Eunice Mildred Ewart

Eunice Mildred Ewart

1. Welcome

2. Barry’s Tribute

3. Karen’s Poem

4. Erica’s Tribute

5. Donna’s Tribute

6. In Mom’s Words

7. Mom’s Poem

8. Bruce’s Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

9. Wrap up

Barry’s Tribute

I struggle to find words to pay a fitting and suitable tribute to my mom. Whatever accolades I might find do not seem to do justice to her character and indomitable will.

So I will continue to do what I have been doing. Living my life with the qualities and characteristics that would honor her.

She was raised in a farming family and in the difficult years of the 1930s. She learned to make do or do without or be ingenious to create alternatives. She was practical, rooted and grounded. Family was important to her. We all know her love of our family and we should emulate that.

Her dad's farm provided generously for her family, but also for any hungry man who came to the gate. Nothing fancy, but good farm fare. I grew up believing the three food groups were meat, potatoes and vegetables! Mom grew up gardening to provide for the farm but she had a love of gardening that she carried into her adult years, including flower gardening. She had a green thumb and passed it on. I remember she paid us a cent or two per bulb we planted around Briarwood. Wages I then left on the fender of our vehicle driving up Sulphur Springs road...

I remember dimly my infant years on Glen Morris Drive, but I try to remember every sun drenched day at Briarwood. Her dream home. Our childhood dream. Gardens and ponds and streams and woods. The bounty of our gardens and the berry patches. The discovery of black raspberry syrup the year her jams didn't set properly. Best. Accident. Ever! Pets and wildlife. Boiling down sap and making maple syrup on the wood burning stove in the cottage. Magic Christmases filled with handicrafts. Christmas dinner feasts. Mom was the practical homemaker genius who brought these things to life

I tell people I lived a charmed childhood. Because I did. Because her love and her practical energy were big enough to make that come true.

When we left Briarwood it began the end of some dreams. But with mom it showed her other qualities. Character. Determination. Gumption. Courage. Stick to it ive ness.

When there were broken bones or broken teeth or appendicitis it was mom who was chief nurse. When there were broken hearts she consoled them. Including her own. When her marriage ended she picked up the pieces and forged bravely onward to build a new life of her own. Times were tough but she was practical, rooted and grounded.

There was no quit in her.

Then along came this other guy. Slim, tall, gruff, rough around the edges, but hard working, determined and a country gentleman. Bruce could bark a lot when he wanted, but his bark was worse than his bite. He had tender spots and one of them was for mom.

With their mutual determination they hitched their stars and built a business and a future for themselves in Novar. They secured a comfortable retirement for themselves, they worked hard to earn it and they deserved it. Pay attention - there's a lesson there.

No one deserved to put their feet up and enjoy that retirement more than mom and Bruce, and it was difficult to see that cut short by Bruce's illness. That loss was deep, but mom was practical, rooted and grounded.

There was no quit in her.

I held her hand in the hospital this past week and she still lovingly wore her wedding ring.

As her family of grandchildren and great grandchildren grew, GG delighted in attending their weddings, and then seeing new families take root. There is not one of you who was not precious to her.

I am glad mom got to enjoy her senior years into her 80's. Her life was not easy and she deserved the reward of golden years. But it was equally not easy as her circle of deep life long friends began to shrink. I am glad she enjoyed reasonable health until these last few months.

My mom had a quiet, practical faith in a kind and loving God. We shared that faith in a quiet moment before her surgery a couple weeks ago. She was practical, rooted and grounded even in her faith. She is now at home resting in the peace that faith provides. Thank you for sharing that faith with me, Mom.

Mom had a love of nature, gardening, bird life, art, music, quilting, and the landscapes of Ontario and the Canadian north, and it expressed itself in her painting, quilting, handicrafts and piano playing. Many of us have learned those same loves and passions from her. Thank you, Mom.

Do not stand at my grave and weep.

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

Karen’s Poem

Call in the clans

Big and small

Our matriarch has gone

She left our world of pain

To be free

Our mother now walks

In the afterlife to reunite

With those she loves

She will look down on us

Keep us safe

The body may be gone

But her love is ever lasting

Although we are sad

We must rejoice her life which is now pain free

Donna’s Tribute

After Barry’s remembrances, what can I say? My Mom has left a legacy of many things: a love of family, art in many forms – painting, sewing and quilting, tolework – a love of music, a love of gardening. More than anything, though, three things exemplify Mom’s legacy to me.

One legacy was brought to mind starkly in the last week. Staying with my friend, Tinamarie, our friend Jack got out the lawn mower and cut Tina’s lawn but mentioned that the mower blades were dull. Not only did Mom teach us to take care of our possessions but she also taught us to repair what could be repaired rather than just dispose of something and buy new. I mentioned to Tinamarie that there used to be men who walked Hamilton neighbourhoods ringing a bell and pulling a grinding wheel to sharpen knives and blades of all kinds and advised her to keep her eyes out. Well, lo and behold, I was at Tinamarie’s starting to work on today’s programme when I heard that familiar sound of the hand bell being rung....and rushing out, found out that yes, indeed, I could get her lawn mower blades sharpened – always providing I could find the key to the toolshed!! The key found, the blades have been sharpened and I have been thoroughly quizzed to see if there were other knives, etc. that my craftsman could see to at the same time. While the mode of transportation has changed from a journey on foot to a funky red truck, the sound of the hand bell remains the same and will always remind me of lessons taught to me by my mother and the need to “use up, wear out, fix or repair, and, in the case of food, to preserve”.

The other legacy that has been an important part of who I am is the fact that Mom truly was a “citizen of the world”. First as the secretary of the African Student’s Foundation and later as the International Student Advisor at McMaster University, she instilled a curiosity in me about other parts of the world leading to a lifelong itch to travel. Our house, as a child, had students from many countries wandering through. Postcards and letters arrived with exotic stamps that, combined with my grandfather’s and my Uncle Harry’s passed down stamp collections, has led to my career, my passion for travel, and my volunteer work internationally. Given that both Barry and I have travelled widely, Mom has – in addition to 1960’s trips to the UK and a 1970 trip to Kenya and a honeymoon in Hawaii in 1975 – had the good fortune to travel to Austria, Qatar, Jordan and Ireland to visit children and grandchildren. In having this career and passion, I believe my children have gained an education no classroom can provide.

Finally, my Mom was brave in the face of adversity not of her own making and strong enough to come through that adversity by facing up to it and dealing with it and fortunate to find the love of Bruce. Bruce never intruded between Mom and I but made it clear that he would always be there should he be needed. While I never had to take him up on that offer, knowing it was there helped me to face adversities of my own. We were fortunate to have known Bruce and, for all of us who could make it, to have celebrated their 25th Anniversary in June 2000 together..

Thank you Mom for everything you have given me!

In Mom’s Words

When I was a child and some unpleasant thing came along, my Mother would often console me by reminding me that as uncomfortable as t he situation was, it would pass by, and it always did. My Father, watching me always busying myself with one or another endeavour, often chuckled and vowed that no moss would gather under my feet from inactivity. Once he jested that when I died a little old lady, I would be telling the angels that I couldn’t go with them yet a while, that I still had things I wanted to do.

I was blessed with good parents that knew me well.

I’ve lived long years and still I’m human enough to want more years yet if I can be blessed with a sound mind and body. But I know that I do not command time as it passed.

God has been good to me for truly, I have lived a good life. There have certainly been low periods and disappointing times but there has been great joy, too, in being able to believe those would pass and that I might learn life lessons from them. In seeing and knowing so much that is good and beautiful in God’s creation, I have been thankful for that all my days. Enjoying reasonably good health, having good kin, and having known so many good people are gifts in any life, as is the satisfaction of using my talents to make life as good and as interesting as I could. And I have no regrets.

To those I love who come after me, please don’t weep for the circumstances of my life. Rather, care for others of the kin that survive me and strive to live you life well. Hopefully, I’ve passed on to you some inspiration and values for you to find happiness and satisfaction in your own life. That is the only measure of immortality that I can hope to leave for the life I have lived.

Eunice Ewart

February 2004

Mom’s Poem

I know I’ll wish I could have stayed

A longer while here with you

But that is not my choice to make

Dispose of my body’s dust wherever you may

If you can find a place where purple field violets grow\In carpeted profusion

You may scatter my dust there

In praise of such beauty

Then put smiles upon your faces, friend

And gaily move away

Get on with the celebration of life

For I shall be at comfortable rest

With thanksgiving for the joys I’ve known in living

E. M. S. May 22, 1974

Bruce’s Prayer

Dear Lord,

I’d like to thank you for all you have done to make my life much better than I could have ever done.

I know we have all sinned, Dear Lord, from the day that we were born and I have tried to make amends for that as my life has moved along.

You taught me how to be friendly and to lend a helping hand to those who were in need and needed a helping hand.

As I get on in years and I see how age takes it\s toll, I see our health gets worse, our memories fade and how hard it gets for those we hold so dear.

Before it’s my last day on earth, I’d like to pray for you by saying to all who hear my thoughts, here is my prayer for you:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation and deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. Amen

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Eunice Mildred Ewart (née Drew) passed away quietly on May 25, 2015 in her 85th year. Beloved wife of the late Bruce Ewart. Loved mother of Donna (Michael) Capper, Peter (Ivy Tabobandung) Scammell and Barry (Nancy) Scammell. Loved step-mother of Karen (Jeff) McLauchlan, Wayne Ewart, and the late Bud Ewart, Bob Ewart and Sandy Kaes. Adored grandmother of Aislyn (Luke) Lichty, Molly (Darryl) Kirsch, Gillian (David) Koh, Brian Scammell, Jonathan Scammell, Erica (Tim) Baerwald, Elizabeth Jordan-Scammell, C.J, Alan and Jonathan Price. Adored “GG” to her great-grandchildren: Eve and Anne Lichty, Gabriel and Jacob Kirsch, Natalie Koh, Aiden Scammell, Finn and Theo Baerwald and Damian Price. Friends and family are invited to call at CRESMOUNT FUNERAL HOME – FENNELL CHAPEL, 322 Fennell Avenue East, Hamilton from 12 - 1 p.m. on Friday, May 29, 2015 followed by the Memorial Service at 1 p.m. Memorial donations to the Mary Margaret Scammell Travel Scholarship Fund at McMaster University, Hamilton, ON or Habitat for Humanity, Global Village Canada would be appreciated by the family. On-line condolences may be left at www.cresmountfennellchapel.com.