Obituary of Marilynn Garnier

Marilynn Garnier died peacefully after a short bout of illness at Victoria Hospital on Sunday February 16, 2025 at the age of 90. She was with family when she passed. Marilynn was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba on October 26, 1934 and moved with her family to Sioux Lookout, Ontario in 1943 then to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan in 1949. She graduated from Teachers College at the age of 18 and began teaching in Regina Saskatchewan. She was so young that her senior students would ask her out on dates. In 1956, she married Bill Garnier, and the two moved to London Ontario in 1962 where they started a family. In 1975 Marilynn and Bill divorced but remained friendly and continued to celebrate holidays and family milestones with their children and grandchildren as a family unit. Marilynn was a lifelong teacher with a 33 year career in the elementary school system. While in London, she taught across the city at many different schools. In 1984 she went on teacher exchange to Australia, teaching 5th year students in Alice Springs, Northern Territory. While teaching full time and raising 4 children, she completed her BA in Psychology at the University of Western Ontario. She knew at the age of 5 that she wanted to be a teacher and she continued to do that for her entire life, teaching friends and family well after retirement. She loved to bake and thoroughly enjoyed teaching her grandchildren how to create in the kitchen. Marilynn had a lifelong love of music. She was a beautiful singer, winning awards and making records in her twenties. She sang at weddings and with various church choirs. She was also an accomplished pianist and directed children’s choirs at every school she worked at. She would also teach her classroom children anything and everything she could using songs. Loving music and wanting to keep her mind sharp she took up playing the flute when she was 75 years old. Marilynn retired from teaching in 1993 and continued to have a wonderful life filled with adventures and travel with her very close and dear friends as well as with family. She loved to arrange hiking tours for the Retired Teachers of Ontario group and began a new tradition of visiting the Huntsville area to vacation at Cedar Grove Lodge. She was an avid reader and crossword puzzler, a gifted gardener, a beautiful knitter and a die-hard Blue Jays fan. She also enjoyed playing and watching tennis and curling. Marilynn loved her family, extended family, chosen family and friends, gathering people (and pets) into her heart as she went along. She was very proud of her children and enjoyed letting people know what great adults they had become. Her philosophy was to enjoy life, be kind and when possible, have a good laugh! Marilynn is survived by her sister Beverly; her children Darcy (Ron), Chris, Kerry and Peter (Margaret); her grandchildren Elise, Ben, Sarah, Thomas, Jonathan, Kaleb and Justin; great-grandchildren Hayden and Rowan; and chosen family Melissa and Spencer. A Celebration of Life will be held at Glendale Crossing, 3030 Singleton Ave, London, in the Town Hall, on March 22, 2025, from 3 pm to 5 pm. Expressions of sympathy can be made through London Cremation Services at: www.londoncremation.com. Special thanks to the staff at Glendale Crossing for taking great care of Marilynn in her last year. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to your favorite charity in Marilynn’s name.