Tribute Wall
In Memory of
Eleanor Nellis Kerr
1928 - 2023
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Joseph Weir posted a symbolic gesture
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
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To Eleanor's children:
I never met Eleanor, but my good friend Andrew has mentioned her to me often over the years, and I felt like I knew her. Mothers are the most important people in God's universe, and the passing of a person's mother, even in old age, is a tremendously sad event. Please accept my condolences, and those of my wife Heather, for your loss. I hope you will be comforted by knowing that as your mother she did everything humanly possible to look after you and be there for you all these years, and her work now being done, she is having a well deserved rest. She is no doubt with your father and they will see you all again some day in a place free of the troubles and vanities of this world.
Joe Weir
Ottawa
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Nicole M posted a condolence
Tuesday, May 23, 2023
I had the pleasure of spending time with Eleanor at many Toronto Guild of Stitchery evenings, events, and meetings. She always had a smile on her face, and a needle in hand. She would share stories from her life, and her adventures, and could make us laugh. Eleanor was so independent, and despite not driving did not hesitate to come out to guild. The few times I drove her home she was always more concerned that it was an imposition, which it never was. I will miss seeing Eleanor, but i trust that she is with her favourite people and looking down and over those that she loves here on earth. 'till we meet again.
Nicole McReavy
Toronto Guild of Stitchery
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Katherine uploaded photo(s)
Monday, May 22, 2023
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I remember her hair not
Blond or red or brown or any
Of those, but fair
Like a morning. She
Wore it up, always. A few strands
never seemed to grow and would cloud
Around her face in a breeze. She coiled
Them off her face with two bobby pins. I used to watch her
In the bathroom fixing it. She had made
A small nest, strays plucked from her brush
That she would pull from her drawer, smelling
of face powder, and tuck it up inside pat it all
Into place and say when I asked, oh my hair
Is too thin. But once, she came down the stairs
With the heat of her bath around her like most
And her deep forest robe in ungathering
Her breasts and her hair a river
Flowing over the shores of her hips
How it swished as they swayed and
I was cast in. KEKERR ‘95
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Rupert and Marian Brook posted a condolence
Saturday, May 20, 2023
Rupert and Marian Brook remember Eleanor fondly as a neighbor at Balsam Lake. Marian especially remembers times on the Kerr dock supervising Steve, Robert, Jon and Elizabeth and Amy as they enjoyed the lake. Eleanor continued to be a friend to our late daughter, Amy who recalled with pleasure playing cards when Amy would visit the lake after our move. Our thoughts are with you all, friends, at this time.
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Maryann Kerr uploaded photo(s)
Saturday, May 20, 2023
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I lived with Eleanor for 12 years from the time Kimberley was 3 months old until she was almost 12 and Kaitlyn almost eight. Several of my friends thought we were making a big mistake to move to Stephen’s childhood home. They were wrong.
Medalist road is still the home I lived in the longest in my entire 61 years. It also inspired the name of our family business.
Eleanor and I were very different kinds of mothers and though I know she occasionally disapproved of my methods, she only shared if I asked. And sometimes I did. I always took her advice into consideration. She had, after all, raised my favorite person.
Eleanor taught me many things. She taught me not by telling or debating. In the 29 years I knew her, we had cross words exactly once – and we got over them very quickly. She taught me, quite simply, by living her life. She was, in my experience, both open-minded and firm in her beliefs. She had an incredibly active, curious and creative mind. She showed me what it meant to love fiercely, with deep loyalty and unconditionally. She was a worrier – a trait to which many of us mothers can relate.
She had very particular ideas about family and what she expected of us. She, and briefly Harry, always made me feel that I was as much their family as anyone else. Sometimes we joked, particularly at the cottage, that I wasn’t really a Kerr -- “only” an import. She’d giggle and remind me that the same could be said of her. Stephen reminds me that I, like her, chose to be a Kerr – and there is something to be said about that.
There are no words to express the gratitude and love I feel for her. She was not one to be overly sentimental – at least not with me. But I never doubted her love for me and oh how she adored our girls. She inspired them to knit, embroider, cook, swim, play tennis, sew, paint, take pictures – to live fully. To create. She celebrated their expressiveness.
By being and loving herself, she taught them to do the same. Sometimes she’d come home from one of her many activities, having heard a variety of stories, and slyly remind me just how lucky I was to have her as my mother-in-law. I couldn’t agree more.
I wear Grandma’s 'old' fur coat on the coldest of winter days. When I do, Steve is reminded of the days he nestled into it, drawing on the fur, as a small boy at Church. I am reminded of the days when she and I drove to Metropolitan United for the Sunday service and would chat all the way there. Sometimes she’d head off to the ballet afterwards or some other activity – but our day started out together.
Eleanor and I connected as adults, as mothers, as friends. My heart is full in the knowledge that she, and those she loved who went before her, are playing Mah-jong or perhaps Hearts, as they watch the sun set over Balsam Lake. Thanks for everything Grandma. xo
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Pia Kallas-Harvey posted a condolence
Saturday, May 20, 2023
To the family of Eleanor:
I send my deepest condolences for your loss. I knew Eleanor via the Toronto Guild of Stitchery. I loved listening to her stories, her words of wisdom and her great sense of humour. What an accomplished woman she was. We will all miss her greatly but she left us with a wonderful footprint on our hearts. May your happy memories continue to bring you comfort.
Warmest regards
Pia Kallas-Harvey
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Kimberley Kerr uploaded photo(s)
Friday, May 19, 2023
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My heart hurts without you here. So many of my best memories are tied to you. Rest peacefully, and say hello to Grandpa.
I love you Grandma.
K
The family of Eleanor Nellis Kerr uploaded a photo
Friday, May 19, 2023
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