Barbara Christine Dok
1928-2022
“It is people like Barbara
Dok who are the threads that weave our community together to make us
what we are, and what we are to
become.”
Our mother, Barbara Christine Dok (Warne), passed away
peacefully at her Wolfville home on 22.2.2022, at 93. It was fitting
that she should depart on World Thinking Day,
dear to the Scouting and Guiding movement, as her involvement with
Girl Guides was a passion and life-long commitment.
Of Scottish and English ancestry, Mummy was born near the
naval city of Gosport in southern England where her father was a
submarine officer in the Royal Navy. She spent many years of her
childhood outside of England, in Alexandria, Gibraltar, and especially
5 years in Sliema, Malta, before completing school at Rothesay
Academy, on the Isle of Bute, Scotland. She trained as a nurse in
Bournemouth, and the Royal Free Hospital, London before specializing
in Oto-Rhino-Laryngology at the Royal Ear, Nose and Throat hospital in
Gray’s Inn Road, London where she met our father, Dr. Than
Dok, who worked there as an ENT surgeon. In 1954, she married our
father in Rangoon, Burma and lived for 10 years in Mandalay until the
military coup of 1962. In 1966, our parents emigrated to
Nova Scotia with their three young daughters and settled in Kentville
where our father practiced Ophthalmology and
Oto-Rhino-Laryngology.
Mummy was a doer and a trailblazer, with boundless energy,
curiosity and gumption. She enthusiastically helped Daddy to put down
roots in the Annapolis Valley, place they both came to cherish.
Besides assisting our father in his practice, Mummy got very involved
in the community doing charity work. She never dabbled in things but
threw herself heart and soul into projects with great dedication and
commitment. In the late 1960s, she helped children learn to read at
Aldershot School and got involved in a small speech therapy group,
organizing summer camps funded by the federal government’s
Opportunities for Youth program. She was one of
the initiators of the Meals on Wheels program in
Kentville. She held various roles in Girl Guides from local to
national level, becoming a recipient of the Mayflower Award in 2013,
the highest provincial award in Girl Guides, for her outstanding
contributions. In 2018 she received a Certificate of Appreciation for
her 80 years of commitment to the Girl Guides of Canada. The Guiding
Ambassador thanked her for continuing to be a catalyst for
girls empowering girls.
In a letter dated April
1, 2002 to nominate Mummy for the Provincial Medal of Merit Award by
the Girl Guides of Canada, Christine Ross
wrote:
It is people
like Barbara Dok who are the threads that weave our community together
to make us what we are, and what we are to
become.
In addition to Guiding, she was very active as a member of
the Olympic Chapter of the IODE (Imperial Order of the Daughters of
the Empire) service club which she joined in 1967, serving on both
local and provincial levels in various positions such as Education
Secretary, Head Councilor, Vice Regent and Regent, and whose National
President presented her with a Certificate of Life membership in
1993.
Mummy was a skilled gardener, avid reader and amazing cook.
She loved animals and nature and had an incredibly active social life
with different circles of friends. They have kindly shared comments
about our mother’s powerful presence, courage, forbearance
and elegance, telling us she was a “joy to be with” and
“a lovely support person”. She continued to take classes at
Acadia University until 2020 and enjoyed playing bridge for over sixty
years, right up to Christmas 2021.
Our mother’s sense of duty also applied to her
family. She was reliable, supportive, nurturing, and taught us early
the importance of being independent, educated girls. Our parents
attended all the major life events of their daughters in Ontario and
France and after our father died in 2010, Mummy continued to travel to
be present at her grandchildren’s university graduations and
to spend time with her daughters’ families.
Our mother was able to spend the last months of her life in
palliative care at home owing to the constant presence and care of her
youngest daughter Helen and granddaughter Serina, and to the wonderful
V.O.N caregivers as well as her long-time physician, Dr. Alison
Wellwood.
Barbara was predeceased by her husband Dr.Than Dok
(19.10.2010) and survived by her younger sister Judith Nicholas (Jeff)
and nephews Andrew, Stuart and Duncan Tanner of the U.K, her daughters
Caroline Kirshner (Shahram), Catherine Canioni (Jean-Claude) and Helen
De Fabrizio, her grandchildren Sam and Alicia, Benjamin and Jonathan,
Serina, Michael & Nicholas as well as her “adopted”
daughter and granddaughter, Kathleen and Jessica Jung.
Our mother will be cremated and a small funeral will later be
held at St John’s Anglican Church, Wolfville (date to be
determined). In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the local
V.O.N (Victorian Order of Nurses), Red Cross or to a charity for heart
or cancer research, in Barbara’s memory.
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Barbara Christine Dok 19282022..
Death notice for the town of: Kentville, Province: Nova Scotia