Wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, executive secretary, Daphne Alice Cook grew up in Dagenham, Essex, England in the 1930s and 1940s. She was 2 when her mother Alice (Edwards) passed away leaving her father Christopher to raise her and her older brother Cyril. They endured through the second world war dodging air raids, their home ‘Merrylands’ playing host to the extended Cook family who had been displaced from bombed homes. Daphne was the young woman of the house and this taught her the depth of family experience that became her life’s work.
Daphne attended secretarial school and discovered she was a brilliantly skilled record keeper, stenographer, typist and refiner of language with her precise spelling and polished grammar. She could even recite the Alphabet backwards.
Throughout most of the war, Daphne’s father remained a widower, working as a shore captain and serving in the home guard. He fell in love with Maisie Durley, who became Daphne’s beloved stepmother and was a huge influence on Daphne and a great English cook which found its way into Daphne’s vault of talents. Maisie and Christopher’s daughter Jane soon came along and Daphne and Jane became inseparable.
With the end of the war, Daphne found her secretarial talents in demand at a string of companies looking to recover after years of uncertainty. She advanced quickly, becoming an ace shorthand writer. Flash forward, thirty years later, Daphne goes on to become an outstanding executive secretary to a string of vice-presidents at Canada’s TD Bank, then the Toronto-Dominion, including stints with Pat Noonan and Charles Baillie.
Back in 1948 all of that was deeply influenced when she met and fell in love with the handsome Ronald Arthur Terry, not long de-mobbed from the Army and working his way up in the post office. They married in October of ‘49 and set about building a life together. Three years later, they delivered their first son, Christopher Ronald, then welcomed 2nd son Phillip John, daughter Lynne Vivian and after they moved to Canada, youngest son David Michael. In between, they worked hard in England to advance their working life, Ronald at Fords, Daphne mostly raising the family but working part-time as a secretary.
As the children grew, so did their ambition and courage which inspired them to leave the economic stress of post-war UK and emigrate to a new country to start over again. Influenced by their friends, especially the young couple, Derek and Maureen Capper (who had moved to Canada the year before), the family relocated to Toronto in late 1961, amidst a wave of Brits determined to make a better go somewhere else in the Commonwealth.
Daphne’s secretarial skills and charm soon got the attention of the folks at TD Bank. Meanwhile her husband worked his way up the human resources department at Standard Modern Tool Co. The kids were quickly growing, times were booming. When Ron’s company started recruiting skilled tradesmen from the UK, Daphne stepped up with her husband and helped sponsor several young UK hopefuls, one of them, Anne Trueman, still a life-long friend, who, to this day is grateful for all that Daphne and Ron did to help them settle in Canada. The ex-pat Brits all helped each other in that time of change. The Beckinghams, the James, the Whaleys, the Ramsons, the Giddings, the Outens and many other Brit families all became a big gang of support for each other. Throughout the late 60s and 70s, Daphne and Ron raised their four kids, worked hard at their jobs and formed stronger bonds with their new country. Every weekend a different ex-pat couple hosted a dance party. Their house in Thornhill was a hub of Englishness, with its pub style bar in the basement and Daphne’s natural affinity for hosting, these were exciting times, buoyed on by their deepening friendships, big band music and lots of dancing. In the summer, mass ex-pat camping trips, road trips, picnics.
As the children grew up, Daphne and Ron felt restless and moved from Thornhill, first to Richmond Hill, then Waterdown and eventually to Alliston, Ontario. Daphne continued her rise in the TD Bank eventually serving the top brass in the MieS van de Rohe designed TD Bank tower at head office. Retirement came in 1994, with grown children, their spouses (Debi, Darlene, Roberto, Debby, Lauri, Melina), their beloved grandchildren (Kevin, Lindsay, Alyssa, Emily, Bradley, Britney and Tosh). Throughout their retirement Daphne continuously hosted family Sunday dinners, special occasions, birthdays and get togethers. She and Ron traveled all over Canada, the US, even Hawaii, Europe and played at being snowbirds in Florida.
Ron passed away in 2012. They had been together for 63 years. His passing left a giant gap in her life that was hard to fill. With the love and support of her extended family, she soldiered on always thinking of her Ronnie, the love of her life. Part of that gap has been filled by the arrival of three great grandchildren (Jackson, Harper and Brady) all of whom have made her life overflow with love.
After a battle with congestive heart failure, Daphne died peacefully on June 4, 2019. Even to the very end she beamed when family were nearby, grateful to love and be loved.
Daphne is deeply missed by all her family and friends. She had such a warm heart, bursting with love which she generously shared with everyone she got to know. She never forgot a birthday or an anniversary and her wicked sense of humour was legendary. And she was a woman pioneer in many ways, a model of femininity and strength, one of the hardest working people ever, who raised four children whilst working full time, who with her Ronnie, lived life to the fullest.