Beverley Anne Iding

Beverley Anne Iding (nee Cleland) died peacefully in the early hours of September 3rd, 2024 at Andy’s House hospice in Port Carling, after living with pulmonary fibrosis for a number of years. 

Beverley was born on July 22, 1935 in Toronto. She spent her younger years living on Glenholme Avenue in Toronto, with family living next door. She often reminisced about the shenanigans that she and her cousin would get up to as neighbours. She then moved to Etobicoke with her family and embarked on her teaching career. She loved teaching her primary school students, and often reminisced about her teaching adventures. 

At a YMCA dance, Bev met her future husband Norman. As was the custom at the time, Beverley left teaching to become a wife and mother. She and Norm lived in Toronto, Kapuskasing (for a very short period of time – too cold and buggy!), Brampton and Niagara Falls, before retiring to their beloved Muskoka. Beverley enjoyed volunteering, connecting with friends, writing poetry and short stories, knitting and a variety of crafts. Bev was a knitting machine! Turn your back for a minute, and she would have produced a flawless sweater.

Bev was passionately connected to Muskoka. Among her favourite things were taking drives to take in the fall colours, and taking endless pictures of jack pines. She also loved Nova Scotia, where her daughter lives, and never tired of visiting Peggy’s Cove and beaches around the province. When her grandchildren entered the scene, Bev spend multiple hours creating quizzes and writing stories for them. She was endlessly positive and rarely complained, even in her final difficult months.

Beverley lost her husband Norm just two months before her own passing. For a period of time, they shared a room at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital. Bev is also predeceased by her parents John William Cleland, Edith Hawkins Cleland, sister Lynda Hansen who passed away three years to the day before her, nephew Grant Hansen, and her first child Colleen, who passed away hours after her birth.

Left to mourn and celebrate Bev’s life are her children Lynn (Sandra Thomson), and John (MaryAnne), grandchildren Graham and Bethany Iding, and her cousin Gordon Robertson, whom she considered to be a brother, along with many friends and extended family. 

Bev’s family would like to thank the nurses and physicians at South Muskoka Memorial Hospital and the angels at Andy’s House Hospice for their kindness and compassion in Bev’s final months. The family would be grateful for donations to Andy’s House. 

A celebration of life for both Bev and Norm will take place on Saturday, October 5th at the New Hope Free Methodist Church in Bracebridge at 2:00