Thank you all the friends and family that have joined us here today to remember my sweet mom, Joan Roland. 

When my kids asked how I was doing, I said that I was holding it together ….unless people were nice to me and then I would get quite teary so given where we are right now, buckle up for some emotion.

Welcome to this beautiful facility that meant so much to my mom, who was instrumental in the conception, fundraising, approvals, and design for the Art Gallery of Burlington.  Plants from our house were even the first inhabitants of the greenhouse. 

There are truly so many aspects to remember and celebrate about my mom – she was truly a remarkable woman and a force of nature. 

She was smart, creative, athletic, competitive, feisty, inspiring, competent, demanding (as some in this room know), wickedly funny,  (many of my friends have commented on her bellowing laugh which I have “luckily” inherited), she loved her family fiercely and was in turn beloved. She welcomed my wonderful husband Gerry into our family those 42 years ago and to be honest, liked him better than me. 

Don’t worry, I will not elaborate on each of these but I will speak about a characteristic that I greatly admired – her resiliency. 

Mom was born in Gateshead, England as the much loved youngest child and only girl to smart, hard working but very poor parents who rented the upstairs of a row house. She would live there until she married and fun fact, I was born in that apartment. She was also born in a country that would soon be at war. 

Because the Northeast was such an important shipbuilding and industrial centre, the children needed to be kept safe from the constant bombing and were sent to country estates to live with other families. 

Her brothers were kept together but young Joan was placed on her own and believe me she held her own – she was soon being invited to the principals and teachers homes for tea so this precocious child could entertain. My mom realized then that just because you were poor, it did not mean that you could not be smarter and stronger. 

She completed her education at Hull University and started work as a teacher. The future as a teacher and eventually a principal that she expected was upended and before she knew it she met and married a very tall Canadian studying in England. And then with a baby in a very fancy pram, she crossed the Atlantic on a very rough ocean crossing. Her family had all lived their whole lives within blocks of each other but my mom was confident in her abilities to build a new life in the wilds of Canada – well….. Peterborough.

The family,  now including my 2 brothers – Michael and Gavin, thrived through many moves and eventually settled in Burlington.

After becoming empty nesters, my parents’ marriage ended.  Although my mom had served her community in many volunteer roles, she had never had a paying job in Canada, she was nonetheless determined to be self-sufficient. She went to the employment office and within the week she started a job as the Manager of a pilot project to set up a workshop supporting residents with mental health challenges who were getting ready to re-enter the workforce. Like everything else she tackled, she succeeded beyond all expectations and the pilot project became a permanent support to the mental health community. 

My mom was a talented golfer and curler and enjoyed all the physical and social aspects. And one day on the golf course, she was delighted to meet a handsome fellow that shared all her interests and the rest is history. We are all very grateful to have had Rod join our family as mom’s husband, our father and my kids’ grandfather. 

And with that twinkle in her eye, my mom used to love dropping the fact that she remarried before my dad did. 

Mom and Rod had a lovely home in Aldershot with a real English garden that was always spectacularly and beautifully maintained – she delighted in this garden and was so sad to leave it 2 years ago when the decision was made to sell the house and move to the Pearl and Pine. Despite her reluctance to leave, she again showed her resilience and embraced the retirement living lifestyle – “the best view in Burlington” was a frequent refrain to any visitor to suite 1401.

My mom lived a long and eventful life – even though she had suffered a massive stroke, she was funny right to the end – when the doctors would ask how she was doing, that same twinkle would come back and she would say “you tell me”.

She had many triumphs and some tragedies, too, but throughout all her days, she demonstrated a joy in life and inner strength that carried her forward and inspired all of us. 

Our family will miss her every day.

Finally, I would like to publicly acknowledge and thank Rod for the dedicated love and care that he always provided to mom, and, especially over the last couple of years.