CarolineJessie Goodfellow

Caroline Jessie Goodfellow died peacefully surrounded by her children on August 16, 2017. A service celebrating Caroline’s long life will be held on Thursday, August 24, from 2-4:00 PM, at Rosar-Morrison Funeral Home, 467 Sherbourne St., Toronto to which everyone is invited.

Caroline was born in the region of Georgina Ontario in 1915, close to what would become the Town of Sutton near the southern shore of Lake Simcoe. She was the only child of Roselma Flenniken and James Anderson, who farmed the land around Ainsley Hill. Roselma was an American who had attended university at a time when very few women received this level of education. She left her home in Lynne Massachusetts to marry James, and sadly her mother died when Caroline was only 3.

Caroline grew up on Ainslie Hill farm. She survived the worldwide Spanish Flu epidemic in 1920 and lived through the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. She graduated as a teacher in 1933, but instead of teaching she went into nursing. She moved to Toronto, trained at the Toronto General Hospital and graduated as a registered nurse in 1938. In 1941 she married Lorne Goodfellow, who suddenly proposed on a city sidewalk when she told him that she and her girlfriend had decided to drive their Model T to Nova Scotia. Caroline and Lorne’s first child, Jim, was born in 1945, their daughter Susan in 1949, and their son Bob in 1951.

Caroline dedicated many years to raising and supporting her children, and she did indeed eventually make the journey to Nova Scotia, along with Lorne and the children, when the family moved in 1960. Following Lorne’s death in 1971, she attended Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax. She relished the newly-emerging women’s studies program initiated by Dr. Margaret Fulton, and became involved in the women’s movement and active in the Nova Scotia Voice of Women. Over the next decades, one by one, her family left Nova Scotia for work in central Canada, and although she loved Nova Scotia, she moved with her son Bob to Ottawa in 1988. In 1993, she returned to Toronto where she eventually moved into Woodsworth Coop and spent many happy years there. She lived her last few months in Wellesley Central Place Nursing Home, until her fall when she was taken to the Toronto Western Hospital, where she died following surgery for a badly broken leg.

The family expresses their sincere thanks and deep gratitude to the surgeons, nurses and staff of Toronto Western Hospital for their medical expertise, professionalism and empathetic caring that they provided to Caroline and her family in the last days of her life.

Throughout her long life, Caroline persistently focused on deepening her spiritual faith. She placed the highest value on each person taking responsibility for finding and following the truth that she called God. She often said that “God has no grandchildren”, meaning that each person has to assume responsibility for themselves for finding and following truth – a responsibility that cannot be passed down. When Bob and Susan took her down to surgery, she said to them that “we are all part of God”. She described herself as a follower of Jesus, but deeply valued the richness of all religions whose core is compassion and justice. She was horrified by the rise of the religious right wing in politics in the 1970s and by Donald Trump this last year. The night before her operation she said that “these are apocalyptic times” and felt she wanted to continue living to fight against hatred. But in spite of her deeply felt commitments, her body had reached its limit.

Caroline is survived, mourned and celebrated by Jim, Susan and Bob and by her beloved, chosen, extended family and the many members of her wider community.

In lieu of flowers, Caroline requested that donations be given to the homeless. When she was mobile and walking in Toronto, she would always give to any homeless person who crossed her path, speaking to them respectfully and giving what she could. She was also very committed to supporting those who are active change agents in this area of need. Please honour her commitment to helping the homeless by giving a donation to “Sistering” (see link below) or to a local organization or creative initiative of your choice.