Linda Louise Jones Whitehead

Linda was the daughter of Lorna Millicent and Lloyd Ingram Jones. Linda's father died in the in the war when Linda was three years old, but she always remembered how much he loved her. 

A natural extrovert, Linda compensated for being an only child by developing a great capacity for making friends. She enjoyed many things about her childhood in in Kew Beach, particularly the library and the Tennis Club. 

She was attending the University of Toronto when she met her future husband David at the tennis club. She was delighted not only by him, but by his large family, as David was the youngest of six children, the older siblings being Stan, Robert, Nora, Mary and Bud. When she first met David he was driving a motorcycle, and she was surprised to learn that he was a student at Knox College, studying to become a member of the Presbyterian clergy. Within a year of meeting, they were married. They had four children together, Sarah (b.1962, d. 2024, one daughter, Elinor Rose Ya Ting) Jennifer (b.1964) Joseph (b.1966, m. Csilla, sons Nathaniel and Andrew) and Christopher (b.1972, m. Martha, sons David and Hugh). David's career as a Presbyterian minister took them many places and in each place she made fast friends, in Thompson, Manitoba, Hawkesbury Ontario, Belmont Ontario, Thorold Ontario, Midland Ontario, and finally to Aylmer, Quebec. 

One constant in Linda's life were summers at Gracefield Presbyterian Centre, where she spent at least part of the summer for almost fifty years and enjoyed swimming, canoeing and community. Linda was a loving mother and devoted wife, but she loved reading and learning almost as much as she loved her family. As soon as Christopher was old enough to go to nursery school she enrolled in the University of Western Ontario and completed a degree in History. Always interested in the large mysteries of creation, she earned a Masters of Divinity, followed by certification in counselling and analysis.

Linda wished to serve her community, while in Thorold she volunteered on the Library Board and was elected as a Trustee for the Niagara South District Schoolboard. When they moved to Midland, Linda became a board member for the local hospice and they were both active in the local Field Naturalists association. After David had retired from the church Linda began to have issues with her health and mobility. They decided to relocate to Aylmer, Quebec where they could share a home with their daughter and spend more time with their children and grandchildren. Linda loved living in Aylmer, enjoying the challenge of speaking french, and the kindness of the people she met here, particularly her loyal caregiver, Susan McCormick. 

In July of this year she began feeling unwell and was taken to the Hull Hospital were she received excellent care. She died of congestive heart failure, aged 83. 

She is remembered for her curiosity, her love of reading, her immense sociability and her sharp intellect. 

She asked to be remembered by close family with a small private ceremony, and by a celebration of life in the lovely neighborhood where she spent the last ten years.