Joan Doris Benson: Trailblazer. Storyteller. Hostess. Super Nana. Born Sept. 25, 1926, in Chatham, Kent, U.K.; died Sept. 13, 2025, in Toronto, of natural causes; aged 98.
Joanie Comfort grew up in a naval town during the Second World War. Like many British children, she was evacuated to the countryside as part of the government plan to remove children from danger. But Joanie was not like other children − at 13 she did not want to be away from the action. Once she arrived at her host home, Joanie gathered her pocket money and bought a bus ticket home, showing up on the doorstep of her bewildered parents, Ted and Bessie Comfort, with her suitcase packed with fierce defiance.
This is one of many stories Joanie loved to tell about coming of age during the war. She spent long hours in darkened bomb shelters, bored from playing cards with all the “old people” (her words) and longing to be out watching for handsome sailors. She bemoaned not being old enough to enlist. Filtered through her teenage eyes, she saw romance and adventure at every turn.
She learned typing and Pittman shorthand (skills she was very proud of) and she worked hard as a legal secretary, furiously saving. At age 21, and despite her parents’ protests, she purchased a one-way ticket to Toronto. In 1947, Canada was encouraging British immigration and while she knew no one in the country, she grabbed her chance for adventure. She never looked back.
Joanie saw Toronto and Canada as a place where one could work hard and get ahead. She saw her new home as expansive, positive and hopeful. She had many stories of her first days at the YWCA, taking the streetcars, looking for a job and a place to live. One of the first people she met was her future husband and love of her life John (Tiger) Benson. John was a recent immigrant from England himself and worked for an organization that welcomed new immigrants at the airport. He took one look at Joan and was smitten (she, on the other hand, looked right over him – he wasn’t the tall handsome Canadian redhead she had in her imagination). But John persisted and, eventually, he won her heart.
Joan and John shared a determination to thrive in their new world. Joan worked steadily throughout most of their marriage as a secretary. She was the “not so silent” partner supporting John’s many business ideas. They raised two children, Craig and Meredy, who would later give them seven grandchildren (Joan’s absolute pride and joy). Joan was a busy working mother but she was also the number one cheerleader in the stands at her children’s passions, travelling to squash championships (Craig) and figure skating competitions (Meredy).
The couple ran a successful manufacturing company, AVP Extrusions, in Newcastle, Ont., eventually buying a cottage in nearby Bond Head, overlooking Lake Ontario. But their permanent home was in Toronto, a property they purchased in 1965 that backed onto a cricket field (Joanie indulged John’s obsession with the game). The Bensons were a central hub of the social scene at the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club. The “Benson Bar,” as it was known, was where everyone gathered after a game of cricket. Joanie was always at the centre, a gracious hostess, looking fabulous, serving her legendary sausage rolls.
Joan had a rare gift for making everyone feel welcome that lasted even through her declining memory due to Alzheimer’s disease. At her 90th birthday celebration, she worked the room like a pro: “Don’t you look just fabulous!” “That colour brings out your gorgeous eyes!” Family and close friends knew she couldn’t really remember who everyone was but it did not matter. As one dear friend, Brian Callery, commented at the time, “She’s a first-class and most delightful fraudster!”
Long into her 90s, Joanie would get to her feet and put on a show if you played any music by Perry Como, Frank Sinatra or a showtune. She was also a bit of a flirt, lighting up in coquettish fashion to male attention and she never lost her ability to strike a pose for a photograph.
Joan was an exceptional Nana and her true legacy is how her fearless spirit lives on in her grandchildren, great grandchildren and many nieces and nephews, all of whom admired and adored her. For many years to come, the family expects these descendants to point out, “I remember that story from Nana!”
Meredy Benson Rice is Joan’s daughter.
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