Barbara Suddard A Eulogy

It has been a week since my mother passed away from Breast Cancer.  It was a week of mourning the loss of my mother, celebrating her life, meeting new people and reconnecting with people.    We had visitations on two occasions on Wednesday and a funeral service on Thursday followed by a celebration of life at T.K's Restaurant & Bar in Aurora. 

To put things in perspective, my wife a week ago after we were leaving Southlake Regional Hospital that a lot of people knew, loved and visited my mother in her last days.   My response to this was simple:

"You've seen nothing yet..." 
My words at the hospital that day rang true all week this past week.  The first visitation at Aurora United Church was jammed with people from mother's past (university friends and old family frinds) to the present (coworkers and friends from Aurora and afar).  I also got to meet a lot of people who my mother had never introduced me to before.  I met her coworkers from Silver Pines Public School and other people from around Aurora. 

During the Visitation with the family I had produced a slideshow of my Mother through the years.  There was great interest in it.  So for those of you that missed it, it can be found here.

Following the first visitation on Wednesday we were invited to eat a pizza dinner along with fruits and vegetables.  This was delicious and refershing after a long two hours of meeting close to one hundred people. 

The evening visitation saw even more people come into Aurora United Church.  Another awe inspiring showing of how important my mother was to the church, the community and to her friends. 

Perhaps the best indication of how much my mother was loved was at the funeral service where we celebrated her life.  Reverands Lorraine Newton-Comar and Andy Comar led the service.  My sister, brother and myself and my aunt (my Mom's sister) provided Eulogies of my mom's life (mine can be found here).  The Aurora United Church choir provided an anthem and Rev. Lorraine a meditation on my Mother and who she knew my mother to be. The participants in the service spoke of how great my mother was in battling cancer and as a person in general.  

Not only were the participants noticeable, but the number of people who chose to attend the service numbered easily over 250.   I easily noticed and was amazed at all the faces I knew staring back at me smiling.  It brought a smile to my face. 

My mother deeply cared about others and Aurora United Church the most. That is why, as a family we decided if people wished to make a donation it should go to Aurora United Church or the Canadian Cancer Society.

Thanks to everyone this week that helped out.  Mary Smith for aranging the volunteers to help out at the visitation and funeral at Aurora United Church, Rev. Lorraine Newton-Comar, Rev. Andy Comar, Carole Rose-Kudelka for leading the funeral service along with the Aurora United Church Choir, Aunt Nancy Young for being like a second mother to me and my family at Southlake Regional Hospital and at my parent's place and everyone who sent flowers, made a donation, sent food and just simply gave me a hug.  It was all greatly appreciated.