In Memoriam: Florence Boyd-Graham

by Leona Graham

In Memo­ri­am: Flo­rence Boyd-Gra­ham: Dec 22, 1913–Nov 24, 2009

The Pass­ing of a Grand Woman

Flo­rence was born in Toron­to into the era of WW1, lived through The Great Depres­sion, and with her hus­band, Lt Cdr William A. Gra­ham (RCN/RN/RCNR) and 4 (soon 5) chil­dren, sur­vived WW2 in Hal­i­fax.  The fam­i­ly moved back to Toron­to, did anoth­er N.S. stint fol­lowed by over 50 years based in Oakridge Acres, Lon­don. Los­ing her moth­er Nell at age 15 impact­ed her great­ly; she ded­i­cat­ed her­self to moth­er­ing, fol­lowed by first class grand and great-grand-moth­er­ing. Hav­ing seen her chil­dren through the var­i­ous lev­els of high­er edu­ca­tion, she returned to Uni­ver­si­ty (UWO) her­self in her late 70’s, grad­u­at­ing with a BA/Hons BA (but did an equiv­a­lent of an MA) in Phi­los­o­phy. Dur­ing these years, she worked in Vet­er­ans Affairs, was a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Church, the Uni­tar­i­an Fel­low­ship (a ded­i­cat­ed choir mem­ber in both), the Albert Schweitzer Soci­ety, fol­lowed by the Rag­ing Grannies (add ‘Rev­el­ing,’ she always said) who sing protest songs for good caus­es. On the envi­ron­men­tal front, in 1962 she brought home Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, got involved in ‘Pol­lu­tion Probe’ and The Coop Store. An active mem­ber of CFUW and the Oakridge Ratepay­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, she nev­er let up on doing pub­lic ser­vice. She trav­eled a lot to vis­it her chil­dren far and wide, and became a fond sup­port­er of The Find­horn Com­mu­ni­ty in NE Scot­land (where she went 8 times). Her favourite gath­er­ings were her local week­ly ‘cof­fee group’ with dear friends Pat Dins­more and the late Eve­lyn March, her month­ly book club with David Smith and friends—and of course good-spir­it­ed bridge par­ties! Flo­rence was, in essence, a grass­roots philoso­pher who spoke her mind, whose search for ‘truth’ was unstint­ing. Her inter­ests were wide-rang­ing, breath-tak­ing. Our fam­i­ly home, ‘540’, was vir­tu­al­ly an Open House for over 50 years, fea­tur­ing notable par­ties, work­shops and late night ses­sions. She brought the World into the Cana­di­an sub­urbs and turned her back­yard into a wood­land wildlife haven. She was the best Cana­da can boast of: A Grand Woman—not a ‘lady’, she said, that smacked too much of ‘the aris­to­crat­ic’. Our world is less with­out her phys­i­cal pres­ence but indeed, she walks tall amongst us in the best of Cana­di­an life, what made us Cana­da from 1913–2009, and through her sur­viv­ing chil­dren, Robert, Joan, Leona and Ralph—her dar­ling youngest son Ian passed away in 2005—and final­ly through her grand-chil­dren: Lau­ra, John, Bruce, Nathalie, Kim-Ellen, Lila, Alex, Lara and Dan­ny; her great-grand­chil­dren: Gabriel­la, Gar­rett, Sean, Geordy and Charlton.

Fly high and free ‘Sophia’-Florence, as you trav­el the heights with Socrates and Plato—and of course, the Great Sappho.

A memo­r­i­al ser­vice will be held at Mt Pleas­ant Chapel on Fri­day Decem­ber 4 from 1–2pm.

The Pass­ing of a Grand Woman
Flo­rence Boyd-Gra­ham: Dec 22, 1913 — Nov 24, 2009

Flo­rence was born in Toron­to into the era of the First World War, lived through The Great Depres­sion, and with her hus­band, Lt Cdr William A. Gra­ham (RCN, RN, RCNR) and four (soon five) chil­dren, sur­vived the Sec­ond World War in Hal­i­fax, Nova Scotia.

The fam­i­ly moved back to Toron­to, did anoth­er NS stint fol­lowed by over 50 years based in Oakridge Acres, Lon­don. Los­ing her moth­er Nell at age 15 impact­ed her great­ly: she ded­i­cat­ed her­self to moth­er­ing, fol­lowed by first class grand and great-grand-mothering.

Hav­ing seen her chil­dren through the var­i­ous lev­els of high­er edu­ca­tion, she returned to Uni­ver­si­ty (the Uni­ver­si­ty of West­ern Ontario) her­self in her late 70s, grad­u­at­ing with a BA/Hons BA (but did an equiv­a­lent of an MA) in Phi­los­o­phy. Dur­ing these years, she worked in Vet­er­ans Affairs, was a mem­ber of the Unit­ed Church, the Uni­tar­i­an Fel­low­ship (a ded­i­cat­ed choir mem­ber in both), and the Albert Schweitzer Soci­ety, fol­lowed by the Rag­ing Grannies (add ‘Rev­el­ing,’ she always said) who sing protest songs for good causes.

On the envi­ron­men­tal front, in 1962 she brought home Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, got involved in ‘Pol­lu­tion Probe’ and The Coop Store. An active mem­ber of CFUW and the Oakridge Ratepay­ers Asso­ci­a­tion, she nev­er ceased doing pub­lic service.

She trav­elled wide­ly to vis­it her chil­dren far and wide, and became a fond sup­port­er of The Find­horn Com­mu­ni­ty in NE Scot­land (where she vis­it­ed eight times).

Her favourite gath­er­ings were her local week­ly ‘cof­fee group’ with dear friends Pat Dins­more and the late Eve­lyn March, her month­ly book club with David Smith and friends—and of course good-spir­it­ed bridge parties!

Flo­rence was, in essence, a grass­roots philoso­pher who spoke her mind, whose search for ‘truth’ was unstint­ing. Her inter­ests were both wide-rang­ing and breath­tak­ing. Our fam­i­ly home, ‘540’, was vir­tu­al­ly an Open House for over 50 years, fea­tur­ing notable par­ties, work­shops and late night ses­sions. She brought the World into the Cana­di­an sub­urbs and turned her back­yard into a wood­land wildlife haven. She rep­re­sent­ed the best Cana­da can boast of: A Grand Woman—not a ‘lady’, she said, that smacked too much of ‘the aristocratic’.

Our world is less with­out her phys­i­cal pres­ence, but indeed, she walks tall amongst us in the best of Cana­di­an life, what made us Cana­da from 1913–2009, and through her sur­viv­ing chil­dren, Robert, Joan, Leona and Ralph—her dar­ling youngest son Ian passed away in 2005—and final­ly through her grand-chil­dren Lau­ra, John, Bruce, Nathalie, Kim-Ellen, Lila, Alex, Lara and Dan­ny; and her great-grand­chil­dren Gabriel­la, Gar­rett, Sean, Geordy and Charlton.

Fly high and free ‘Sophia’-Florence, as you trav­el the heights with Socrates and Plato—and of course, the Great Sappho.

A memo­r­i­al ser­vice was held at Mt Pleas­ant Chapel on Fri­day Decem­ber 4 from 1–2pm (see pro­gramme below).

Memo­r­i­al pro­gramme — click for PDF

Main pho­to cour­tesy of the Lon­don Free Press

5 comments

1 Gary Boyd { 11.29.09 at 18:36 }

Aunt Flo­rence was always a won­der­ful­ly invig­o­rat­ing pres­ence for us all. She cheered up my moth­er Anne, She retold with rel­ish anec­dotes of Mac Boy­d’s mis­cheivous pranks at school, and on his Sis­ter Thel­ma who moth­ered them all after Ellen died..
Flo­rence and THel­ma shel­tered Rose­matie and I at 540 in 1968 when I was work­ing on a research project at UWO which Robert helped me out on when I had to iden­ti­fy and take options on land in the Beaver Rive4r Val­ley. Alas THe then Lib­er­al cab­i­net cut the project fund­ing vbe­cause it was in a n area that always votes Con­ser­v­a­tive!. Flo­rence was a great help for both of Us, and Rose­marie real­ly enjoyed Flo­rence’s mul­ti­far­i­ous activ­i­ties. That was a very good time.
It was a delight that Flo­rence should become a schol­ar of Nietsche’s
icon­o­clas­tic eupho­ris­tic Phi­los­o­phy, and a pity that no Profs at West­ern were into that field enough to take her pro­posed doc­tor­al research on. Any­way we had many live­ly dis­cus­sions, that ring on in my mind. Flo­rence Soul­stuff goes on through fam­i­ly and friends, on and on!

2 marianna lines { 11.29.09 at 22:23 }

My sin­cere heart­felt sym­pa­thy to the entire Gra­ham fam­i­ly clan in Cana­da and world­wide over the pass­ing of the Great Woman, “Soul­stuff” Florence!
I met her many times in Scot­land and in Lon­don, Ont. and found her a redoubtable char­ac­ter who was entire­ly present in every moment of her tri­umphal life. Long live her mem­o­ry. There are few if any like her now!
I am hon­ored to have known her, how­ev­er briefly. With love, Marianna

3 Leesa Bolton { 11.30.09 at 08:02 }

I met Flo­rence when she came to vis­it Leona ( in Somer­sham, Cam­bridgeshire) and she was cer­tain­ly was a “grand women” I have fond mem­o­ries of her and myself sit­ting in my “Eng­lish Gar­den” sip­ping lemon­ade, and shar­ing expriences … she was also as mean card play­er and had a wicked sense of humour and we at the Bolton house­hold will always be thank­ful that we had the opper­tu­ni­ty to meet this won­der­ful lady ( and real­ly she was). My hus­band, Col­in and I will always remem­ber her kind­ness and sense of fun..

Flo­rence dar­ling, you were an orig­i­nal … God Bless

Your British mates … Col­in and Leesa Bolton

4 RuthAnn Day { 12.11.09 at 07:03 }

When I think of my friend Flo­rence, my heart breaks into a great BIG smile. You were tru­ly “one of a kind”! The moth­er of one of my dear­est friends, Leona, and real­ly a “moth­er ” to us all. A woman of her word, and woman of integri­ty, a woman who walked with com­pas­sion for oth­ers, and not afraid to walk into the bat­tle of life with both “dukes up”. Life around Flo was fun, chal­leng­ing, and very pre­cious. Some of my fond­est mem­o­ries of Flo was the amaz­ing ride to Boston to see Robin in your car the “uni­corn” when you left with Leona for Find­horn, and I drove the “uni­corn” home nev­er to be dri­ven again! A trip of amaz­ing mir­a­cles. The tea par­ties in the back­yard of “540” The long talks and dicus­sions about the mean­ing of life and the tears and laugh­ter shared dur­ing peri­ods of our lives of great joy and great loss. Flo­rence, you were a real com­mu­ni­ca­tor and con­nec­tor in your life, weav­ing togeth­er a mas­ter­piece of rela­tion­ships that formed the beau­ti­ful tapes­try of your life. A Mas­ter Weaver you were!!! You thought deeply, loved lots, and laughed often. Thank you for the won­der­ful part you played in my life, and for the won­der­ful fam­i­ly of yours that blessed my life as friends. I know that you now KNOW the Source of that “light”. I shall miss you. Give my love to Ian too. Much love, Ruth Ann

5 Barbara Stokes { 12.22.09 at 02:32 }

To my dear “moth­er” Flo­rence, deep­est grat­i­tude for grac­ing my life with the warmth, wis­dom and spit of a grand fem­i­nine men­tor. I’ve loved you dear­ly since the day we met at Dorothy McLean’s work­shop at King’s Col­lege in 1980. You and my soul sis­ter Leona led me to Find­horn, which changed my life for­ev­er, putting me in touch with my own “soul­stuff.” “540” has often been my bed and break­fast of choice because of your homey and wel­com­ing hos­pi­tal­i­ty. May the flow­ers at 540 bloom in per­pet­u­al mem­o­ry and glo­ry of the de-LIGHT-FULL sweet friend you have been for me. I will miss you, but we will meet again.….….Barbara 🙂

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