Thank you all for coming tonight.

It’s nice to see how many people were touched by my mom in her life. She was a great teacher, both to her students and to Rob and I. She supported me in everything that I did growing up. She was always on the bleachers at my baseball games, cheering and keeping score.

We had a few rough years, 1995-1998 were not good for either of us, but she continued to love me even when I was not lovable. I was not the nicest daughter sometimes, but my mom never lost hope. I apologized every mother’s day for those rough years.

She allowed Robbie and I the freedom we needed, which helped shape us into the adults we are today. She encouraged Rob and I to go “away” to school, which we both jumped on and travelled to opposite ends of the country.

My mother was always there to support us, she was always there with her perfect logic and reasoning.When I said to her, “mom, it hurts when I do this,” she would always respond “then don’t do it!”

She loved to garden, especially with granddaughter Mira, and was very proud of her beautiful yard. She had recently discovered a new love of quilting, she said that it was a great way for her to take out her anal tendencies. She was a fantastic knitter and made some great outfits for Mira and Liam. She enjoyed socializing and going to the theatre with the ladies. Her pride and joy were Mira and Liam. Her face lit up when they were around. I’m glad that they got to spend 4 years living with my parents, and that hopefully those memories will stay with Mira.

Although my mom cried at everything (something I also inherited from her), she was the strongest person that I have ever met. Every challenge that she faced made her stronger. When my father was not well, she had to step up and take over various roles and look after two teenaged children and a husband who was ill. When the doctor’s warned her that her cholesterol and tri-glycerides were life threatening, she dug in her heels and changed the way she ate and started going to the gym 3 times a week with a personal trainer. She continued to train at the gym up until she got sick last year.

Her final challenge was cancer.

The doctor’s were using the word palliative from the beginning of the diagnosis. They were unsure how treatment was going to work and how much time it would give her. She took on this challenge as she had the others and said that she was going to do whatever it took to defeat the cancer for as long as possible. Unfortunately this challenge was too much to overcome, but she put up the absolutely best fight anyone could have done.

I’m going to leave you with a quick little list about why my mom was the best:

1. When I was in high school, my mom gave me a curfew of 2am…all my friends curfew was midnight. They were all so jealous. The funny thing is, as I’m sure my mom had figured out was that I was home by midnight anyways because all my friends had to be home by then and what was I going to do by myself.
2. When a friend and I decided to get our tongues pierced when we were 18 my mom was against it. But when we came home with them done, she said they were “ugly” but then proceeded to make us jello and pudding since we couldn’t eat anything else.
3. When my mom was training with her personal trainer she was probably physically stronger than I was!
4. ⁃She made the best pickles and jam and would pack them in my carry-on so I could take them back to university.
5. She encouraged Rob and I to live our lives away from home, but must have known that we would find our way back to Toronto eventually
6. She is the strongest person I know and I thank her for helping me become the person I am today.

Thanks again for coming. My mom was so lucky to have friends like you.