Rosalind Margaret Peters

a Celebration of Life

The family and friends of Rosalind Margaret Peters
are invited to celebrate her life.

We will be gathering on August 16^th, 2024 between 3 and 6 PM in Bloor West Village.

Please use the R.S.V.P. form below to let the family know that you will be joining. Additional details will follow.

a Gentle Stoic

There was a gentle stoicism to how she lived her life. Not in an austere or philosophising way, but in how she lived. She didn't look backward and dwell. She didn't question Fate's motives. She moved forward, even when her body made movement hard. In her late years she was slowed, but she soldiered on, without the slightest complaint or resentment.

She found great pleasures in her surroundings. When weather permitted, she delighted in having her morning breakfast - a boiled egg, a slice of toast with orange marmalade and a coffee - on the wooden deck in the backyard of the house she had worked so hard to get and to keep. She loved the surrounding greenery, the yellows of the trees, the reds of the roses. And her morning would be made all the brighter if the songbirds came to splash and play in the water bath that Ros made for them. She liked animals. There was a rabbit who roamed the neighbourhood and would sometimes visit, keeping a cautious distance. Ros loved to watch him hop about the garden.

The quintessential Bloor West Villager, her daily treat was to go up to Bloor West and enjoy a latte at one of her favourite coffee shops. Often she would chance upon a friend and the good company would make the treat all the sweeter. Ros was outgoing in a low-key way and would make fast friends with the servers and shopkeepers at the establishments she frequented. Many of them were affected by her empathy and her genuine interest in getting to know them. Some of them even came to view Ros as maternal figure in their lives — someone with whom they could express themselves freely, someone who would deeply listen to them, and someone who genuinely cared about their well-being. On the occasions when she would use a ride-sharing app to get chauffeured from home to village and back, Ros took great pleasure in conversing with her drivers, many of whom were recent immigrants dealing with the challenges of starting a new life in a new country. Ros would listen to them and connect with them and it was common for her to receive an appreciative Thank You text afterwards.

Being a good listener was Ros's gift. It served her, and her clients, well in her career as a school Social Worker. She was nonjudgmental, caring and understanding. She would offer advice if it was apparent, but more often her role was as the trusted confidante, allowing the other person to arrive at his or her own solution by talking-out the situation. Ros was the stalwart ear for many.

Ros loved the arts, as patron and participant. At different points in her life she engaged in ballet, Scottish country dancing, and Margaret Morris Movement (MMM). She had memberships with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) and the McMichael Gallery - the latter being a favourite place to visit with friends and family. She had season's tickets to the Canadian Opera Company (COC) as well as the National Ballet of Canada, whom she supported with charitable donations for over twenty years. She never missed a performance no matter the obstacles thrown-up by weather or construction.

“Be content with who you are and where you are, and do whatever you can do to bring to others such contentment, and joy, and understanding that you have managed to find yourself.”

Alexander McCall Smith, The Double Comfort Safari Club

Immortality

Do not stand
by my grave, and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep—

I am the thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints in snow.
I am the sunlight on ripened grain,
I am the gentle, autumn rain.
As you awake with morning's hush,
I am the swift, up-flinging rush
Of quiet birds in circling flight.
I am the day transcending night.

Do not stand
by my grave, and cry—
I am not there,
I did not die.

Clare Harner, 1934