Wendie was born to Rilla Stipe and Norman Partington. But her parents separated before she was born, and she was adopted at birth by Dr. J. K. McGregor and his wife, Trudy.
After Dr. McGregor's sudden death, when Wendie was still too young to understand adoption, Trudy remarried and Wendie was adopted a second time, by Trudy's new husband, T. J. Bell.
Wendie Bell graduated from Havergal College in Toronto. Her manner, cadence and command of language bespoke her private-school upbringing, but Wendie also had the "common touch." She commanded respect in a not-so-common way - by showing it - particularly during the many committee hearings of the Ontario legislature in which she spoke eloquently in support of what she considered the inalienable human rights of the adopted.
Wendie didn't suffer fools gladly ("Let's be kind, he's stupid," she'd say of opponents in private). She could curse in the nicest possible way, sparingly and only when appropriate, and was intolerant only of intolerance. And dirt.
It may have been the stigma attached to so-called "illegitimacy" and adoption for her generation that made her the housekeeper she was - no speck of dust was safe from her - but it was surely this experience that made her a pioneer in Canada's adoption-disclosure reform movement.
Wendie helped thousands of adult adoptees discover their roots following her own successful search and reunion. Her book, Once Removed: Voices from Inside the Adoption Triangle, is still on recommended-reading lists 25 years after its publication.
As founder and co-founder of several chapters of the national non-profit organization Parent Finders, and later, Adoption Roots & Rights, Wendie left an indelible influence on many lives.
Many of us hold dear our memories of sitting at her kitchen table enjoying her offerings of homemade "sun tea" and delicious food .
Wendie had a quick, biting wit, and found humour in the most unlikely places. Her stories usually ended with her trademark phrase: "... right, Buddy?" Wendie and her sweetheart, Henry (Bud) Redmond had a rich, loving relationship. Sadly, their only child, Stephen, died accidentally in 1983.
Just days before her death, Ontario's new disclosure law, for which she fought so long, came into force, and a mere 48 hours later was overruled by the Ontario Superior Court.
But as Wendie so often reminded us, "adoptees are no strangers to loss."
Holly Kramer is Wendie's friend.