Betty Joyce was born May 15, 1938 in Toronto, York County to
In 1969 Alex went to work as a salesperson for Peppler Furniture. Thinking that he and Betty would relocate to the Kitchener area, they traveled to Hanover to meet with Mr. Peppler and his wife. During the day the four spent together Betty found out that Hanover needed a Girl Guide leader. She quickly announced to Alex that they would be moving to Hanover, and why! The move must have been a good one for many reasons, the most important of them being that two years later Cindy Alexandria happily joined their family. (And, of course, Hanover found a new Girl Guide leader.) Betty spent a great deal of time knitting, sewing, and leading at Girl Guide camps, amongst a host of other things. Betty loved swimming and undoubtedly spent many hours helping her Girl Guides to love it as well!
Once Cindy began attending school, Betty went to work for Zellers. Somewhere along the line, Betty developed a love of mice! Well, at least artificial mice. It is uncertain how this happened, as Betty really disliked real mice. It is likely that someone gave Betty an ornamental mouse. To this day, Betty has mice of every shape, size, colour, and texture, 100’s in fact!
In addition to swimming, Betty loved the snow and of course, then, skiing. Christmas carols (even in the summer) were another favourite, as was the big band era, Bing Cosby and Burl Ives. Betty not only enjoyed listening to music, but singing as well! There were many occasions when Betty and Baillie sung together, mostly of the silly variety. Reading romance novels was yet another pastime for Betty as was watching the Golden Girls on TV. She absolutely loved playing cards, especially Solitaire and Crazy 8’s! Betty loved cats and maybe that is why she didn’t mind having so many mice (albeit fake ones) around whereas Alex loved his dogs. Together they had many indoor pets over the years including Ruff and Tumble (the cats) and Shandy and Spunky (the dogs).
After numerous medical tests and speculation, Betty found out that she had MS. It was a devastating diagnosis. She could no longer work at Zellers, and numerous other activities fell to the wayside. Six years ago, the MS had progressed to such an extent that Betty went to live at Hanover Care Centre. Luckily, Betty’s eldest granddaughter Taylor remembered her grandmother prior to the diagnosis. Together they shared a love of the TV show, Gilmour Girls. Betty’s untimely death leaves Taylor to watch the up and coming 8th Season of GG without her grandma. Regrettably, Betty’s other grandchildren, and even great-grandchild, do not recall Betty as the vibrant, outgoing, positive, and personable women she was because of the devastating effects of MS.
Betty Joyce Kerr of Hanover, passed away after a valiant battle with Multiple Sclerosis on Friday, August 19, 2016 in her 79th year.
Loving wife and best friend of Alex. Beloved mother of Cindy (John) Hoffarth of R.R. #1 Hanover. Betty always enjoyed the many hugs she gave and received while in the company of her grandchildren. She will live on in the hearts and minds of her grandchildren, Taylor, Baillie and Braedon. Great Nana will also be missed by her adored Chloe. She will be fondly remembered by her four nieces, two nephews and their families. Betty was predeceased by her sisters, Gloria Briginshaw and Susan Murphy and her parents, Glenn and Lily (Hughes) Schwegler.
At Betty’s request cremation has taken place and there will be no further services.
Memorial donations to Betty’s favourite organization, Girl Guides of Canada or MS Society of Canada, a disease that affected her greatly, would be appreciated as expressions of sympathy.
