Mary Heppelle

HEPPELLE, Mary Isabel…

It is with gratitude for the love-filled and accomplished life of Mary Isabel Heppelle, that her children announce her passing on Friday, May 17, 2024, at University Hospital in London, Ontario, at the age of 87. She was the loving mother of Andy (Paul Young) and Heather Mary (Rob Dent) and grandmother of Bryce Alexander Dent. She is survived by her brothers Donald George, James Andrew (Phyllis Marilyn), William Kerr (Ina Beatrice) sister-in-law Annette Laidlaw, and by a multitude of nieces and nephews, of whom she was deeply proud. Also survived by Andy and Paul’s girls Kellie and Brienne (Jamie). Mary is predeceased by her parents John Kerr Laidlaw and Ina Elizabeth Flowers, her infant sister Helen Catherine, her brother John Leslie and sisters-in-law Sally Lillian and Anne Louise.

Mary Isabel was born into the Laidlaw family on January 26, 1937, in London, Ontario. Her large Scottish Canadian dairy farm family were part of the early Scottish settlement in Canada. Mary spent her childhood on Elmdale Farm, Westminster Township, attended a one room school and then rode the London to Port Stanley Railway in to London to attend Central Collegiate High School. She met her lifelong friend May Izawa (née Watanabe) at Central. With her best friend May she attended the St. Joseph’s Hospital Training School for Nurses in London, at which time, all nursing superintendents were Sisters of St. Joseph. Mary graduated in 1957 and had over a 40 year career, keeping her Nurse’s Registration into her 80s. Through her career, she was a Charge Nurse, Nursing Director, Administrator, Nursing Instructor, and Board Member in the Ontario healthcare system. She prided herself on continuous top accreditation of the long-term care organizations that she managed.

Mary was a doting mother and grandmother. She was kind, generous, fun loving and a social convener in her community. She loved to read and was a voracious consumer of books, reading many every week. She deeply loved her dog Willie and before him Bonnie. She was seen walking her dog in all seasons and all weather, well into her 80s. Mary had a lifelong relationship with nature. She loved walks in the woods, in all seasons, and most particularly in the spring, when the trilliums bloom. She and her family frequented Ontario’s Provincial Parks, particularly at The Pinery on Lake Huron and Killbear on Georgian Bay. In her 80th summer, she was seen kayaking on Georgian Bay and in earlier years loved parasailing on the Bay of Banderas, at Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.

She was particularly grateful for the love, support and kindness in recent years of Kevin and Valerie, Sheri and Lisa, Janice and Ken, Karen and Ed, Don and Louise, Barbara and Jim and her cousin Jean Elliott Johnson.

Cremation has taken place. No funeral or visitation service will be held at this time. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the dog rescue service that introduced her to her best buddy Willie: https://savemedogrescue.ca/. Arrangements entrusted with A. Millard George Funeral Home, 519-433-5184. Online condolences, memories and photographs shared at www.amgfh.com

“Love is space and time measured by the heart” – Marcel Proust