RENE FREEMAN [Carr] (friend of Gail.)

Entered May 12, 2017 from BRAMPTON

So very sorry for your loss Gail. My thoughts are with you and your family.

RoseAnne Desmarais & Bruce Chapman (Friends of Susan Trask)

Entered May 12, 2017 from Mount Forest Ontario

Susan, we are so sorry for the loss of your Mom. May your fond memories give you comfort as you create a new normal going forward without her. May this upcoming Mother's Day be filled with the celebration of her life and what a wonderful legacy she left behind. We wish you and all your family, peace and comfort and you stand together through this difficult time. Love and prayers from Mount Forest. xo

June Roberts (Carr ) (Friend)

Entered May 13, 2017 from Vancouver Island, B.C.

What a wonderful life she has had. I am so sorry for you loss Marilyn , My thoughts are with you all . God be with you holding you in his arms.

Lorna Olson (Niece)

Entered May 13, 2017 from Thunder Bay

Dear Cousins,
Sending my love and sympathy to all of you and yours. We have so many wonderful memories of Aunt Evelyn mostly of her visits to Thunder Bay to see our Mom. She was a beautiful, talented woman.
Love,
Lorna and Bob

Kathryn LeGear (Old friend)

Entered May 13, 2017 from Thornhill Ontario

The LeGear family sends are deepest sympathy!

I have, obviously, known Mom all of my life, however as I reflect some of the most important years (those early years) I have little to no memory of who she was then, yet she played the most major part in my life. I have no idea what was going through her mind as she brought her first son, after 5 daughters into the world. The first picture I have of Mom with me was taken a few days after my birth at the hospital (this picture – so I am told) was published in Chatelaine Magazine. (I would love to get a hold of the article). She looks so happy there but don’t be deceived life was not that easy for her, she had 5 girls at home, aged 2 to 9, and would go on to have another three boys and three girls.

Life for Mom was difficult, her own Mother died when she was 11 years old and due to life in Port Arthur (Thunder Bay) was not able to live with her Father much after this. She moved around being raised by her brothers and sisters, mainly Jack and Margaret, here in Toronto.

Mom was a very talented woman with a great love for music. Her main occupation was taking care of the house and children while Dad was out working sometimes three jobs to make ends meet. It was a different era back then, but even for Mom this was extraordinary. Mom would have loved to be a music teacher but that did not work out for her; she did teach piano to a number of neighbourhood kids. To list all her skills is difficult but here are a few of the things I remember her doing, aside from keeping house and raising us kids; she took care of the family bookkeeping, had her own set of tools and built shelves and fixed things around the house, was still using her chainsaw at age 75 to cut down the huge Poplar trees in her back yard, trimmed the hedge, taught music to neighbourhood kids, helped some of the older ladies living nearby, both as a friend and assisting in chores, etc., etc.

It was unfortunate I could not relate to Mom as it came to her great love for music. I have no ear nor voice for music, nor any interest in composers, compositions, etc. so when she talked about these things to me they just went over my head. It is a good thing she had other children and grandchildren, including Pat and Jury, who appreciate these things.

As for me, I love my Mom, and my words did not, nor could, demonstrate how much I loved, respected and appreciated her. Obviously life was not easy for her yet she was a relatively happy person and had a fairly good life all in all. You really have to be a strong person to live through some of the things she lived through. I did hear some of the stories from her and I am amazed at some the ‘complaints’ she told us about, her desire to be a music teacher but cut-short because of her environment, her not being able to practice piano more than an hour a day because of the ‘noise in the house’, being excommunicated, her words not mine, from the Lutheren Church because she took us kids to the Anglican Church (20 minute walk rather than an hour bus ride).

However I never heard her complain about a number of things, she accepted them as they were looking for the good side of things, including grief from us 12 kids, husband not around many evenings and weekends due to carrying three jobs, being widowed at age 55 with school age children still at home, loss of a son due to a tragic accident, etc.

Of course those who know me know my strong Christian beliefs, which I owe much to Mom for starting me out on this path. So from my side I wanted to know what Mom’s beliefs really were, yet we rarely breached this topic very deeply, the things she did tell me were encouraging. Mom was raised as a Lutheran due to her Finish background, but her family was not a very religious family, she started attending the Church of the Apostles (Anglican) since it was nearby our home, also joining an Anglican church when she moved to Brampton. Mom considered herself as a believer in the gospel and related to the story of her receiving Christ when she was about 18 years of age. I was a little surprised one day when flipping through her pictures and came across a picture of her and Dad and a bunch of other young people and I asked her who these people were and she answered oh that was a picture when we were Youth for Christ. She also had a good friend for a number of years mom used to drive to church etc., who wrote a hymn that Mom composed music to.

Mom’s final fight with Alzheimer’s lasted at least five years but it very well could be it was harder on the family then it was on Mom. These last few years were tough but there were still moments where we knew that she knew but they became fewer and fewer to the end. The many years before are what I remember the most and will cherish all of my Life.

Mom, I love you and thank-you for being my mother, you did a great job and I am proud of you,

With all my love,

Dennis

A Tribute to my Great Grandmother

Today my great grandmother passed at 90 years old. She was a brave, strong, beautiful and nice woman. She had to be strong because she had 12 kids, dozens of grand and great grand children and 3 great great grandkids. Her heart was the size of the galaxy. She was one of those people that never gave up and wasn’t afraid of anything. When she was about 75 my mom saw her climbing a tree with a chainsaw to trim the branches. She was a beautiful pianist and violinist and an extremely intelligent woman. (I mean SUPER intelligent.) She played in front of lots of people. I wish I had been born early enough to have seen it.

RIP Great Grandma, Tickle Toes. I love you and miss you already!!

#ihatealzheimers

by Theo Marshall

I feel very fortunate and blessed that my life included my mom. She was a super talented woman who welcomed everyone into her home, I remember the strong neighbourhood ties she held and through her I was able to meet a wide variety of people, Mr. And Mrs. Keats, the Yamada’s, The Rice’s, The Wellar’s, Mrs. Dillon, Mrs. Fife to name a few. I’m blessed that she made a home for her children, in this home I was safe and sheltered and loved. I’m blessed that when it came for me to start a family of my own she was there by my side, she accompanied me to ultra sounds and visits to the Family Birthing Centre, she was at my home when we welcomed my son Adelino home from the hospital and when we welcomed my daughter Angela home from the hospital. I am blessed that both of my children loved their grandma with all of their hearts. John and I are both blessed that we were able to spend so much time with her throughout our married life together.
A super talented woman who outside of playing the piano, organ, viola and violin could cook and bake and build and design and knit and crochet and weave rugs and sew and host so many Christmas gatherings, she played Euchre and Canasta and shot pool, she could wallpaper and do expert carpentry, she swam, did gymnastics, bowled, drove, gardened, played crokinole, croquet, and did puzzles. She was trilingual, English, French and Latin.
When I reflect back on my mom I realize that she was a perfectionist, living life for her was sometimes very hard for her I am certain, she not only had 12 babies, she had 12 terrible twos, pre-teens, tweens, teens, young adults, adults etc. but, she never got sick. Of the many stories I have told my children about their grandmother is that I don’t remember her being sick, so i had this idea that “mom’s” just didn’t get sick, and when I became a mother myself i thought great! Boy was I so disappointed the first time i got really sick, I was in bed with the flu, had gotten Adelino off to school and Angela being around 3 years old stayed home with me and I remember being shocked, I’m a mom, I’m not supposed to get sick! Lol
I am so very blessed for being able to be a part of her later years in life, she honestly made her journey for me so very, very easy. Often that gleam in her eye would shine as I attempted to sing songs with her, when words were so very hard for her to speak. But sing together we would. Often on Friday nights at St. Joseph’s Health Care Centre we could be found in the Family Room and Corrina, Rick and Savannah would join us and sometimes as a group we would sing. Corrina and I would attempt to sing O Canada in French, but we struggled, meanwhile Mom would recite each word with precision and beauty.
On Wednesday mornings we would be joined at coffee hour with a regular group of resident and we would play Euchre together. Dave, Vince, Graydon, and Dan were all expert players in their own right, but Evelyn, although struggling through Alzheimer’s and non verbal, gave them a run for their money, she was an expert card player. And let’s not forget about Cribbage, she skunked more than one who played against her. Also, we often left St. Joes to go on day trips, we went to the local baseball games, and spent many Sunday early evenings in the summer at the band stand where we were treated to the music of the Guelph and Kitchener Symphony Orchestras. On more than one occasion we were caught in warm summer downpour as we made our way back to the car was parked, make our way back to St. Joe’s where the PSW’s would exclaim good naturedly “Robin, you’ve had Evelyn out in that rain!” Wednesday evenings we were treated to music night at St. Joe’s and one volunteer who many a times played a song or two on his violin did so under the keen interest of Evelyn, and often she would give her nod of approval and lean to me and express that “he is a very good player”.
The last years at St. Joe’s were perhaps the most difficult for me if not for my mom, it’s where I witnessed the slow decline of who my mom was, my heart was broken by this terrible disease she lived with, but once again in her hour of death my role was made so very easy. She passed quickly and peacefully. I told her I loved her, held her hand watched her drift off to sleep and once again my heart was broken.

My great grandma is 90 years old and has gone to heaven. I think when she went up to heaven she took a trip to see our little baby Landon because she didn’t get to meet him here on earth. Now she gets to see him all the time. I know she is singing to me and Landon every night when we go to bed. I think she is sitting right beside me right now because I know she will always be with me watching over me because she is now my guardian angel.

She was a really independent woman and every day after tennis I use to go visit her. We enjoyed eating dairy queen together or sipping our hot chocolate with marshmallows inside when it was too cold for ice cream. She was a really strong woman and could push me around on her walker when I weighed more than 50 pounds! She was also so beautiful with big beautiful eyes like mine.

My great grandma was really smart and she could do anything she put her mind to. We would play games together and do homework together. It was really fun. She was so smart I remember one time when I was singing Oh Canada to her, she then sang it back to us in French. When I would dance in the lobby she would play music on the piano. She would watch me dance and laugh. She also use to make very funny faces at me and also warn me that she was watching me! Then we would both laugh.. Sometimes when I would play too much and be too silly she would give me the evil eye and I knew I had to be good. But even when she was mad at me all I had to do was bring her a cookie and she would be happy again.

I really miss her and when I heard she went to heaven I was cried.

I love you Great Grandma!

Love Sav <3