Obituary of Joan Fraser

Peacefully, at Columbia Forest Long Term Care Centre, Waterloo, Ontario, on 20 June , 2011, in her 90th year, after long and debilitating illnesses. In addition to leaving her devoted husband, Morris, after a 64 year marriage, she leaves her loving and grieving sons, Peter John, and Niall Morris, of Waterloo Region, and their sorrowing wives Elizabeth and Beth, as well as her daughter, Kathryn Fraser Carpenter, of Louisville, Kentucky. She also leaves seven saddened grandchildren in Ontario: Angus, Oona, Gwendolyn, (temporarily in Australia), Diana, Ruthanne, Tom, and Adam, who will greatly miss her warmth and love, and also two grandchildren, Robert and Ellen, and two greatgrandchildren, Marilla, and Lucy, in the United States. Joan always said she had had a wonderful life, and indeed she had. Born in a farming community into the large family of Mervyn and Beatrice Underhill, in Devon, England, she entered the profession of nursing on leaving high school. Even in nurse training she had many interesting but harrowing experiences, during the London Blitz and the bombing of Plymouth. On completing her training, since it was wartime, she joined the nursing service of the Royal Air Force in 1943. She served initially on bomber stations in England before being transferred to Karachi in what is now Pakistan, travelling there, in a wartime naval convoy, in the face of submarine attacks, to set up an abandoned hospital with 20 nurses and no other initial support. The work was successful and the hospital re-opened in four months. After continued service in Karachi she was transferred to Sri Lanka (then known as Ceylon), and later to Singapore and Hong Kong, where she met Morris, then an RAF medical officer. Hong Kong was a romantic place in those days, not the high-rise super city it is today, and romance flourished during the eight month period when they were there. Despite a temporary separation imposed by military demands, when Morris was transferred to what is now Vietnam, they were reunited later when both were transferred back to Singapore. They married in Singapore in 1947, at the famed Raffles Hotel. After further service in Malaya, they returned to London, England. But post-war conditions and general practice in England at that time were not good, and so in 1952, now with three young children, Morris joined the Royal Canadian Air Force medical corps, and they moved with the family to Canada. Air Force life was not new to her, and despite the cultural shocks of a different country, even although the customs were different she rapidly adapted. The Air Force was good to them, offering an interesting and rewarding life in Canada and sending Morris with his family to University in the U.S. for training as a medical specialist, as well as preliminary training in engineering, while Joan absorbed the American social and political climate. On completion of U.S. service they returned to Canada in 1960 where Morris was appointed Officer Commanding the School of Aviation (Aerospace) Medicine, in Toronto, and Joan easily adopted another role for a further four years. But after 11 years of Air Force service, including service in Canada and the U.S., it became time to move on, this time to Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, where Morris had been offered a civilian appointment by NASA to work in aerospace medical research. They found Albuquerque to be a fascinating place, historically, socially and academically where Morris worked on the Apollo and Gemini programs, and did consulting work in the U.S. aerospace industry, while Joan continued to bring up their family and became involved in various social services, particularly mental health among the native Indian people, as well as becoming accredited in New Mexico as a real estate agent. She also managed to go with her husband to many interesting places in the U.S. and Europe, meeting with astronauts, cosmonauts, space scientists, and engineers. But after five exciting years that era came to an end, as financial support for space activities dwindled, and so, with a strong desire to return to Canada, she and Morris came back to settle in the region of Waterloo, Ontario, where Morris had accepted an appointment with the University of Waterloo. They resided in the Waterloo region for twenty years in a heritage style farm house where Joan was able to return to the familiar environment of her childhood. There she not only kept a busy household and continued to bring up the family, but also developed and operated dog breeding and boarding kennels, as well as managing a large garden and Morris's private consulting company. Travel was not over yet, however, and during that period and later she and Morris spent other exciting times living in Geneva, Switzerland, Marseilles, France, and England. Morris=s retirement from the University led to a delightful stay of ten years in the lovely town of Niagara-on-the Lake, Ontario, where the pursuit of golf, gardening, bridge, and friendship occupied her interest, before ill health brought a final return for both to Lutherwood Village on the Park, in Waterloo, Ontario, and ultimately for Joan, to residence in the Columbia Forest Long Term Care Centre. The family is pleased to give their grateful thanks for the loving care and compassion offered by the nursing and support staff of that centre. Joan was well beloved, and will be greatly missed by the many who knew and loved her. The funeral will be private. Anyone who wishes to mark her passing is invited to give a donation in her name to World Vision, her favorite charity. This can be arranged through the Erb & Good Family Funeral Home www.erbgood.com or 519-745-8445.