Peacefully at the Kingston General Hospital on Monday December 12, 2011 at the age of 79. Cherished wife of the late Major-General C. Gordon Kitchen. Much loved mother of David (Kellie), Robert (Donna), John (Nancy) and Heather (Rick). Dear sister of the late Mary Parks and Bill Honderich. Loving grandmother of 14: Matthew, Andrew, Kathryn, Lyndsay, Zoe, Gregory, Christopher, Stephen, Emma, Jessica, James, Nicholas, Sophie and Harriet. Joan lived a remarkably diverse life. She was a proud graduate of the University of Western Ontario. As a history major at university she eventually had the opportunity to experience firsthand the trappings of her education. Traveling the world from North to South, East to West she experienced the cultures, fashions and tastes of every continent. She developed friendships around the world which she cherished to the very end. Eventually she settled down at Aylen Lake. Joan set up roots there and this would be her home until she had to share it with her loved house in Bath. Aylen was the summer and Bath the winter. Until her last year it would often take "a stick of dynamite to blow her out of the lake" to get her home. Her passion was reading and the lake provided her with the opportunity to spend countless hours on good days and bad, from morning to night - often requiring one of her family to turn out her light as she would doze off with her trademark reading glasses on her nose. She often held the upper hand in making sense of the evening discussion (argument) that inevitably followed. As per her wishes a private family Celebration Of Life will be held at the WARTMAN FUNERAL HOME "Kingston Chapel" (980 Collins Bay Road at Taylor Kidd Blvd., Kingston K7M 5H2, 613-634-3722). In lieu of flowers, memorial donations by cheque to Kingston Humane Society would be appreciated by the family.

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