Obituary of Joanne Griffin

Joanne Griffin, born MacDonald, on October 4th, 1952 passed away on September 6th, 2018 due to complications from late stage lung cancer having never smoked.

In 1974 she married Donald Griffin and in their 44 year journey together raised two sons Andrew and Ryan. She was a sister to Ross and Alan MacDonald, and as of 2012, became a special friend to her new in-laws Galina, Dmitri and their daughter Svetlana Demtchenko (wife to Ryan).

Joanne’s love, generosity, support, encouragement, and absolutely endless resolve, influenced so many in her lifetime. If you’ve ever walked around town with Joanne you know she would always be stopped by friends and former students bearing wide smiles and eager to pass along their updates.

Though only starting to play the harp relatively recently (1995), she quickly became a pillar of the Ottawa harp community. She self-published several books of arrangements and instructions which reached audiences around the globe, and was a founding member of the Northern Lights Harp Fest.

She will be dearly missed by many.

As part of celebrating her life a visitation will be held on Friday September 14th from 2-4 PM and 7-9 PM at St. Marry’s Hall (Navan, Ontario). Her celebration of life service will be held at the Navan-Vars United Church on Saturday September 15th at 11 AM with a reception to follow. A private inurnment will be carried out at a later date.