Florence Adele (Coates) Warren

WARREN, Florence Adele Coates…..

It is with sadness but great memories that the family announces the peaceful passing of Florence Adele (Coates) Warren, after a long and full life, two days short of her 93rd birthday, in London. Beloved wife of the late John E. Warren (2002). Loving mother of Barbara Warren (Gordon Becker), John-Paul Warren and his wife Mariko all of Toronto, and an adopted child. Predeceased by her loved brothers Nelson and Mervyn Coates. Dear sister-in-law of Marguerite (Warren) Buckland and her husband Pat, and Shirley (Warren) Grant and her husband Gordon. Also leaves her dear cousins John and Nancy Ball and Anne Ellis and precious friends in London, and Mesa, Arizona. Florence faced up to what life offered her with determination that lasted right until her final days, which she lived with grace and courage. In her teen years during the Great Depression, her education was cut short by the cost of books, and thus began what was Florence’s lifelong quest: to get an education. She was fierce and single-minded in pursuing this goal: during her twenties, rising at 5 am to get to work on time, and attending night school, after a long day at work, and often falling asleep over her books as she studied well into the morning hours before the alarm rang at 5am. We grew up hearing tales of Mom’s scrapes and adventures in nurses’ training at Toronto General Hospital, and later working at National Trust. She met her John in the mid-40’s, and they married in 1948. Her nursing training served the family well, bringing us through many the medical emergency. They settled in London in the early 1950s and established Warren Pharmacy, a fixture of the south London community of veterans for many years. Florence was thrilled to receive her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Western Ontario in 1993, at the age of 73, at the time one of the oldest U.W.O. graduates. When Dad retired, he and Mom together with a number of other “Pioneers” established, out of the tumbleweeds and cactus of the Arizona desert, the retirement community of Eastgate, in Mesa. Mom has left us a fine example of how to live a life. We will miss her mailings of newspaper clippings with her cogent and pithy observations in her tiny neat handwriting in the margins. Mom was an exemplar of fortitude in mind, body and spirit to all who knew her. Square dancer with School House Squares, and also in Mesa, Arizona. Manager, Executive and Secretary of the Warren household. A self-taught graphics artist, self-taught seamstress, choir member, avid tap-drinker, crossword puzzler, sidewalk cyclist and environmental activist long before “green” arrived. A prolific story-teller, especially of the self-effacing; hilarity captured for us to enjoy, infused by her own unbridled relish of the incident depicted. Special thanks to Dr MacLean, Dr Shu and the wonderful staff at Victoria Hospital, and to Mom’s Angels: Rieka and Frank Bertens, and Dan and Madeline Kelly. Friends will be received by the family from 3-5 and 7-9pm on Monday, March 4, 2013, at the A. Millard George Funeral Home, 60 Ridout Street South, London. The funeral service will be conducted on Tuesday, March 5, 2013 at 1pm at St. Stephen’s Memorial Anglican Church, 727 Southdale Road East, London, ON N6E 1A9. Interment in Christ Church Anglican Cemetery, Glanworth, Ontario. As an expression of sympathy, donations may be made to the Heart & Stroke Foundation, 180-633 Colborne Street, London ON N6B 2V3, or The John and Florence Warren Scholarship at Woodsworth College, University of Toronto, 119 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A9 or St. Stephen’s Memorial Anglican Church – Memorial Fund. Online condolences, memories and photographs shared at www.amgfh.com
“You don’t forget the people you love just because they are no longer with you. That is a phrase which brings me much comfort when I get lonely.”
– Florence Warren, 2010