WALSHE, Winifred Una - 1924 - 2020 Sadly announcing the passing of Winifred (Una) Walshe on November 21, 2020, in Oakville, Ontario.
She will be missed by all who knew her as a patient and caring Teacher, but most especially by her three children, Michael, Dermot and Maura, as well as her grandchildren, Andrew, Sara, Paige and Lauren.
Born in her own home in Doolough, Ireland, on May 31 1924, the twelfth of thirteen children, Winny (as her father, Darby used to call her) was the first of the Heneghans born into free Ireland.
She had fond memories of that little thatched roof home by the sea, with no running water or electricity.
In the last year, mother often expressed a wish to "go home", but of all the places she called home over her 96 years, her mind most often returned to memories of walking home from school along muddy tidal flats in her bare feet or sharing a breakfast with her own grandfather.
As luck would have it, her own one room schoolhouse had a great teacher, and Winifred quickly earned an early scholarship, at the age of twelve, to a boarding school. As a natural at maths and sciences, she then earned a national competition scholarship to Galway University, with the best math scores in the country.
After moving to Canada in the late 1940s to join her husband, fellow Galway graduate in Engineering, Michael Walshe, Winifred became a Math Teacher at Loretto Abbey, in Toronto, during the 1950s, until adopting 3 children and moving to a country farm in Keswick in 1969. After her Michael's passing in 1987, she moved to her own Newmarket home, where she spent another 25 years volunteering and assisting in the care of seniors at Doane House Hospice.
As her own faculties began to slowly fade, Winifred lived for a few years at the Amica seniors residence in Newmarket, and then in the fall of 2019, finally transitioned to live with her son, Dermot, in Oakville. After a year of comfortable attention, she finally passed peacefully in her sleep.
A Funeral Mass was held in Oakville at St. Matthew's Church, 1150 Monks Passage, Oakville, at 11 a.m., on Friday, November 27th.
If you have a desire to make a donation to charity on her behalf, Winifred would have appreciated that you direct it to your local seniors hospice.
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