Francis Donald TeatroCourtesy of family
Francis Donald Teatro: Photographer. Poet. Counsellor. Businessman. Born June 22, 1932, in Weston, Ont.; died June 5, 2023, in North Vancouver, of heart failure; aged 90.
Don was about 12 when he found out he was adopted. And it wasn’t his parents who told him. One of their friends, after an excessive quantity of beer, just blurted it out one day. You might think this revelation would devastate a young boy, but young Donnie Teatro felt only a sense of relief.
His adoptive parents, Nelly and Gordon, were good people and kind but he had always felt out of step with the family dynamic. His grandmother, Maude, was his refuge. She took care of him while his parents were at work or in the pub, which was often. She never hesitated to tell him how special he was. She gave him his first pet, a hen he called Maggie that would sit on his desk while he did his homework. She covered him with love and instilled in him a healthy sense of self-worth.
Don attended St. Michael’s College School in Toronto. Academically, he was an average student but he excelled at hockey, playing on the Junior B team throughout high school.
After that, Don wanted to study architecture. His dad roundly rejected the idea. In his view, it was about time Don got a full-time job. So instead, Don went to work for a brokerage firm in Toronto and learned the business from the ground up. He did well, advancing to an executive-level job by his early 40s. But the securities industry can be unpredictable. So a few times, Don found himself unemployed.
This gave rise to a second career in outplacement counselling. He was in his late 50s when he joined the career-planning arm of KPMG. While he eventually moved on from it, helping people find new work and purpose remained closest to his heart. Don’s work life continued up until his 80th year. It was a goal he’d set for himself. Mission accomplished.
There were two marriages. The first was to Terry, his high-school sweetheart. This marriage lasted 25 mostly good years and produced two extraordinary children, Donna and Stephen, and five grandchildren of whom Don was inordinately proud. As a father, he could be playful and silly. But he also set good examples. When Stephen was about six years old, Don coached youth hockey. One of Stephen’s indelible memories was driving around town with his dad, scrounging for used hockey equipment to bring to children who could not otherwise afford to play. As his own children grew, Don had to learn to trust in the groundwork he had laid for them and let go. That was a tough one. But he got there in the end.
In 1977, with his children launched, that old sense of being disconnected resurfaced. Don craved solitude. So there was a divorce.
In the 17 years that followed, he explored his artistic side, taking photography courses, writing poetry and recording stories like The Velveteen Rabbit for his granddaughters.
He met Gwyn in June of 1993 after being set up on a date. Don felt he was quite capable of organizing his own dates, but as Gwyn’s employer was a valued client, he decided not to risk falling out of favour by being churlish. Don was 16 years Gwyn’s senior. He viewed her as an old soul. She viewed him as a youthful one. He taught her to have more faith in herself. She taught him to look before he leaped. They made each other laugh and married in September of 1994
In 2009, Don suffered a major stroke that left him changed and disabled for the rest of his life. Despite it all, he remained good-natured and mischievous. He made laughter, love, music and silliness part of every day. On that last heartbreaking day, while leaving this life, Don brought a little levity to the proceedings. On the soles of his socks was written: “I don’t snore.”
Gwyn Teatro is Don Teatro’s wife.
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