Audrey Best

Audrey lived a wonderful life surrounded by friends and family until her 101st year. Born in 1923, in York region Ontario to her mother Mary Elizabeth and her father Henry she was the middle child of of 3 siblings with her older sister Gertrude, affectionally known as toots, and her younger brother Don. In addition to her siblings she often told fond stories of her childhood Collie dog following her to school and waiting in the schoolyard to walk her home again each day. 

Audrey met her late husband George (whom Audrey referred to as James) when she was 16 years old working at Moffats. They married in 1941 and had 3 children - Marilyn (Luke), Wayne (Chris) and Gary (Pam). They had many adventures raising their kids as all of us do, with stories of skidoos broken by the boys mischief, her dad pap getting stung repeatedly by wasps after the wasp foam was replaced with water, kids falling through the ice on the pond they were not supposed to be on (rescued by George), pet racoons, hockey, hockey and more hockey, and the cottage that they built together as a family, which continued to bring her family together beyond her 95th year. 

Audrey’s kids all married and had many grandkids -Donna (Courtney), Greg, Cheryl (Lorne), Shannon, Marco (Sam), Mandee (Jorge) and Brad (Kristen). She later had 7 great grandchildren - Christian (Lexis), Niela, Hailey, Logan, Ethan, Kendra and Audrey followed by 2 great-great grandchildren - Luciano and Lorena. Family was most important to her and she loved being surrounded by family as often as possible. 

She spent a big part of her life back and forth between the cottage in the summer and Florida in the winter where she had friends that were like family, and family that visited often taking in Disney, the beach, or driving the Florida keys together. She spent hours with her grandson Greg at the cottage which brought her great joy. Audrey was fierce and independent. Always up for a few tussles, kicking a 20lb kid on her leg, a round of bean bags, euchre or chrocinole at the cottage; she lived on her own and drove her own car until she was 95. When she finally moved into a retirement residence life seemed to have come full circle - it was the renovated school her kids attended and her window viewed the house she lived in with her family. 

Audrey witnessed the progress of a century. From hand delivered bottled milk to grocery stores selling milk in bags; from horse and buggy to planes, trains, boats and automobiles; she witnessed the first radio, first telephone, first television and the invention of antibiotics and vaccines. She witnessed and embraced the concept of a microwave and eventually owned a cell phone for safety purposes. She saw the invention of computers and the internet and saw cars move from gas to electric. She survived two pandemics - Polio and Covid and survived hurricane hazel. While the amount of change over the course of her life was incredible there was one thing that never changed - her love for her family. 

The fact that you’re no longer here will always cause us pain, but you’ll forever live within our hearts until we meet again. 

In Audrey's memory, donations to the Canadian Cancer Society would be greatly appreciated.  

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