It is with sadness that we share the news that my dear mother Elizabeth (Betty) Wolfe passed away peacefully at the age of 92, early in the morning on Friday, November 8th, 2024, at Humber Meadows, her long-term care home, after several years of enduring Alzheimer’s disease. We are saddened by her loss but content at knowing that her struggles are now over, and she is at peace, joining her beloved husband Bill who predeceased her in 2021, and Chelsea, her adored granddaughter who passed away in early 2020.

Betty left Bulgaria in 1950 at the young age of 18 with her mother arriving to Halifax by ship, and then travelled by train to Toronto so that they could join her father and brother. It was a shock for her to leave her home country after just graduating high school and to arrive in a strange new place where she didn’t speak the language, but although it was difficult Betty enrolled in high school to learn English, as there were no ESL classes in those days, and later was able to take a Secretarial Program at Shaw Business College. There she met one of her best and dearest lifelong friends Erna, and she told many stories of how they would go to lunch at Fran’s in downtown Toronto and how she loved eating cherry pie there! After finishing this course, she would no longer have to work unpleasant jobs, such as at a doll factory where she had to put heads on dolls, and was able to secure better employment as a legal clerk at Canada Permanent Trust for several years.

In 1955 Betty married her husband Bill, also from Bulgaria whom she had met at a summer party of mutual friends, and they began their new life together. After working very hard together they eventually moved from their first home in mid-Toronto to a newly constructed home in North York. It was a wonderful new neighbourhood where they made many friends and they would go out dancing together on weekends and have lots of fun house parties. After a few years Betty stopped working and they adopted their daughter Stephanie, and the family was now complete. Betty doted on Stephanie, as she had been desperately waiting for a child, and was a very good & devoted mother. They later built two other homes together, first in North York and then in Richmond Hill. In her fifties, when Stephanie was now a young teen, Betty took tennis lessons and became very competitive, playing tennis 5 days a week until the age of 75 when a shoulder injury made her stop. She proudly displayed her many tennis trophies at home and made many tennis friends over the years and she missed playing greatly.

Great family adventures were had over the years with trips to Florida, vacations in Barbados, learning to downhill ski in their late 40s to keep up with Stephanie, and of course lots of wonderful summers at their cottage which they had built together. Some of their best memories were at the cottage, especially after Stephanie married her husband Derek, and then later added their granddaughter Chelsea and grandson Christopher. Betty was overjoyed when she became a Baba (grandmother) and together with Bill they showered the grandkids with lots of love and attention and spoiled them rotten and had them for many summers at the cottage while their parents worked.

When Bill retired later in life, the two of them travelled to many different places together such as Spain, Turkey, California and their most enjoyable trip driving across Canada to BC. They also enjoyed many vacations to Mexico, Jamaica and the Caribbean during the winters until it became too tiring and difficult to travel on their own.

Betty had a very full and good life together with Bill and their family but unfortunately, she started to develop some memory lapses in her 80s and was diagnosed with mild stage Alzheimer’s disease, which she constantly denied and refused to accept. As her illness progressed Betty was no longer able to do much of her beloved cooking and baking, and Bill slowly began taking over more of the household duties, learning to cook and clean and do all the shopping. Thankfully, wanting to be closer to their grandchildren, they were already living next door to Stephanie which was very helpful as they aged and especially during this challenging time. Bill’s devotion to Betty never wavered and he continued to take wonderful care of her for several years until he had a mild stroke and then passed away several months later. Betty continued to live in their private retirement home after his passing with the help of Stephanie, but eventually after a fall and further decline in her memory, she eventually moved to Humber Meadows in August 2023, where she remained until her death.

Betty will be greatly missed by her daughter Stephanie, her son-in-law Derek and her grandson Christopher, as well as her extended family. We would like to thank the amazing staff at Humber Meadows LTC who took such wonderful care of Betty this past year and showed her such care and compassion in her last days.