Obituary

On November 12th, 2018, peacefully and with family in Elora, Ontario. Beloved wife of Judge John Dolwood Ord, who predeceased her in 2012. Loved by sons Robin and wife Denise, Clive and wife Annie, and Roger and wife Kris; grandmamma to Scott, Mike, Ryan, Ali and Hayden; and GREAT grandmamma to Isabella and Aria. June was raised at Hisland, a pretty antebellum tenant farm of the Aston Hall estate in Shropshire near Oswestry, England. Her mother Maude was from a musical Welsh family of Roberts who touched her grandchildren with the gift of music. Maude married Wynne Scott on his return from the trenches of WW1, and June was their only child as they “went farming” on a shoestring budget. June grew up amongst loyal and loving staff who looked out for her as she fell off haylofts and cycled her huge 1935 Raleigh through the paddocks, often with her only cousin Mike Scott. Together with lifelong friends “Pip”, “Wal”, “Pegs” and “Ferret”, June attended Moreton Hall girls’ school until mid-WWII as “Fish” (for somehow always getting first turn in the warm dorm bath). June helped her folks manage prisoners of war at Hisland and “borrow” from the emptied churns of rationed butter. More importantly she found both her strength of character and her husband when she met (and tamed) Spitfire pilot John while he was based at nearby Rednal aerodrome. They fell madly in love, so much so that when John was thrown out by father Wynne for leaving his kit out in the bathroom once too often, June eloped! She travelled alone on a refugee ship to New York and on to Toronto. Exhausted on arrival, she endured a double-header baseball game with John while he got up the nerve to introduce her to his kin. In 1946 Toronto, they were wed in record time. John was so smitten he never looked back, riding June’s wings to a BA, to Osgoode, to a QC and to a Judgeship. They entertained in 1960s Georgetown, with children gazing down the stairs in wonder at laughing, tipsy adults singing and dancing Charleston. But the parties were also hotbeds of support for friends “Norm & Pat’s” Peace Research to curb nuclear war, and “Jimmy & Jane’s” environmentalism, both of which continued through to the millennium. With the help of June’s parents, June and John acquired a parcel of land on May Island (from Aunt May!) on the then-uncluttered Lake Rosseau in Muskoka. There they built a ramshackle but much-loved cottage that survived the decades and the abuses of their three rambunctious children as well as the adventures of their many good friends, including “the Macs,” “the Leps” and Jimmy and Jane. As her children grew through the 1970s and 1980s, June joined with friends Maria, Brookie and Marjory Nazer in their quest for artistic expression. June was most upset with her mother and Marjory passing during this time but “soldiered on” as her generation had been taught to do, supporting the children long after adulthood. Always loners in fact if not in appearance, June and John eventually abandoned entertaining in favour of old close friends and family visits, moving to Salem, Bracebridge and finally to Elora, where they spent their retirement years, celebrating their loving union well past their diamond jubilee. On John’s death June again soldiered on, visiting cousin Mike on the Isle of Man, even visiting kin in New Zealand well into her 90s. June was fiercely protective of her boys, regardless of age or circumstance. We will miss her steadfast support and enduring love. Her spirit, her ability to pretend haughtiness, and her stiff upper lip never faltered until the end, when, on being asked if she was ok, replied: “Not terribly”. Thanks Mum. Cremation has taken place. A Celebration of Life will be announced in the future. All correspondences to June’s son, J. Clive Ord at (519) 820-9053, email: jcliveord@icloud.com. Please forward donations to the Salvation Army in lieu of flowers.