Darlene’s Memorial Opening
Comments November 2020
·
She was
much loved by all
·
She was a beautiful lady
·
She had a heart for those in need
Clearly I knew all of that and
more. I knew her as a wife, lover, friend and soulmate. She was my rock when
things didn’t go quite the way I thought that they should. She never had a word
of criticism through a couple of career changes. She just smiled and said
“you’ll figure it out”. We had 29 wonderful years together.
While she was all of the things I
just said and I thought I was the only one who knew this, she was also a very
self-assured and may I say it – a strong willed person who clearly knew her
mind. Turns out I was the last to find that out. All of her family had known
that since she was a child. And I’m sure that you will hear more of that later.
Darlene and I enjoyed a good life
together. Travel was important to both of us. We started our life together by
getting married in Montego Bay in Jamaica. Then we travelled to some other fun
places like Hawaii, Florida, Puerto Rico, St Thomas, San Francisco and Las Vegas.
We also spent a lot of time in some not so fun places like the Down Town East
Side cleaning rooms and helping tenants in four SOR’s on behalf of Community
Builders. They also led us to Haiti beginning just after the 2010 earthquake through
2013 where she found her niche working with the kids in the school and the
orphanage.
But we also got to go to other interesting
places in Canada like southern Ontario, my birthplace. We went to the Badlands
in Alberta, to Whitehorse and Dawson City in the Yukon, to Montreal and Quebec City
and on to Charlottetown, PEI and to New Brunswick in the Maritimes. As well, we
made the usual trips to Vancouver Island and Barkerville. We were blessed to
have also many of those trips with good friends in our family plane all through
Washington and Oregon.
All through those years we were a
family. We argued with each other and we forgave each other. We tolerated each
other’s idiosyncrasies. We suffered each other’s health issues. We prayed
together. We moved twice. First from Brookswood to Clayton and then more
recently to Langley City. In short we lived together. Now she is gone to her
well-earned rest but I am going to continue to miss her.
Thank you for your patience in
listening to that trip down memory lane and now I will shut up and allow others
who know her as well and perhaps even better than me some time to share their
remembrances...
I am honoured that people who
were very important to Darlene have all offered to speak today. They are three
members of her family. We will hear from Geoff and Tom Carr, Doug Lucier and a
lifetime friend, Jill Rose.