megram - Index

megram - 55Ottawa - Index

great cook and loved good food. One
of his greatest pleasures in life was to
have his family gathered around the
dining table.
Rolly lived his life with strong and
simple values — personal integrity,
generosity, love of family, support of
friends and community, loyalty to his
beliefs and to the institutions he
belonged to, and a joie-de-vivre that
was hard to define but well known.
(Although he professed to love fishing,
few could remember any significant
number of fish caught, but all
remembered the good times fishing.)
Sadness was dimmed as we realized
Rolly had thrown one last party,
and we felt so privileged and grateful
to have known him.
Mary
It was announced that very same
day that another friend,Mary,had died
and her funeral would be in the same
church within a few days.
Mary was a special person to me.
She had taught our four kids in Grade
6 and most of her children were my
babysitters. I sang at a couple of her
daughters’weddings and we shared in
many of their special family events.
Mary seemed to know something
about everything and if she didn’t, she
would find the answers. To me, she
appeared totally unflappable. And her
ability to get so much done at the last
minute without any fuss was awesome.
Over the years, Mary related a lot
of stories about her life and what
always struck me was the way she
made things work. In the early years
of their marriage her husband
Gerard’s work took them across
Canada and back. Some of the places
they lived presented challenges but
Mary always found not only solutions
but fun in overcoming the adversity.
She always made the best of any situation,
so that it became a positive and
fun experience.
When Mary decided to become a
teacher she had to upgrade her academic
qualifications and overcame an
incredible academic workload,in addition
to her family workload, to meet a
deadline. Over many years of a fine
career,a huge number of students benefited
from that effort because she
was one of the very best teachers ever
in a classroom.
Mary had a genuine interest in
everyone and her knowledge of
September 2008 • Ottawa 15 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
genealogy was amazing. I’m not certain
if she ever quite figured out if we
were related or not,but it would be an
honour to find out we were.
Mary lived in a house full of
music. I don’t recall ever hearing her
sing, but Gerard played the fiddle
and several of their children played
other instruments, so you always
knew a party at their home would be
musical, and on St. Patrick’s Day
when she said “Gerard is serving,” it
meant Irish coffee.
I always felt her life was an
adventure. She had a chance to do
some travelling and I believe that all
the places she didn’t get a chance to
go to she travelled to in her mind
because of her curiosity and desire
for knowledge.
Mary’s was a life well lived.Again,
looking at what made it so, we find
quality, strength and simplicity.
Through her love, tolerance and
respect, many young people found
their self-confidence, hope for their
future, and respect for each other as
well as for our country and our institutions.
The gifts she exhibited and the
principles she taught and lived by will
affect generations of people to come.