With great sadness, we announce the passing of Clare Menezes, age 95, who passed away at the home of her daughter, Joan, on September 20, 2023.

Clare was born the eldest, of four daughters, to Clement and Lily Saldanha of Karachi, in 1927. She grew up in Cincinnatus Town, amongst a whole cohort of cousins and friends within the Goan community there. She obtained a Teaching Certificate and had a career as an elementary school teacher at St. Joseph's Convent School. In 1949, she married Donald Menezes, a sub-editor with the English language newspaper, DAWN. They had four children. Shortly after their 25th wedding anniversary, they immigrated, along with her widowed mother Lily, to Toronto, Canada to join up with her daughter Joan, and sisters, Sybil and Teresa. (Her sister, Margaret, later came to live in nearby New York with her family). In Canada, Clare went back to school and qualified as an Early Childhood Education Teacher, working with Mini-Skools, among others. In her 60's, and in her widowhood, she came into her own, maintaining her own apartment and independence into her early 90's.

Mostly though, Clare was a mother to her children. A devout Catholic, she had very definite ideas on how people should behave. She was blunt and strict, but was also a ready ear, a great source of advice and a voice of reason and moderation. In her long life, her children and grandchildren were always happy to seek her company and her advice. Teatime at grandma's place was always a big hit! She will be deeply missed by her surviving sister, Teresa; her children, Paul(Sylvia), Joan(Paul), Keith(Anita), Rosemarie (Yanni); her grand-children, Surya (Rebecca), Varuna, Serena(Kevin), Christopher(Miriam), Maya, Sarita, Sitara, Anil, Anjali, and Sonali (Jeffery); and her great-grand-children Isabel and Margaret.