William (Bill) Dennigan
November 23, 1938 – October 17, 2022

The love of my life is gone. Bill died peacefully with his family by his side on
Monday, October 17, 2022. We met when I was 15 when we both worked at
Loblaws at Lawrence Plaza. This young, quiet, Irish farm boy with those beautiful
blue eyes came into my life, swept me off my feet and never left. We were as
different as apples and oranges but for some strange reason we just clicked. We
had a wonderful life together. He had two beautiful girls in his life that he
absolutely adored. Our daughter, Susan Dowling and our granddaughter Sydney.
He was the youngest of five siblings: Sam, Tom, Delia and Maura, all of whom
predeceased him. His sister Maura passed away in September 2022.
He was a big fan of jazz and blues music, although in his later years he became
more receptive to country music. When we were younger we would spend hours
on a Friday or Saturday night listening to music and reminiscing about or planning
our next vacation and discussing the important events of the week often until 2 or 3
in the morning. He was passionate about all sports. He loved the Maple Leafs and
the Blue Jays. He truly thought that this was going to be the Blue Jays year to win
the pennant again but sadly it wasn’t to be. He thought the Leafs had the makings
of a great team and maybe this was going to be their year too. But his big passion
was football especially the Buffalo Bills and the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.
One of the last things he asked me to do was to get tickets to see the Bills play in
person but he got too sick before it could happen.
I finally got the boy back to Ireland in 1999. He had promised his sister-in-law
Jean that he would come back to Ireland for Marian’s wedding. A few months
later we learned that his nephew Gerry was getting married and that we had
promised to come over for the wedding and we did – even though he had meant
“Marian’s” wedding. We were welcomed at the airport by a large group of the
Dennigan family. He felt like a celebrity. The Dennigan clan made us feel so
welcome. Absolutely wonderful people. A few years letter in 2006 Marian did get
married and we absolutely had to go back again because he had promised that he
would. Over the years since we have reminisced often about the fantastic times we
had over there and about how glad he was to see his family again.

He loved to travel but hated to fly so we became “road warriors” and travelled
through much of Canada and the US by car. In fact on one of our vacations we had
stopped for a couple of days in Chicago and talked about where to go next. We
looked at the map and decided it wasn't too far to Mount Rushmore so off we went.
Well worth the drive by the way. It was such fun travelling with Bill. He was very
adventurous and loved to see new places. We spent many years travelling
throughout the American Southwest. We would fly to Phoenix, Las Vegas or
Denver and rent a car for our journey through Arizona, Utah, New Mexico,
Colorado, etc. etc. We waited too long to discover this part of the US because it
turned out to be his absolute favourite place to go. Every time we went he would
say “why did we wait so long to do this?” He said the best Christmas gift he ever
got was a gift certificate from me for a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.
What a thrill. We also went to Spain twice where once again we rented a car and
drove from one end of the country to the other but when he discovered Utah that
was it. The Southwest became his destination of choice. He loved everything
about Utah from A to Z – the Arches National Park to Zion. Bill was always a
huge fan of John Wayne so we visited Monument Valley more than once. Over
the years we travelled to 8 of the 10 Canadian provinces and 37 US states.
We lived in the same house in Long Branch for over 50 years. He never wanted to
move. There were many changes to that little house over the years – most with our
own two hands. He was very proud of the fact that we personally with the help of
friends did most of the renovations and landscaping that was done. This summer
he was just too sick to do any work around the house and that really bothered him.
He was very proud of his back yard and garden. After all he started as a farmer in
Ireland and liked to get his hands dirty!
Next Spring I will take him on one last trip to scatter his ashes in his favourite
place in all the world.
Good bye Babe, until we meet again.