service will be held in Bajeroes Cemetery, in central Ontario, where many Hamiltons, including her own, rest in peace, in view of the western sunset.