MCINTYRE, Phyllis - Passed away on Wednesday, February 26, 2020.
Daughter of Leonard Hook and Isabella Oman, was both a fiercely independent and compassionate woman. Having suffered the sudden loss of her mother at the age of twelve, Phyllis learned to forge her own path from an early age.
Born into a traditional Protestant family in Montreal where her grandparents Traill and Elizabeth Oman had immigrated in 1885 from Scotland, at the age of eighteen Phyllis converted to the Baha’i Faith.
Again breaking with convention, in 1953 she married the Jewish intellectual and journalist, David Levy, with whom she had three sons, Philip, Josh and Joel. In 1963, in what were still deeply conservative times, and only after doing what she could to preserve their marriage, Phyllis divorced David. Following a period as a single mom of three young boys, she then fell in love with her hairdresser and ex-Communist, Hugh McIntyre. They married in 1965 and had a daughter, Sally.
Neither man was in a position to provide Phyllis with the kind of support that meant she could live the life of a stay at home mom and neither did she expect it from them. She had to make it on her own as a working mom. And that is what she did. First in the typing pool and then as secretary to various directors at the Imperial Bank of Commerce, Phyllis went on to rise through the ranks to run the bank’s national courier operation and become financially independent along the way.
Phyllis was a spirited and spiritual woman who was loved deeply by her family, friends and colleagues. She had a lively, creative and enquiring mind and cared deeply about the people and world around her. She was a true internationalist who believed in the essential oneness of all people and prayed for world unity and equal rights for all. She also loved nothing better than to share a laugh and chit-chat over a cup of tea, planting up and digging out the weeds in her garden, or quietly painting at her easel before going on a long bracing walk with Hugh along the Victoria Island coastline in the days before he passed away in 2013.
Ultimately, Phyllis was a successful woman in an era that was unkind to women who changed their religion or their husbands or challenged the position of men in the workplace. She provided a very good and loving role model for her children and grandchildren.
In her final years, however, her ability to engage with the world on her own terms was taken from her by the relentless depredations of Alzheimer’s. Nonetheless, even when she could no longer walk or talk, she continued to radiate love and humour and would even manage to tap a foot to her Glen Miller favourite, Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree (with anyone else but me).
Her family is deeply saddened by her passing but also happy for her now that she has been released from the tragedy that a life enveloped in dementia can become. As she said, now is the time that she is free to begin the next phase in her relationship with God.
I came forth from God, and return unto Him, detached from all save Him, holding fast to His Name, the Merciful, the Compassionate.
Her family give a warm and special thanks to the staff at Amica in Unionville.
Phyllis leaves behind her children, Philip, Josh, Joel and Sally and their partners, Chen Jie, Elaine and Naushaba, and her seven grandchildren, Chantel, Sophie, Rachel, Nyla, Ben, Noah and Daniel.
Her younger sisters Carol and Nancy having both passed away in 2018.
Service will take place on Monday, March 2nd, 2020 at 1:15pm at Chapel Ridge Funeral Home, Markham.
No flowers, please. Donations to the Alzheimer’s Society welcome.
{fastsocialshare