Donna Anne Shales
Mother, grandmother, Loon Island yogini, skinny dipper. Born on Sept. 4, 1942, in Toronto; died on Dec. 13, 2014, in Stratford, Ont., of complications from Alzheimer's disease, aged 72.
Donna Shales grew up in Weston, Ont., but it was summers spent on Loon Island, in Draper Lake north of Kingston, that provided the grounding she brought to all areas of her life.
While attending Weston Collegiate and Vocational Institute, she played alto saxophone in the school marching band and excelled in academics. Shortly after she graduated, at the age of 17, she married fellow collegiate student Bruce McFarlane. She supported him while he attended teachers' college, then had four daughters (Lori, Sherri, Rondi and Patti) in rapid succession. They settled first in Hanover, Ont., then in Kitchener where Bruce worked as a teacher and later as a principal.
A natural at motherhood, Donna shared her love of singing, tenting on Loon Island, swimming and performing Esther Williams-style water ballet and, later, in a cottage built on her own corner of the family island, the traditions and joys of cottage life. Her close relationship with her older brother, Doug, and younger sister, Patti, served as an enduring example of sibling dedication.
Donna's love of learning resurfaced as her daughters grew. She juggled her job as a swimming instructor with evening classes toward a B.A. at Wilfrid Laurier University. She attended her final year full-time, sharing some classes with daughter Lori, who was beginning her own studies.
After graduating from teacher training at the University of Western Ontario in 1982, Donna taught at several Kitchener elementary schools from 1983 to 2001. During those years she also treasured singing with the Woman to Woman choir. Her strong alto can be heard on her favourite selection, Music in My Mother's House, on their 1999 CD, We Sing Our Lives.
Alone for a few years after her 1978 divorce from Bruce, in 1984 she met Arthur Pigeon, a fellow teacher with an adventurous spirit. They took a year off and wandered the world, exploring Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and parts of Europe while forming lifelong friendships.
After they returned to Kitchener, Donna completed three more university courses, this time in counselling. One day when she was working as a counsellor at Crestview School, a troubled 10-year-old boy walked into her office. That meeting was to change both their lives. Their bond developed and five years later Donna and Arthur welcomed him into their home as a foster child. "Donna is the single most important person in my life," said Castor, now 30, shortly before her death.
She spent her final teaching year, 2001-2002, at the American International School of Kuwait. When unrest threatened Kuwait after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Donna and Arthur escaped to one of her favourite places, New Zealand, for an extended holiday before completing the school year and returning to Canada.
In retirement, they lived first in Montreal, then in Stratford, but always spent summers at Draper Lake. Not one to slow down, Donna qualified as a yoga instructor. She delighted in conducting moms and tots classes in Montreal during the winter, and adult sessions at Inverary United Church near her home base at Draper Lake during the summer. She would end each class by leading the group in the sounding of three life-sustaining "oms," representing waking, dreaming, and deep-sleep states, followed by a silence representing bliss. Namaste, Donna.
Patti Shales Lefkos is Donna's sister.