Legacy

About Diane Ettles

On May 10, 2018, my sister, Diane Elizabeth Ettles transitioned from the physical to pure spiritual form and departed this earth at the Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, BC on Vancouver Island with physician assistance. She was a private person - few people knew Diane well. She was loved by her family even if she had cut ties with most of them when she moved from Ontario to British Columbia. She was born on April 27, 1937 and was an only child for seven years, being mothered by her mother, her grandmother and her Aunt Mimi. She was predeceased by her father, Edward Ettles in 1987 and her mother, Gretchen Ettles in 1991. She is survived by her sister Barbara in British Columbia and cousins both on her father’s and her mother’s sides of the family. Her brother-in-law, Peter, predeceased her in 2015. Diane loved to travel and was feted by her grandparents when she took her first trip to Europe and met cousins she didn’t know she had. And she used much of her holiday time from teaching over the years either taking courses to further her career, teaching courses, or traveling to many corners of the world. She took a driving trip with her cousin Miriam which she often talked about and Diane and I spent time together in Muskoka at the family cottage that had been in the family since 1886 where we swam, hiked and enjoyed nightly BBQ’s with the Children’s Hour and Barbara Frum. Diane was an elementary teacher in Ontario in the government school system, had been awarded a BA from McMaster University, held the office of President of the Ontario Women’s Teacher’s Federation; was a consultant in special education to teachers in North York, Ontario; taught primary grades and later middle school age children in a multi-racial school and was part of a group called Charlie’s Angels. She made a difference in children’s lives. She developed rheumatoid arthritis while she was teaching and went onto disability prior to pension age when the rigors of the job proved to be too much. She sold her Toronto condo, at a difficult personal time, a year before her mother passed away and moved with her schnauzers Jazz and Singer, to BC in 1990, choosing Pleasant Street in Sidney BC as her home, easier and safer for her to live in a one floor dwelling in a less snowy climate and eventually went on to retire. Over the years, she had taken several children under her wing to teach them the advantages of life planning and education and to help them not waste their lives following merely “fun” things to do. She remained single until she passed away. She planned everything - where she wanted to live in BC months before she moved from Toronto – her second move to Quadra Island had been planned to have what she called a “BC experience” and then Campbell River where she felt much more comfortable and at home and again adopted another schnauzer, Purgatory. When she lived in Sidney she planned that she would return to assisted living in Sidney when and if the time came that she could no longer manage by herself and hoped to take up residence in a place that was owned by a religion of teachers, where she would feel among kindred spirits. She had many interests, swimming, birding, keeping up with the soap operas, watching sports, but her abiding interest was the love of books and her appreciation of the value of literacy. You are never alone when you find a friend in a book, she used to say. Her last years were extremely difficult and full of pain and I am very grateful that she found a doctor in Victoria who could see her continued existence in the physical realm as she did. She and I had talked many times over the years about end of life decision and I was not surprised by her choice. We discussed the importance of remaining positive despite what life throws at a person and largely, she did that. Her family loved her very much, unconditionally - we are all imperfect beings and I know that she is now free from pain and life’s cares as she is in the “between the lives time” and prepares for her next lifetime on earth. She is and will be missed. Her remains will be on Quadra Island where she lived a short time.