passed away on January 12, 2026, at the age of 99. Ida was born in Toronto on November 20, 1926 – the same day as that year’s Santa Claus Parade – which entertained her father while her mother gave birth. She was the only child of Parker and Mary Cliffe Holdsworth who lived and grew up at 449 Margueretta Street in Toronto.
She loved family, sports, the outdoors, music, children, and had an abiding and deep faith. Ida and her dad would walk to watch baseball at the Christie Pits. Summers, the family would head up by train to vacation at Lake Couchiching. She also attended summer camp, creating some of her most-cherished memories.
She attended Bloor Collegiate, leaving in Grade 11 to attend secretarial school. She then went on to work at Gray Tools in Toronto for several years, then turned to her true passion, working in child care, a vocation she would return to all her life.
In her early 20s, she was an Anglican Sunday School teacher driving a van into remote areas of Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta with a variety of close friends.
Ida was busy and accomplished. She started piano lessons at the age of 5 and learned to play the pipe organ, which she played at St. Peter’s on the Hill and Trinity Anglican Church in Erindale and Streetsville (Mississauga). Close to her Toronto home, she was very involved – as were her parents and grandparents – with the St. Anne’s community. There she met the Dundas family and their six children. The eldest was Frank – they met at a badminton match and, eventually, Ida knew he was the one for her. They married in St. Anne’s on June 29, 1957. She and Frank hosted numerous family gatherings over the next decades, putting them at the heart of their extended family.
In 1958, Ida and Frank did what many young couples were doing at the time – they moved out to the Village of Streetsville, then surrounded by rolling fields but quickly becoming a growing suburb and eventually bustling Mississauga. She joined that same year Trinity Anglican Church, as an active member of the community, organist and choir Director. Her empathy and compassion were channeled as a Stephen Minister, counselling others, hosting a faith-based grief group, continuing her beloved bible studies, and playing organ and piano at church services, weddings and funerals until 2019.
They had four children: Peter; Jillian; David and Jennifer. After staying home with them for the first few years, she founded Trinity Nursery School, beginning a career that lasted more than 30 years. Here she touched the lives of thousands of young people. She loved being a grandparent, babysitting and attending their sports and activities each week.
Frank, the love of her life, passed on July 30, 1986. She later moved to a condo, teaching herself how to use a computer, email, tablet – and play online computer, Scrabble and Jeopardy.
By 2019 – when she was 92 – her quality of life became more reduced and restricted. After a stroke in June, 2025, she moved to Northridge long term care, where she received excellent care in her final months.
She is survived and dearly remembered by her children Peter (Jane), Jillian, Jennifer (Dave) and was predeceased by her son David (Mary); her grandchildren Michael (Tessa), Daniel (Marika), Sarah, Cody, Spencer and Tessa; five great grandchildren - Ava, Miles, Atli, Bodhi and Arvo; her brother- and sisters-in-laws Jim (Susan) and Jan (Bruce Pearce), and many nieces and nephews and grand-nieces and nephews.
A private family burial was held on Saturday, January 17 at Westminster Cemetery where she was laid to rest beside Frank.
A funeral church service with a communion will be held April 16, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. at Trinity Church in Streetsville. This church service will be followed by reception and visitation in the Trinity Church Streetsville Hall from 2-4 p.m. Everyone is welcome for any or all aspects of this day as we celebrate Ida Dundas!
For those who wish charitable donations can be made to Trinity Church - Streetsville or Canadian Cancer Society