Miranda Marlene Marie Squires

She was beautiful.

She was bold.

She was warm.

She was a model mother.

She was a light in the room and, as the Irish say, a helluva lot of craic.

The craic refers to fun, entertainment, good conversation – and Miranda was a master of all these happy traits.

She was loud. She loved music. She loved the music loud.

She liked to dance. And she especially liked to stay up until she saw the next day’s sun.

She liked – and did – all those things, yet, not wanting to miss a thing about being a mother, she would still wake up early the next morning with the kids, feed them, clean the kitchen and prepare breakfast for half a dozen or so fellow revelers who wouldn’t be crawling out of bed for hours.

Miranda’s love and energy was incredible and she will be sorely missed.

Miranda Marlene Marie Andre was born in Edmonton’s Royal Alexander hospital on May 5, 1980 to an anxious, but excited Allan and Debra Andre. She already had a big brother named Sheldon, and her little brother would follow 19 months later.

Despite an Edmonton birth, Miranda spent her childhood on the mean streets of Gibbons. She went to Gibbons school until graduating Grade 9 in 1995.

Growing up, Miranda was, usually, my best friend. But, as usual, I was one of a large network of friends which always happened to dwarf mine.

I don’t want to say she was a bad influence, but let’s just say when Miranda wanted to teach Mom and Dad a lesson and run away, I’d be right next to her on the short journey down the railroad tracks to the bridge, with our shouting Mother in hot pursuit. She always had a tendency to get a rise out of Mom when she wanted.

As we got older, our interests diverged a bit. My hair got longer – on her advice that women loved boys with long hair (well she did anyway, just talk to her husband Phil) – meanwhile her hair, typically long, brown and beautiful, turned a goth-inspired, matte black, and one day, I think it was the day before Aunt Stella’s funeral, she came home with a mild Mohawk. I’m sure it looked cool at whatever punk or metal show she was at the night before, but Granny and Mom didn’t agree the style change was appropriate for the occasion. I remember feeling pleased that she attracted the fury of those two grief-stricken souls that day and I was able to escape unscathed. But that’s how things usually worked. Miranda’s always did everything first, which allowed me to get away with … everything. I still owe her for that.

Miranda tried her best to graduate from Sturgeon Composite High School. But, just like her older brother Sheldon – who didn’t last long at the Comp before getting the boot – she had to flee Gibbons to Jasper Place High School in Edmonton before she would have the honour of tossing her hat in celebration. Funny enough, despite Miranda and Sheldon’s matching views on the Sturgeon School Board of Education, they didn’t always see eye-to-eye. From the cage match caliber wrestling moves Sheldon would practice on her in the basement to the typical every day brother-sister quarrels, they were like cats and dogs since Miranda was born. They seem like very different people, but in the end, family was always paramount for both of them, and Sheldon was always there for Miranda whether it was moving out of her many apartments or taking the kids out on the lake on the boat.

Soon after High School, Miranda, living alone in an apartment near Stony Plain Road, adopted Juan, a fellow A&W employee from Mexico who desperately needed a place to stay. Flouting all sense of personal safety, Miranda put her needs second to someone who was an acquaintance at best, and he became part of the family that Christmas. That was Miranda. You never knew who was going to be sleeping on her couch, or would show up at two in the morning in her and Phil’s basement bar. All were welcomed and taken care of.

Miranda became Miranda Squires when she married the handsome Phil Squires July 12, 2014. The wedding was beautiful. She was beautiful. But the young couple had already joined their lives together when they welcomed Brandon Squires into the world seven years earlier on the 25th of May 2007. They further cemented their union when Alyssa was born November 13, 2008. You have to ask Phil if it was intentional, but at 17 months apart, Brandon and Alyssa almost match the 19 months that separate my birthday from my older sister’s (and if you ask Mom and Dad, this certainly was not intentional). I hope their bond stays as strong as ours and they look out for each other the way we did.

She took some courses here and there, experimenting with Veterinary sciences and working for the SPCA, before deciding to take up her Dad’s noble profession; a laborer. Her Dad was in the labourer’s union for 42 years, so being Daddy’s little girl and all, she set out to surpass her father in the trade. She joined the Construction and General Workers Union Local 92 in 2006 and has been working on shut downs, building sites and plants ever since. She had her father’s knack for being well-liked and was often one of the last people laid off on any job, and one of the first to get hired back; a badge of honour for anyone in that field. I think she more than lived up to Dad’s stellar reputation and I don’t doubt she made him proud every day she went to work.

Last Easter, my wife, Neshali, and I visited from Singapore. As it goes, Miranda was keeping us up late into the night and the early morning playing her favourite songs and forcing me to dance with her. Suddenly, she sprung up from the bar and announced we were all going to write clues for Brandon and Alyssa’s Easter Egg hunt the next morning. We set to work diligently writing out rhyming clues and hiding all the wonderful gifts and candies the kids would find in a 15-minute wave of excitement the next morning. We were in bed by four, five or God knows what hour. I stayed in bed ignoring the early morning giggling and the squealing children stomping around the house finding clues. Miranda was up and at it, making breakfast, helping the kids, being superstar mother as usual. Incredible.

The last text I got from Miranda were excited photos of clues for this year’s Easter Egg hunt. “I got the treasure hunt all planned all rhymes,” she said. “So excited!”

She never had any enemies, but if there was one, it was probably sleep. One of her favourite things to do was to stay up late into the night listening to music a little too loud and making phone calls to friends and family she was thinking about, probably sparked by a song that reminded her of them. It was a loving gesture, but tempered by the disorientation and irritation of a middle of the night call, these calls were predictably short and sometimes the love went only one way. I’ll miss them though.

When I finally moved to Singapore I thought I’d have this aspect of her personality licked. The clock is flipped, so if she calls at three am it’s about 14 hours later in Singapore, so I didn’t have any worries. Instead, breaking tradition as usual, she called me in the middle of the afternoon here to ensure I was getting calls in the middle of the night there. It just wouldn’t be the same otherwise, would it?

Miranda loved nature. A perfect day for her was spending time with friends and family outdoors. She toured Newfoundland’s craggy coastline from tip to tip admiring the Rock’s emerald parks and lakes, from St. John’s to St. Anthony. It was her first fond family vacation. She spent almost every weekend at home here in Gibbons, snow or sun, warming herself by a fire next to the Sturgeon River and watching Brandon and Alyssa play hockey for hours on the frozen river, or ride their side-by-sides through trails in the forest.

In the summer, the family loved to venture out camping just like we did when we were a family. Summers spent at our family lake lot with Mom and Dad gave way to summers spent next to the crystal-clear lakes and rivers in the mountains of B.C. and Alberta in a motorhome with Phil, Brandon and Alyssa.

If anybody instilled this love for nature in Miranda it was my Mom. She spent close to every weekend of her adult life out there creating paradise out of a farmer’s parking lot. Miranda loved that place as much as she did. I’ll think of her every time I’m staring at the sunset or admiring a mountain vista, and I hope you all do, too. She wouldn’t miss the moon or the stars for the world either. She always tipped her hat to mother nature when she could, so I’ll try my best to not take the natural world for granted.

I’ll always remember Miranda as someone who brought joy into the lives of everyone she touched. She’ll live on through her beautiful children Brandon and Alyssa. I’ll always see her in them. And we all have plenty of stories to share amongst ourselves when we want to laugh and remember a life well-lived. Please, let’s share those today.

Miranda always had the last word, so I’ll give her the last word today. The clue she sent me to the Easter egg hunt seems to say something about a place where I hope she’s at now.

“Look in a place where beats are made; where all mad emotions fade. A loud place is where I will be found; Boom, Bang, Crash, Pound, Pound!!”

* * * * * * * * * *

Miranda Marlene Marie Squires (Andre) passed away in her home in Gibbons, Alberta on Friday April 14, 2017.

Miranda was born on May 5, 1980 in Edmonton, AB to Debra (Moynes) and Allan Andre. She spent her childhood living in Gibbons, AB, but she finished her high school diploma in Edmonton and lived there until she met her future husband Phil Squires and they had Brandon, their first child, in 2007. Together they moved to Gibbons, where they had their second child, Alyssa, in 2008 and spent a happy ten years raising her family in her hometown.

She is survived by her brothers Todd (Neshali Weera) and Sheldon Andre (Rhonda Van Halst); her Granny Irene Dupuis; mother-in-law Emily Neary and father-in-law Jim (Squires); brother-in-law Joe Squires (Heather); sister-in-law Jennifer Squires and her nephew Ethan.

A celebration of her life will be held at Sturgeon Alliance Church (4910 52 St.) in Gibbons, AB at 1 p.m. on April 22, 2017. After the service the family will be gathering at the Gibbons Legion for a luncheon. All friends and family are welcome.

Expressions of sympathy may be forwarded to the family by visiting www.rosegardenchapel.com Rose Garden Chapel, Barrhead, Alberta 780.674.4644