Doris Eleanor Fearncombe

Doris Eleanor Fearncombe March 5, 1923 - December 17, 2021 Mom enjoyed a long and interesting life. She was born in a small village outside Toronto in 1923. Her home was heated by a wood fire stove and there was no plumbing…think outhouse and weekly baths in a galvanized tub in the kitchen. Before bedtime she had to remember to warm a brick in the oven: no warm brick under the covers meant cold feet that night. She rarely forgot to do that. As a child, she and her brother, Howard, picked wild violets in the field and stood on the side of the road selling them for a nickel a bunch. How things have changed. And Mom kept up with change over the course of her life, for example, she was one of the most tech savvy nonagenarians around: emailing, texting, and keeping up friends and family on Facebook. Mom enjoyed telling the story of how she met our dad in 1941. She was 18 and working at John Inglis & Co. in Toronto helping build Bren machine guns for Canada and the UK. Dad was also working there on a different shift. When they met it was love at first sight, they courted through a fence during shift change, and they married four years later. Within nine years, they were blessed with five children and a very full house. One of Mom’s biggest adventures came next: an international move in 1956. Our Dad, a tool and die maker, found better paying work in the automobile capital of the world, Detroit. After raising us kids, in 1972 at age 49, she went to work at the Cadillac Fleetwood plant. She had been hired to work on the assembly line: a male-dominated job. Mom told us that her first foreman pronounced, “If you want women’s lib, I’ll give you women’s lib!”. He then assigned her to the most difficult job on the line. He did not break her; Mom worked at GM for 12 years and retired to start her next big adventure: Travel. Our parents traveled to avoid the long, cold, gray Michigan winters. Over the next 10 years, they enjoyed time in Costa Rica, Mexico, England, the Canary Islands, Morocco, Kenya, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Thailand. Mom told great stories about their travels, and she had an especially exciting one about their time in Tanzania. They timed this trip perfectly and arrived during the Great Migration during which more than two million zebra, wildebeest, impala, gazelle, and antelope are on the move in search of food and water. Mom and Dad’s trip was made even more special (if that’s possible) by the appearance of Halley’s Comet which they watched from their tent each night. In 1994, they made a migration of their own and moved south to Woodstock, GA. But Mom’s traveling days were not quite over. She traveled back to Michigan every summer for the next 23 years where she loved visiting with her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Her final trip this past summer was physically challenging for her, but it turned out to be a tour de force for everyone. Mom was a consummate storyteller. We saw her eyes brighten as she talked to her grand and great-grandchildren about her life. We noticed the young ones lean in, listen, and learn about her life and her love for them. Here is how the family has expanded: Children: Wendy Neideck (Conrad Morrow), Robert (Phyllis), Lauren Brockman, Judy, Garry Grandchildren: Lynn Neideck, Brad Neideck (Wendy), Robert Fearncombe, Scott Fearncombe (Mychal), Ashley Fearncombe, Torrick Brockman Great Grandchildren: Damien Evans, Maya, Zander, & Sierra Neideck, Sydney Fearncombe, Shaylyn VanMilligan Jenna Fearncombe, Benjamin Neideck, Samuel Brockman, Kaitlynn Brockman Great Great Grandchildren: Kinsley Wall The family will receive friends on Wednesday from 1:00 until 2:00 PM at Mayes Ward-Dobbins Funeral Home in Marietta with a Memorial Service immediately following at 2:00 PM in the Chapel. For everyone's safety, masks will be required at the memorial service. If you are unvaccinated, please take advantage of the live streaming option. Instead of flowers to honor our Mom, please send a donation to the American Lung Association, https://action.lung.org/site/Donation2, or a charity close to your heart.