Obituary of Dianne Reid
Elizabeth Dianne Reid (Stainton) of Aylmer, Ontario, is now in the presence of her heavenly Father and her Saviour, Jesus Christ. She passed peacefully on Friday, December 28, 2018 in her 83rd year while residing at Chartwell, close to her home of almost sixty years and near to the children and grandchildren she nurtured and loved.
Dianne was born to Herbert Bruce and Dorothy Helen Rose Mae Stainton on April 14th, 1936 into a large, boisterous and churchmouse-poor family in Toronto. Her father was a Church of Christ Disciple minister and evangelist and her mother was the church pianist. As a family, they lived through the years of the Great Depression and World War II being moved from one town and province to another. They landed in St. Thomas during the 1950s. It was here that Dianne reached her teen years, attending high school and working a part-time job at the Metropolitan five-and-dime. A young bachelor from Aylmer, who was a veteran of the second war and an amateur photographer, popped by the parsonage one day to drop off photos from a wedding that her father had presided over. Ernest Reid was welcomed into the family and was soon smitten with the lively, pretty young woman eleven years his junior. She had no interest in him whatsoever.
The Staintons subsequently moved to Dartmouth, Nova Scotia to plant a new church. Sadly, her father died before this came to fruition. The baby boom had resulted in a severe shortage of elementary school teachers and, although Dianne had not completed her high school, she was accepted into teacher’s college where she got her elementary certification. She spent two joyful years teaching in Dartmouth. She then felt a calling to the mission field and went off to attend Bethany College in Virginia.
During all of these years she had continued to correspond with the bachelor from Aylmer. Finally, in 1960 after much patient wooing, he managed to win her heart. They were married at St. Paul’s United Church in Aylmer on August 12, 1961. They wasted no time starting a family. Dianne not only raised her own large brood of seven, she became den mother to a whole neighbourhood of children who grew up on Myrtle Street. She taught Sunday School and started a boy’s club at the Aylmer Missionary church as well as teaching religious education classes in the public schools.
Apart from the last two months, she never left Myrtle Street. As dementia took its toll, she both amused and perplexed the neighbourhood with her exuberant whistling and singing solos performed at full volume. Although it is much quieter there today, it is a sad sort of quiet.
She is now enjoying her reunion with her father, mother, twin sisters Jean and Trecia and most especially her beloved husband from whom she was widowed in 1994. Her children Dorothy, John, Dan and Laurie, Tim, Reta and Dave (Murphy), Rebekah and Paul will miss the joy she gave. Her legacy will also be carried on by her grandchildren Wesley, Abigail, William and Ethan.
In keeping with her wishes, cremation has taken place and her ashes will join with Ernest’s at a private ceremony. A visitation and celebration of her life will take place at Aylmer Evangelical Missionary Church in January.
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Dianne
Reid 1936 2018.
Source:H.A. Kebbel Funeral Home
Décès pour la Ville: Aylmer, Province: Ontario
