Joan (Margaret) Armstrong

Armstrong, (Margaret) Joan (1925 - 2015)

Joan Armstrong passed away, with her children at her side, on August 28 at the Queensway Carleton Hospital after a short illness. She was just shy of her 90th birthday. The daughter of the late Horace C. Garrow and Edith (Walker) Garrow, Joan was born in Montreal and raised in St. Lambert, Quebec. She served in the RCAF during WWII and spent her adult years in St. Lambert, Aylmer QC, and Ottawa. She was predeceased by her loving husband, James K. Armstrong, and siblings Wilma, Ruth and Bruce. Joan was the last member of her generation in both the Garrow and Walker clans - she was one of a kind and her passing indeed marks the end of an era. Joan was a beloved daughter, sister, wife, mother, aunt, surrogate grandmother, and friend.

Joan was an active volunteer (delivering Meals on Wheels to ″the old folks″ when well into her seventies), an avid golfer for seven decades, and enjoyed a wide circle of friends and admirers. She will be remembered by people too numerous to list for her love and support of them, her irrepressible optimism and good cheer, and her strength. She genuinely touched most of the people she met. We will all miss her laughter, her spirt of enjoying life and dogs, and her crazy sense of humour and fun (which included eventful bridge parties, organizing several ‘Over 80' events at her golf club and, during the War, hitching rides on Lancaster bombers).

Steve and Gail would like to thank the staff, nurses and physicians at the Queensway for their kindness and professional demeanour. They were discerning, effective and outstanding.

Joan would have appreciated expressions of remembrance taking the form of donations to dog rescue organizations, to keep alive her spirit of love and life for all things.