Margaret Linda “Lin” Diane Guest, 68, of Toronto, peacefully passed away September 9, 2021 with her family and friends by her side. She was born to Ralph Grimes and the late Margaret Hargrove Grimes on January 30, 1953 in Toronto, Ontario. Linda graduated from Woburn Collegiate in 1971.

She married David Guest in 1972 and they were married for 29 years until they divorced in 2001. Linda is survived by her three sons: Brian K. Guest (Alessandra B. Guest) of Burlington, Jordan D. Guest (Trisha Teoh) of Toronto and Tyler M. Guest of Kitchener; her two grandchildren Catrina Lin Guest and Claire A. Guest; and her two sisters, Cathy H. I. Hosler of Ajax and Laurel A. E. Grimes Tandory of Newmarket.

Linda spent the early 70’s working for the Bulger family as a baby sitter in Coburg, Ontario and later took up a job as a benefits administrator for Bulger Insurance in downtown Toronto. Linda was an incredibly talented artist who could create arts and crafts using every medium available. From painting in oils and water colours, pastels, drawing, to Christmas decorations, knitting and crochet; she was incredibly gifted. Linda loved the aquarium hobby and collecting blown glass. She was also a deeply emotional and compassionate person with great emotional intelligence, which made her an excellent listener and empathetic advisor in life to her loved ones and to those she provided life coaching to. She would also go out of her way to make her family and friends feel special with personal notes of optimism and admiration in cards on holidays, birthdays and special occasions.

Linda was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1982. Over her 39 years of living with the disease she used her creative talents to continuously adapt to its progressive nature. She was also technically savvy such that she would selflessly provide life coaching via her home computer and text to speech software. She would say, “I may have MS, but MS doesn’t have me.” This philosophy guided her in everything she did, even up to the end she did everything her way.

The family would like to give special thanks to all of those who dedicate their careers and personal time to nursing and personal support work which supported Linda throughout the last 39 years. Of special note, Cynthia Reyes was by Linda’s side for over 20 years providing her with exceptional care and most importantly friendship and love.

Linda will be laid to rest beside her mother in Resthaven Memorial Gardens, Scarborough, Ontario. The family requests donations are made to the MS Society of Canada in lieu of flowers. Condolences and personal comments can be made via the Guestbook section on the Pine Hills Funeral Centre website.