Margaret Ester Belfry was born 3 October 1933 at home in Uxbridge, Ontario, the daughter of Mary Marguerite Hillis and Norman Ambrose Belfry. On her way home from school each day she stopped at the library to take out another book. When she had read all the children’s and teens’ books, the librarian suggested that she read Portrait of a Marriage by Pearl S. Buck. Thus was born Marg’s joy in reading and in writing.
In her last year of high school her father was transferred to Walkerton, Ontario, where Marg did not much enjoy her last months of school. From there she went to Toronto Normal School and became the well-loved teacher of young children, whom she loved in return.
While a young teacher at Secord School in East York, she and co-teacher Althea Collins wrote the Young Canada Reading Series, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons. They were the first primary readers in Canada to include children of colour and children with disabilities in their stories.
In 1959 she asked for and was granted leave to teach with the Department of National Defence (DND), at the DND school In Longuyon, France, where she taught the children of the personnel at 1 Fighter Wing of the RCAF under NATO, based in Marville. At the officers’ mess on the base she met William (Bill) Lynn, a pilot flying F86 Sabre day fighters in the defence of Europe in the Cold War. They became a couple and were married 17 December 1960, the end of the first phase of Marg’s teaching career. Daughter Heather Anne was born in the base hospital 30 May 1961.
In 1963 Bill was transferred to Collège militaire royal de Saint-Jean in Quebec, where he had joined the RCAF in 1952 as a cadet. Son Brian was born there 12 February 1964. In 1965 Bill left the RCAF and went to work as an engineer with Foxboro Canada in Ville Lasalle. They bought a bungalow on Lemmers Avenue in Lachine, where they lived for the next 47 years.
When both children were in school, Marg went back to teaching as a supply teacher at Meadowbrook school around the corner where Heather and Brian went. There she found that she needed a university degree to teach permanently in Quebec. She therefore studied for her BA at Sir George Williams (later Concordia) University. Her studies included history of art, for which she and daughter Heather had a shared love.
In her first permanent job at Meadowbrook in Lachine she was bumped by another teacher and declined to accept a position at a school far away. She then saw an ad for a teacher at Selwyn House boys’ school in Westmount, and taught there from 1980 to 1996, when she retired because “the eyes in the back of my head were no longer working”.
In retirement she took up Toll painting and became quite proficient until the fumes caused her to give it up. Then she began to write an anecdotal history of her family, which was published in 2007 as “The Story Chair”. In 2012 they sold the house and moved to an apartment on Wynford Heights Crescent in Toronto. There Marg started and ran the Book Club, until Alzheimer’s disease put the kibosh to that.
Marg loved to travel. In 1957 she and three other teachers flew to London and rented a car for a month’s tour through Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and France, returning for a bus tour of England and Scotland. While stationed in France she and new teacher friends visited Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg, Trier, Munich, and took a guided tour of Israel and Egypt. After she married, the young family toured through the eastern USA and Canada in a small travel trailer inherited from her parents. In 1976 the family drove from Montreal to Victoria and back, with a tent for accommodation. In 1978 they took a month driving tour of Europe. After Marg retired she became the travel agent for Bill and herself and they visited most countries in Europe, the far East and South America (via a cruise around the continent and to Antarctica). In Africa they visited only Morocco, on a day trip from Gibraltar, and Tunisia. Someone asked Marg why Tunisia and she said, “Because we haven’t been there”.
Marg’s love of travel was enhanced by her history of art background, and she often sought places she had studied, bringing home scarves (of which she had hundreds) and jewellery for herself and her friends and family. She and Heather were each known to pickup special finds, in different cities and different times, only to discover they had purchased the same item!
In April 2019 Marg was diagnosed with “Dementia, probably caused by Alzheimer’s”. As her ability to read and write, paint, socialize, etc. etc. disappeared, Marg’s lifestyle became less than idyllic, although she exhibited her wonderful smile in her 90th birthday photo in 2023, above. In August 2023 a CT scan showed a “probably malignant” growth in her right kidney. One day in early September 2024 she was unable to get out of bed and she spent the rest of her days in a hospital bed in the bedroom at home. When Bill took her breakfast at 8:30 AM 1 April 2025, she had slipped silently away.
Predeceased by her parents, her brother Ron and his wife Lillian.
Marg leaves behind her husband of over 64 years William (Bill) Lynn, daughter Heather Anne (John Hubbell), granddaughter Raya, (Will Usher), great-grandchildren by marriage Lucy and Thomas, grandson Jason (Sarah Szymanski), great-granddaughter Harper, son Brian (ex Janet Fryer and Iris Häussler), grandsons Julian and Benedict, nieces Colleen, Joanne and Wanda and families, sisters-in-law Eva Belfry and Sue Foot, nieces Erin and Angie and their families, her dear Chatterama friends, and many friends from through the years.
Many thanks to Care Coordinator Elaina, who responded to our every need as if we were her only client; to the palliative care doctors who responded immediately when needed; to Nurse Sasha and off-time replacement Samy who came to treat Marg’s bed sores; every second day initially and every day recently; to PSW Clarisa of Circle of Care, who cared for Marg for the last three years of her life, initially to help her shower twice a week and more recently every mid-day to change her, do exercises and sometimes feed her; to the many PSWs from Stay Home Forever who cared for Marg mornings and evenings; and to Ontario Health at Home, who funded all these aids in addition to a hospital bed and medical air mattress.
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