Elizabeth Reine Bell

Elizabeth was born at home to Thomas and Elizabeth Hungerford on the shore of Lake of Bays in Muskoka, Ontario. She was known as Betty to many of her friends. Her parents started a resort called Lumina on their property the year before she was born and it was always a big part of her life.

Elizabeth was well-educated, attending public school in a green one room schoolhouse near her home, then high school at Ontario Ladies College in Whitby, Ontario, and then St. Hilda’s at Trinity College, University of Toronto, graduating in 1944 with a degree in Food Sciences.

Following her graduation, Elizabeth was employed by the University of Toronto at its Ajax campus where she met her future husband Donald (Don) Bell, who had just returned from service in WWII. Elizabeth and Don married in 1949 and had 6 children.

While Ottawa was home to the family for most of the time, Don’s career in the Canadian Armed Services also took the family to live in Colorado Springs, USA, and Brussels, Belgium.

The opportunity to travel while posted in Brussels delighted Elizabeth and she organized trips to many places including Paris, Ireland, Cyprus, Switzerland (Zermatt) and Holland. In later years, she visited daughter Jane in the UAE and Egypt, son Robin and his family in their home in Tuscany, Italy, and ventured through parts of Africa with her dear travelling companion Ann. She capped off her big travel after Don died with daughter EA on a cross-Canada road trip.

Family life in Ottawa was always busy. Elizabeth and Don had built a large family home in Rothwell Heights which was home to Elizabeth for 60 years. In addition to rearing her 6 children and managing their schooling and countless activities, she was a faithful Anglican active in her church, an avid reader, a regular theatre goer and a gracious hostess for many a festive occasion with family and friends. And, born with a veritable ’green thumb’, she established and tended large gardens of flowers, vegetables and some 200 trees on the property.

In winter, when the kids were at home, the entire family skied downhill together at Camp Fortune and later Elizabeth joined a women’s cross country ski club. She was a regular participant in the Gatineau Loppett at Chateau Montebello where, for a number of years running, she won the award for the oldest female participant. Elizabeth also loved skating on the Rideau Canal, and did so regularly with the same pair of skates she had in university.

In summer, the focus of family life turned to her beloved Lake of Bays. In the early years, the family stayed at Lumina but, in 1968, Elizabeth acquired her Uncle Henry’s summer home across from Lumina, naming it Cahirmore after the family’s home in County Cork, Ireland. Cahirmore became the centre of the family’s summers and remained so as spouses and grandkids joined the family. Almost every day Elizabeth swam before breakfast, spent late afternoons on the dock and canoed at dusk. As in Ottawa, she established beautiful flower gardens around the property that would wow her many visitors. And many there were which meant she was always planning, preparing for and hosting guests. Long and leisurely dinners of 20 or more were common. Cahirmore was a very special place for Elizabeth. She spent some part of most summers on Lake of Bays and from 1974 on, spent every one at Cahirmore, including 2024.

Elizabeth remained fiercely independent as she aged, living on her own in a lovely townhouse in Huntsville with family support. Just before turning 102, when she was asked if she needed help with dressing or putting on her jewelry she would say – “dear, if I don’t do it myself, I may forget how, and that would not be good.” And so up until suffering a stroke two weeks before her death, Elizabeth did it on her own and then she died in her sleep, quietly and peacefully, after 102 years of life.

We are grateful to the medical team and caregiving staff at the Huntsville General Hospital and the Algonquin Grace Hospice for the care and compassion they extended to her in her last days. Elizabeth was predeceased by her husband Don and brother Ted Hungerford, and is survived by her children Robin (Stefania), Thomas (Karen), Elizabeth Anne (Gerardo), Frances Jane (George), Peter (Rebecca) and Susan (Terry) along with grandchildren Hazel, Beatrice (Louis), Amanda, Katie, Sarah Jane (Andrew), Nathaniel (Kayla), Dalton (Sedley), Wyatt (Nicky) and Sterling, and great grandsons Odaemen and Beau.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Algonquin Grace Hospice, The Anglican Church of Saint Bartholomew Ottawa, Bruyere Health – Rehabilitation, or to the Lake of Bays Heritage Foundation would be appreciated. A gathering of family and close friends of Elizabeth in commemoration of her long and active life will be held later this year.