CYNTHIA MARGARET PENNY

1936 - 2024

Cynthia (Cindy) Penny (née Scrymgeour), passed away peacefully in her 89th year, at home on September 21, 2024.

Born February 7, 1936 in London, Ontario, predeceased by her parents, Stuart and Louise (née Bates) Scrymgeour; her sister, Joan (Alec) Billyard; and her supportive and loving in-laws, Allan and Phyllis Penny.

She stood strong and proud at 5'2", though she'd insist she was taller than her 6' tall grandsons. While she may have felt she lacked in inches, she certainly made her presence felt and she loomed large as the matriarch of the now 33-person Penny-Scrymgeour clan. Loving wife of 69 years, to Wayne Penny; mother to the late Susan Howe (Sean), Jennifer Pagnutti (Lou), Stuart (Lisa), and Deborah (Gordon Butler). Proud grandmother of Ryan (Montanna), Colin (Sarah), Geoff (Sheila), Jason (Lisa), Alana (Will), Daniel, Owen (Alex), Emma, and Cameron. Great-grandmother of Logan, Brooks, Elliott, Hugo, Avery, Lorenzo, Dylan, and Beckett. Caring Aunt to her many nieces and nephews; and canine guardian, to her seven family dogs.

A woman of many contradictions, in her youth she enjoyed playing both a physical game of basketball and a delicate piano concerto. At the age of 16, she graduated high school early and enrolled in nursing school at The Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. It was there at a nursing social that she met the love of her life, Wayne, and they began their 69-year journey together, growing their family and Cindy's many gardens in London, Toronto, Ottawa, and Muskoka. She loved her family and was happiest when everyone was under her roof at her beloved Leonard Lake. There she hosted large family Thanksgivings and dock dinners with ease, grace, world-famous roasts, and legendary blueberry pie.

As devoted as she was to her family, she also made time for impressive professional and volunteer pursuits. She was an actuarial candidate, a bookkeeper for various Toronto-based companies, a volunteer for Children's Aid Society and The May Court Club of Ottawa, and she performed seasonal work for the CRA.

She believed in the power of language and had a sharp tongue and even sharper intellect. A "walking-dictionary," an eloquent conversationalist, though as quick as she was with her wit, she was even quicker with her hands; deftly knitting, sewing, quilting and crocheting multiple keepsakes at a time for her ever-growing family, mastering piano symphonies, and dealing a wicked game of bridge.

She was proud of her British and Scottish family heritage and as a lover of language, please join us in a toast to her with a verse by one of her favourite Scots:

Few hearts like his, with virtue warm'd,
Few heads with knowledge so inform'd:
If there's another world, he lives in bliss;
If there is none, he made the best of this.
- Robert Burns