Obituary of Nell Witvoet
Petronella Dieuwertje van Belle (Nell Witvoet) was born on December 29th 1934 in the small town of Rijnsberg in Southern Holland. In the spring of 1951 Nell immigrated to Canada with her family. After disembarking onto Pier 21 in Halifax, Nell and her family moved to Newcastle, Ontario and shortly thereafter settled in nearby Bowmanville where she would soon meet a certain, young Lowell Witvoet. During a six year courtship with the handsome Mr. Witvoet, Nell worked a variety of jobs but took the greatest satisfaction from her role as a nurses aide at the Bowmanville Hospital.
In June 1957 Nell and Lowell tied the knot, jumped over the broomstick and crossed the threshold into married life. The happy couple moved to Hamilton, Ontario thereafter and spent seven years there as Lowell honed his teaching skills and Nell learned the gentle art of persuasion working at Eatons.
In 1964 their first child, Eric Marcel, arrived. As soon as Eric turned one year old, the young family travelled up the Queen Elizabeth Way to settle in North Etobicoke as Lowell had accepted a job at the Toronto District Christian High School. A year after all that excitement, Christopher Mark arrived to ad to the mayhem on Batawa Street. Nell was officially the busy, busy mother of two young boys.
Having adjusted to motherhood , the year of our Nell, 1969, truly manifested as one of love as Ingrid Monique waited until December to make the family complete.
The next decade was tumultuous. Lowell was compelled to find another teaching job and landed in Scarborough. Nell, Lowell and a group of friends and relatives formed a new church, the kids started attending a new Christian school in Agincourt and most significantly, Nell, now in her forties, learned to drive!
In 1979 Nell and Lowell made the difficult decision to leave family, friends and familiarity and start anew somewhere along the Niagara frontier. Number 25 Logan Street in north St. Catharines was to be the family address for the next 36 years. It was from her "throne" in her corner of the living room opposite from Lowell that Nell watched her children grow, marry, move and make her a grandmother five times over. During that same time Nell entered a renaissance as crafty "PetronellaDee" and travelled, with Lowell, to craft shows all over Southern Ontario selling her hand-made, hand-painted folk art.
Along with birdwatching, baking, sewing, working at Duthlers textile store and generally enjoying retirement with "her Lowell" at her side, Nell reveled in being a grandmother. Those St.Kitts years were good...
May 2010 was sadly, the beginning of the end. Nell suffered a stroke and began to deteriorate physically and mentally. Lowell took up the slack and together they appeared to keep things together. in the early morning of March 6 2015, Nell fell and couldn't get up. She was taken by ambulance to the hospital from where she never returned home.
Nell moved into the Maple Park Lodge Long Term Care Facility in Fort Erie in April of 2015. Nells dementia worsened and her mobility slowly decreased until she was permanently in a wheelchair. Lowell had joined her in the secure unit at Maple Park at the end of 2016.
Lowell maintained that he had committed to Nell for better and for worse.
In the early morning of June 19th, with Lowell beside her, the worse finally got better for the last time and mom quietly left us.
For now.
Nell will be missed by:
her husband Lowell
her children: Eric, Chris and Monica, Ingrid
her grandchildren: Nate, Alex, Aidan, Jake, Max
As well as her two sisters Carole and Emmy and brother Harry and their families.
She will be fondly remembered by all her family on the Witvoet side.
Visitation will be held at the GEORGE DARTE FUNERAL HOME, 585 Carlton St., St. Catharines on Tuesday, June 25, 2019 from 6-8 p.m. Funeral Service will be held at Covenant Christian Reformed Church, 278 Parnell Rd., St. Catharines, on Wednesday June 26, 2019 at 11 am. Burial will follow the Service at Victoria Lawn Cemetery Queenston St., St. Catharines.