It is with heavy hearts and much love that the family of Rochelle Lyons announce her passing on May, 8, 2022 at the age of 76 years.
Rochelle passed away peacefully from cancer after outliving even the most optimistic forecasts by several years. Due to her strength and tenacity, she was able to continue to do what she enjoyed, which was spending time with her husband Paul, her friends and family and was able to watch her grandchildren grow from babies to young adults.
Rochelle was born in Toronto and grew up near College and Ossington in Toronto’s west end. She absolutely loved Toronto and lived in many of its neighbourhoods including North York, Leaside, and the Annex. For several years, Rochelle lived in Stouffville before moving to Thornhill so she could be closer to her family and her city.
Although her and Paul both went to Mackenzie High School in North York, they never really met until they were at the University of Toronto. She married Paul in 1968 and worked to help him get through school. She always joked that she received her “MRS degree” during these years.
Rochelle’s greatest joy was her family. She loved raising her children and thoroughly enjoyed the time she spent with her 5 grandchildren. Rochelle kept in close contact with her extended family across North America, making several trips to Chicago, Madison and California to visit family there.
Rochelle loved travelling. She and Paul took countless driving trips through Canada and the United States. She was always up for a detour and any new adventure that came their way and never got overly stressed, even while getting lost in the most dangerous neighbourhoods of almost every large American city they visited!
Music was a lifelong love. Rochelle loved every single style of music and instilled that love of music in her children. It was very rare to come into Rochelle and Paul’s house and not hear music playing. In addition to rock, pop, disco, folk, classical and jazz, you would often hear the music from a Broadway or Hollywood musical. Rochelle loved the theatre and she and Paul held season’s tickets to the Royal Alexandra theatre for many years. Some of her fondest memories were of the amazing shows and talented actors they were privileged to see.
One of the most special periods in Rochelle’s life was spent on Heather Road in Leaside. Heather Road, and Leaside as a whole during the 70’s and 80’s, was a close-knit, safe, quiet and peaceful place to raise a family. Rochelle loved her neighbours and all the children on the street were definitely “raised by a village”. She was heavily involved in the Home & School Association at Rolph Road School and spearheaded a lot of fundraising activities, including the Fun Fair. Rochelle loved all the community activities that Leaside had to offer including fireworks night, volleyball parties, curling, huge dinner parties, and all the organized sports for the kids such as baseball and hockey. Her favourite feature of the neighbourhood was the many extremely close and supportive friendships she made with the other mothers on the street and throughout the neighbourhood.
Rochelle was the person everyone went to for when trying to figure out family genealogy. She knew how everyone was related, down to the most distant cousins. Not only was she everyone’s resource on her side of the family, but she knew more about her in-law’s family than anyone!
Another source of enjoyment was her involvement with her children’s sports and hobbies. A true “hockey mom”, Rochelle loved watching her sons play MTHL hockey and made some great friendships with the other team parents.
A big Blue Jays fan, she nervously watched all the great Blue Jays teams from the 1980’s right up to the latest group of budding superstars. In later years, she loved watching the Raptors and was thrilled to see them win their championship.
Rochelle’s focus was her family, but she also worked at Bell, both before she had kids and again as her children got a bit older and more independent. She also turned her love of Toronto into her work when she worked at the downtown hotels as a concierge. She was extremely successful in this endeavour as her love of people and her city shone through. She made so many people’s visits to Toronto immeasurably better by being so friendly and informative. Even the odd frustration with a “rude American doctor” could not get her down! Rochelle worked with several charitable organizations including the Kidney Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society’s daffodil campaign as a canvasser and regional rep.
Rochelle was the beloved mother to her three children, Stephanie (Dominic), Alan (Aidan) and Neil (Suzie) and is survived by her husband Paul. Her five grandchildren, Ethan, Alexandra, Rowan, Poppy and Maddy will forever hold fondly their memories of their Bubbie.
She was predeceased by her parents, Al and Yetta.
A sincere thank you to all of the wonderful medical staff at North York General and Sunnybrook Hospital.
If so desired, memorial donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society (www.cancer.ca) and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (www.wiesenthal.com).
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Our most sincere sympathies to the family and friends of Rochelle Lyons Sunday May 8th 2022..
Death notice for the town of: Newcastle, Province: Ontario