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In Celebration of
Jennie Goguen (née Kielb)
March 24, 1933 –
February 4, 2025
GOGUEN, JENNIE (née KIELB) Peacefully, on Tuesday, February 4, 2025, at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, at the age of 91. Beloved wife of the late Leonard “Len”. Loving mother of Jeannette (Martin) and Marlene (Dwight). Adored grandmother to Corrina (Mitch), Cassi (Sandy), Miranda (Benja) and Teddy (Sheree), great-grandmother to Bentley, Everly and Mila. Predeceased by her parents, John and Vera Kielb and brother, Theodore (Ted) Kielb (the late Anne). Following her parents’ emigration from Poland, Jennie was born on March 24, 1933, in Iroquois Falls, Ontario.
The Kielb family moved from Iroquois Falls to New Toronto when Jennie was eight, where she grew up jumping in the waves of Lake Ontario with her friends after school and helping Polish refugees resettle in Toronto. After high school at Mimico High, she completed teacher’s college and taught primary school in New Toronto at Christ the King School. She married her lifetime partner Len Goguen in Toronto and they moved to Montreal for 16 years, where they raised their two daughters. Jennie was born to teach and love: once back in Toronto, she went on to a second career as a junior kindergarten teacher at St. Paul’s in Regent Park for 11 years, where she was so beloved she even had a student name his daughter after her. Jennie’s grandchildren grew up playing mermaids, princesses, and giants with her. She loved them exactly as they were, and she was described as the only adult who was good at playing imaginary games. At her retirement home, she learned she was good at teaching adults too, leading weekly Bible class and News of the World meetings so well that people asked her if she was a minister or journalist. She was a voracious reader who was never spotted without a book in hand, breezing through War and Peace in two weeks during the pandemic. She was an advocate for the vulnerable wherever and whomever they were. Jennie was a genius of unconditional love and connection who will be missed in a way that defies words. Her beautiful spirit will persist as a blessing for everyone who knew her.
Friends may call at Turner & Porter Yorke Chapel (2357 Bloor St. W., east of the Jane Subway Station, west of Windermere Ave.) Monday, February 10th from 2-4 p.m. and 7-9 p.m. Funeral Mass will be held at Our Lady of Sorrows Church, 3055 Bloor St. W. just west of Royal York Road, Etobicoke, on Tuesday, February 11th at 11 a.m. Interment to follow at Sanctuary Park Cemetery. For those who wish, donations in Jennie’s memory may be made to Sickkids Hospital (www.sickkidsfoundation.com/waystodonate/).
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March 24 1933
February 4 2025
turner & porter funeral directors
Death notice for the town of: Toronto, Province: Ontario
death notice Jennie Goguen née Kielb March 24 1933
February 4 2025
obituaries notice Jennie Goguen née Kielb March 24 1933
February 4 2025
We offer our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Jennie Goguen née Kielb March 24 1933
February 4 2025 and hope that their memory may be a source of comfort during this difficult time. Your thoughts and kind words are greatly appreciated.
