Doreen Mary Mendes, age 91, passed away January 28, 2017 at Bridgewater Assisted Living in Waterman Village, Mount Dora, FL. She was a resident of Mount Dora for 34 years.

She was born October 15, 1925 in Worthing, Sussex, England to Douglas and Dorothy (nee Stokely) Johnson. Her parents and beloved sister, Eileen Cottle predeceased her. She is survived by Eileen's three children Andrew, Stephen and Janet and great nieces and nephews in England. Doreen experienced WWII as a child and in 1944 attended nursing school, finishing as a registered nurse from London's Middlesex Hospital. She served as a nurse in British Guiana (now known as Guyana) for several years. On a vacation to Tobago she met, and after a whirlwind courtship, married Walter Mendes, who was a planter and innkeeper on the island. Walter and Doreen resided in Tobago for about a dozen years until Hurricane Flora destroyed a great deal of the property. They then lived in Senglea, Malta and Dublin, Ireland briefly, before settling in The Isle of Man. In 1982 they emigrated to Mount Dora. The day they arrived in Mount Dora, they visited the Chamber of Commerce and met Jean Hoagland, then the office manager, who had sent them a lot of information prior to their move. Doreen and Jean remained close friends until Doreen's death. About a month after they arrived Walter was diagnosed with cancer and passed away five months later. Doreen is survived by Walter's three children, Walter Robert (Joanne) of Englewood, CO, Diana of Atlanta, GA, and Julia of Maberly, Ontario, Canada, two grandchildren, Michael Mendes and Lynne Stein (Michael) and five great-grandchildren.

After Walter's death, Doreen soon put her nursing/administrative skills to use by first volunteering at Hospice, and then recruiting and training groups of volunteers for the Lake and Sumter County Hospice in its first eleven years of existence. During those years Hospice grew rapidly, and with it great community admiration for the work of the volunteers. Cornerstone Hospice was able to give back to Doreen, attending to her in the last weeks of her life.

Gentle, soft spoken and always with a smile, she was much admired by her friends and people who knew her. She was also a regular member at the local Homeopathic Study Group and Eustis Presbyterian Church.