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Donna Margaret Eggertson

Wife, mother, reader, voter. Born on April 26, 1930, in Stonewall, Man.; died on Aug. 18, 2016, in Ottawa, of cancer, aged 86.

Donna Eggertson spent most of her life in suburban Mississauga, Ont., but she never thought of herself as anything but a prairie girl. She spoke to everyone she encountered, helped neighbours in need, and made the best of what life dealt – values she learned from her childhood in Stonewall, Man.

Born the youngest of four McPhedran children at the Depression's onset, Donna enjoyed being the family baby. Hard times (and Scottish frugality) taught her to value a dollar, but siblings Gordon, Jack, Betty and Donna had great fun, from bareback rides on ponies Ambrose and Dixie to picnics and games with their Irish setter, Pat. When Gordon and Jack enlisted in the Second World War, Donna and Betty held down the home front, relieved when both brothers came safely back.

Marriage at 19 to Frank Cowan, an engineer, ended Donna's home economics studies at the University of Manitoba, and she moved with him to Brandon, Man.

Two years later came the first of several tragedies that Donna learned from but did not allow to define her. During a family outing on Clear Lake, the overloaded boat capsized and her father-in-law drowned. Only the quick thinking of two youths from the nearby Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation saved the others. They flagged down a car towing a boat and rowed out to rescue the boaters. Donna credited those young men with her life, something she was quick to recount when her daughter, Laura, later adopted two Ojibway girls.

In 1954, Frank was killed in a car accident. With her two-year-old son, Bruce, to raise, Donna said Frank's death forced her to grow up. She moved in with her parents and found a job at Imperial Oil, and then the Children's Aid Society in Winnipeg. At 30, she met Erlingur Eggertson, an Icelandic-Canadian lawyer. Within a month, they were engaged and quickly married, moving in 1965 to Mississauga for his job as a lawyer with National Trust. It was a love story that lasted 35 years, including throughout Erling's long illness from frontal temporal dementia, which struck him at 58.

In many ways Donna was a mother and housewife of her times: baking bread, sewing, and cooking incredible meals from scratch while waiting eagerly for her children's description of their school day. Big brother Bruce had been joined by Laura, adopted in 1962, and Gunnar (their miracle baby) in 1964. There were annual trips to Winnipeg and Gimli, Man., sailing on their 24-foot Bluenose (Gulfoss I) and C&C 27 (Gulfoss II), and many spirited dinner-table conversations about politics, gun control, and the Charter of Rights.

In other ways, Donna was remarkable. Her relationship with Erling was a true partnership. She encouraged her children and eight grandchildren to follow their dreams, while telling them what she thought – frequently. She also made sure they knew she loved them. She dispensed advice, from the need to save for the tough times she was convinced were coming, to the correct angle at which to cut the lawn. She believed in the importance of participatory democracy, and was thrilled to see gender parity in the federal cabinet in 2015. She taught her children to treat others with respect and love, and to be grateful for life's blessings. Neither Alzheimer's nor cancer defeated her basic goodness and generosity.

Shortly before she died, just over a year after her son Bruce's death, Donna said: "We never lost track of the fact that we all loved each other. And that's worth quite a lot. We have a lot to be thankful for."

Laura and Gunnar Eggertson are Donna's children.

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