Doug Stewart

January 21, 1953 - June 16, 2007

Crash Date: June 16, 2007

On June 16th, 2007, my beloved husband, Doug, and our 11 year-old daughter, Emily, were returning home from visiting Doug’s parents in St. Marys. Suddenly, a car driven at high speed veered into their lane and crashed into their car head-on. Doug was killed instantly, and Emily was very badly injured.

Doug and I were together for 35 years; he was and is my very best friend, true soul-mate and kindred spirit. He gave me the best gift one could ever have – for 35 years I always felt deeply and profoundly loved. I had a huge well of confidence and security knowing that there was someone who really, really loved me and adored me. His unwavering love and support formed my core and gave me the strength, energy and confidence to go out into the world.

Doug was and is the most amazing Dad for our four wonderful children. He built a deep and individual relationship with each child, full of love and compassion, caring and selflessness, laughter and jokes, advice and guidance, and those “fierce hugs”.

Doug knew something about everything and everything about most things, from birds to literature to politics to mechanics and back into the sky. A conversation with Doug always led somewhere interesting. He loved to talk about the weather and Lord of the Rings; he hated cardigans and loved pies and decorated the kids’ rooms with princesses and bears and maple leafs. He mowed or shovelled their initials on the front lawn for our birthdays. Doug never stopped saying how much he loved us and never once brought us down, only up with his constant support. Words cannot express how much we will miss you Daddy or how much we love you or how honoured we are to be able to carry on a piece of you. We will see and feel and hear him in all beautiful and funny and wonderful things because he created, and was the perfect example of, the part of us that is able to laugh and see beauty and feel wonder.

Doug always made time for people, and stopped to listen and understand. He had a tremendous love of life, and was himself full of life. He took time to do the little things that make a family – photo collections, little notes and funny cards, willing to do anything for any of our kids (as well as their friends); a supremely kind and gentle man. He was a master of puns and non sequiturs, with a wonderful sense of humour.

Doug was deeply intelligent with a unique way of looking at things; he was creative and innovative; he was very giving, generous, unselfish and kind; a talented writer and poet, with a love of the written word; someone who loved music from Beethoven to Van Morrison; a man with a lot of soul and passion for whom family was everything; a true and deep romantic.

Oh to hold your hand one more time, and to have one more of your huge hugs, to lie on your shoulder at night and share the day’s experiences and hopes and dreams. So many more things to do together: learning Italian and deciphering Renaissance art, savouring the golden sunsets of Southampton, watching our children grow and being the world’s best grandparents together, sharing all our hopes and dreams and love.

You are my true love
I am half of you and you are half of me – only together do we make one
Without you I am truly alone in the world
I miss you so much my true love