RODERICK and HELEN FREEMAN

1923 - 2022

FREEMAN, RODERICK and HELEN 1923 – 2022 Roderick Charles Freeman, born on March 4, 1923, was raised on Monarch Park Avenue, Toronto, with two elder brothers. After graduating the University of Toronto School of Dentistry, he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and drilled his way through the last six months of WWII stationed in Toronto. After discharge, Rod practiced dentistry in a surgery at Warden and Kingston Road shared with his eldest brother John until retiring. Rod was a charter and lifelong member of the Scarborough Rotary Club as well as an avid golfer and curler at Scarborough Golf and Country Club. Helen Muriel Freeman (nee James) was born in Toronto, on September 30, 1923. When eight, she moved to Monarch Park Avenue with her parents and younger sister and brother just across the road from the Freemans. The story goes it was love at first sight and Rod and Helen became inseparable the rest of their lives. Married more than 78 years, they were 98 when they died suddenly of old age, peacefully in their sleep – Rod on February 6, 2022 followed by Helen on March 3, 2022, in time to join him for his 99th, whereupon it is understood Rod said, "Helen what kept you? Cocktail?" Now they are happily together in afterlife. Ut benedicat tibi dominus et custodiat te. In 1949, they built a home on Bellehaven Crescent in Scarborough. Here they welcomed their three children, Bruce, Greg, and Nancy. Outside his practice Rod pursued his sports and Helen oversaw the family, gardened, and joined important community endeavours. In 1968, they moved to a working farm just north of Uxbridge. This was the place they loved most. For the next ten years Rod commuted to Scarborough for work, Rotary, golf and curling whilst Helen oversaw the family, large gardens, and the farm. She was celebrated as the only local to corral cattle or garden wearing a dress and pearls. The idyllic farm setting facilitated large and small gatherings of friends for outdoor events and splendid dinner parties, receptions, fundraisers, and weddings. They were both fortunate to be involved with community committees focused on Uxbridge. Rod chaired the Uxbridge Fair Board for several years and was involved with fundraising and construction of Uxpool. They were busy and happy, and always ended each day with a cocktail. Rod fully retired in 1980, and for the next thirty years they wintered at Maple Leaf Estates in Florida where they golfed, gardened, entertained, pursued their hobbies, and made many new friends. They eventually sold the farm and moved to Victoria Place in Bobcaygeon and then to Calder Road in Clarkson before moving to assisted living first in Toronto and then in Uxbridge. Throughout their lives, enriched by family and friends, and their service to their communities, they were utterly dedicated to each other. Being representative of their generation, shaped by the great depression and bruised by WWII, both were determined to improve their lives beyond the futility of their parents' generation and expected their children would continue the projection. Predeceased by their parents and siblings, Rod and Helen leave their three children and five grandchildren and all their spouses, and nine great-grandchildren, as well as extended family and many friends who mourn their deaths and remember the great times. Interment will occur at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 14, 2022, in the Foster Memorial Cemetery located just north of the farm and six kilometers north of the main street in Uxbridge, on the 7th Concession. A gathering will follow.