Being able to live at St. Joseph's Villa meant everything to the Barr family.

When Agnes developed Alzheimer's disease and moved into the Dundas long-term care facility in 2003, her husband Bill and their daughter Eleanor visited her twice a day from their home in nearby Greensville.

They fell in love with the Villa. Perhaps more accurately, they fell in love with the people who made it run so well.

And now they have returned the care they experienced by leaving gifts that will provide more than $1 million to help the Villa and train future caregivers at Mohawk College.

Shortly after her mother entered St. Joseph's, Eleanor, then in her early 60s, started volunteering there. She had never been deterred by her own challenges -- a developmental disability and hearing impairment -- and she quickly became a popular figure, helping with bingo, getting residents to Sunday chapel services and lending a hand with seniors day programs. She had found her element.

St. Joseph's made special arrangements so all three could live there, and in 2005, Bill and Eleanor joined Agnes at the Villa, moving into adjoining rooms on another floor. They lived their final years happily under the same big roof.

All their lives, Bill and Agnes had been careful savers. Agnes was a dedicated mother and homemaker, famous for the shortbread she made for her friends.

Bill had been a stationary engineer, maintaining boilers at the Westinghouse plant on Beach Road, a job that few would have expected to produce a tidy fortune.

But by living frugally and investing wisely, the Barrs quietly grew a nest egg worth more than $1 million.

"They were really good savers," said Kathy Wood, an Ancaster investment adviser whose family has worked with the Barrs since the late '80s. "They always wanted to make sure there was more than enough to take care of Eleanor for however long was necessary."

But, as it turned out, the Barrs died out of order, in the space of just 18 months.

Agnes went first, in January 2008. She was 91.

Six months later, Eleanor had a stroke and died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve. She was 67.

"She was life. She was energy. She had a wonderful spirit about her. She was known throughout the Villa," said Beverley Greenwood, a chaplain at St. Joseph's. "The day she died, there was just a blanket of sadness over this whole place."

Then last June, Bill died at 94. It was the end of a good family.

"Everybody who knew them liked them," said Andrew Crawford, a family friend who gave eulogies for all three Barrs. "They were a giving family."

Soon after Bill's death, the depth of his family's gratitude and generosity became apparent.

With no other living relatives, Bill had split the bulk of his estate between the villa and Mohawk College, where many of his family's caregivers had been trained.

"They were always so thankful for the care they received here and for the opportunity for Eleanor to enjoy a really good life here," said Greenwood, who officiated at all three funerals. "It became their home, and we became their family. Certainly they became an extension of ours as well."

Once Bill's estate is settled, Mohawk and St. Joseph's are each expected to receive at least $365,000.

Provincial matching programs will nearly triple the Mohawk donation, bringing its total to just over $1 million, which is to be used for eight annual bursaries, all in the name of Eleanor Barr, intended to help needy students in practical nursing and personal support worker programs.

Bill had wanted his family's savings to help other families and the people who care for them.

"I heard that this was in the works and I was absolutely ecstatic," said Simone Bollaerts, an instructor in Mohawk's nursing faculty who places many practical nursing students and graduates at St. Joseph's.

The rest of the estate, totalling more than $300,000, is going to other charities and toward the education of the Barrs' friends' children.

The gifts didn't surprise anyone who knew Bill. Like his wife and daughter, he was known to be uncommonly pleasant, generous and thoughtful.

"He lived the way he wanted to live. He was quite a happy person -- a well-read person, but a minimalist," said Gerry Murphy, a lawyer and co-executor of all three estates. "He just took what he needed out of the Earth and he left the rest there."

whemsworth@thespec.com

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