Lives Lived: Jean McKelvey, 88 Devoted wife, mother, grandmother, great grandmother, animal lover, dancer. Born April 5, 1925, in Cullion Station, Northern Ireland, died May 31, 2013, in Paris, Ont., of natural causes, aged 88. Jean Doherty became independent at a young age. The oldest of a family of six girls and one boy, she was raised in a railway station house where her father was station master. On the day Jean's sister Mamie was born, Jean was down on her knees scrubbing the cement station floor. She was five. By the time she was seven, Jean and younger sister Kathleen would take the train into Derry, where they would meet their grandmother and aunts and do the family's weekly shopping. Family was always an important part of her life and when she and her husband Joe McKelvey set off for Canada in 1955 it was hard on Jean to have to say goodbye to her parents and siblings. But she never looked back, so much so that she lost touch with her Northern Ireland relatives for many years. She was 30, with five boys under the age of 10, when the family settled in Toronto. While Joe worked on various pipelines, often away for extended periods, Jean ran the busy household. For the big meal of the week, Sunday dinner, she came up with the ingenious idea of having the six males of the house form three teams and take turns cooking the meal. Joe teamed up with the youngest, Al; Ron teamed with Bill, and Ian paired up with David. The teams would start planning on Thursday, when they would give Jean the shopping list, and then had full responsibility for preparing, serving and cleanup. The spirit of competition helped sharpen the boys" skills in the kitchen - and their wives would likely attest to that. In 1965, when the boys ranged in age from 10 to 20, Jean became pregnant with her sixth child. Finally, a girl. Sandi brought a new energy to the family and in particular to Jean. They shared a love of animals, especially horses, and after Sandi bought two horses they rode together often, well into Jean's seventies. Jean always had high expectations for her children and for the boys this was especially so with the girls they dated. At one time or another, each of them felt her wrath when she didn't approve. On one occasion, she wasn't happy with someone's prom date and as a consequence, no car to get to the prom. But in the end, at her 80th birthday party, she said: "If I had to go out and choose the spouse for my five sons and one daughter, I could not have chosen any better." Jean was reunited with her family in Northern Ireland in 2005. During the celebrations, stories surfaced about Jean's youth, including how she used to sneak out her window at night to go to dances. When she and Joe were courting, they were at dances five nights a week. After they started a family one of Jean's sisters would babysit so that the couple could continue to enjoy Saturday night dances. At Joe's request, the final song played at Jean's funeral was Save the Last Dance for Me. There wasn't a dry eye in the chapel. Ron McKelvey is Jean's second son.