Mrs Leanne Theresa Hegarty

Leanne passed away peacefully on Sunday, March 27th, 2022, after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer.

The wife, best friend and soulmate of Alexander Adam and beloved mother of Sean Hegarty Adam. She is survived by her father-in-law Reinhardt Adam (Germany), and her brother David Hegarty (Toronto), our cat Gizmo, and family and friends. Beloved god-daughter of Nevaida.

Predeceased by her mother Anne and her father Anthony, her mother-in-law Helga and her faithful companion Bandit. She will be missed by many members of her extended Canadian, German and Irish family, who are too numerous to mention.

Leanne was a Graduate of Queens University of Kingston with a Bachelor of Arts - Economics and the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce.

She started her career at CIBC in Toronto, continued her career in Alberta with CIBC, Nakiska Ski Area, Ernst & Young, before moving to Southern Germany to work for SAP SE in Walldorf/Baden. There she married and gave birth to her son Sean before returning to Canada in the summer of 2008. She continued her career at SAP Canada Inc in Montreal, before switching to Sunlife Insurance Company and then Morgan Stanley.

When first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she quickly underwent treatment, determined to beat the disease. For many years she was in remission before it returned in January 2020. Her positive attitude and fighting spirit continued as she researched all her options and was always pushing the doctors for new treatments or new avenues to pursue. She fought to the end so that she could continue to be with her husband and son.

Leanne loved to travel throughout the world, embracing different cultures and exploring the great outdoors, especially mountains. This led her to places, like the Rockies, The Alps, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Ngauruhoe in New Zealand. If you wanted to find Leanne on any vacation, you had to look outside of the hotel or resort as she was always in search of an adventure.

She was known to her friends, family and colleagues as a very open-hearted, caring and thoughtful person. She valued her friends and treasured the relationships she made throughout her life.

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To my family and friends,

I’m not sure how exactly one goes about writing their own eulogy, but I am determined to write mine so you can hear my thoughts on my life and what is important to me. This could turn into a long thank you letter, let’s see.

As many of you know, I grew up mostly in Mississauga and much of my childhood was spent in a single parent home. My parents split early, bringing peace to our home. But that split resulted in a lot of extra responsibilities falling on me in order to help out my mom and brother. Nevertheless, we still had great times, spending our summers in Florida, enjoying the beach scene, with lots of swimming and beach volleyball. I loved the feel of the sun on my face and the smell of the salt air. I loved the relaxed atmosphere. It was through these trips that I learned that travelling away from our regular life, was a welcome break and offered excitement and fun. Those trips may have planted the seeds that led to my desire to travel in the future.

I also have countless fond memories of family get-togethers with my cousins, many of whom are about the same age as me. Thanksgiving, Christmas, communions, confirmations, Easter were just some of the occasions we celebrated with several families together. I was always very sad at the end of those visits and hated to see everyone leave. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my aunts, uncles and cousins for bringing so much joy into our home and especially into my life.

Another key influence in my life was a friend who I had a major crush on - he convinced me that Queen’s was a great university and I forewent studying commerce to attend that university. Don’t worry the crush was long over when I made the decision. Going away to Queen’s was my first chance to discover and define myself, free of influence of my clique of friends and of family. I made great lifelong friends at Queen’s - no matter where we are in the world, we are still connected. I also learned how to live in a house of 7 with one bathroom!!!

I was always very career oriented my entire life. When asked what, if anything, I would want to do over, the answer was always related to a job or career. Over the years I’ve had many jobs and career opportunities which have strongly shaped my life’s circumstances. From tree planting to working in a bank to being a cashier at the milk store, I had the opportunity early on to meet many people who would influence me. My tree planting experience led me to taking a road trip to the West coast with my friend Hilary. I got a job at the bank right away, and stayed in Alberta for over 7 years. I quickly transferred to working at a ski resort, which was much more fitting to the west coast adventure I was seeking. There I learnt of my hidden talents for setting up computer applications. I returned to university to study in Calgary and finally obtained that coveted Bachelor of Commerce degree, which led to a brief stint as an accountant. However, my hidden talent in the software space was still to be realized as my true career calling. Luckily, I got a job working on a huge software implementation project, that being SAP’s business software.

Another person who was a key influence in my life was Julia Stoffregen. By pure coincidence she was my assigned roommate at the University of Calgary residence. Julia is from Germany and when it came time to apply for a new job, I decided I wanted to work in Europe for a couple of years. The connection here is that she and her two friends convinced me that I could also apply for jobs in Germany even without speaking German. Just my luck, I applied at several companies in Germany, England and Ireland, and I was chosen by SAP in Germany for a job in computer coding, not that I was any good at coding but they would teach me. Without that connection, I would have never thought to work in Germany, and I never would have met the love of my life, Alexander, who worked in the same department as me at SAP. And despite being in the same department, we may have never really met, if it were not for matchmaker Jodi Mazic who facilitated our getting together.

Alexander, you stood by me through thick and thin, moved halfway around the world to Canada for me, I will always love you! You gave me the most wonderful son a mother could ask for.

Sean I always tried to be a mother first, I hope I did well enough for you. I cannot describe how much I love you and how I regret that I will not be with you in life. I hope the love I have for you will be with you always.

To Reinhardt, my father-in-law, thank you for all you have done and continue to do. Danke, dass du immer da warst, um mir zu helfen.

I want to thank my cousins Gail LaGroix Gauvreau and Katherine Lagroix for being there for me, along with my cousin from another mother, Irene Thompson, and her family. It gave me great comfort to feel part of a large extended family.

I’d also like to take the time to thank friends, family and neighbours who stood by me during my illness. From fresh tasty meals to FaceTIme calls to visits from out of province all during a pandemic. Your care, love and concern did not go unnoticed. Thank you all. I’m especially grateful because during the last year I was pretty much bedridden and the extra company was appreciated.

I have so many people I would like to acknowledge but as I said at the beginning, this might turn into a long goodbye letter and I would rather it end on a note to celebrate our lives together.

So I say thank you to everyone who touched my life and to my family, remember how important you were to me and that I died knowing that I was surrounded by your love.

Leanne

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The Hegarty Adam Family invites you to commemorate the life and passing of Leanne Hegarty.

Leanne passed away peacefully on Sunday, March 27th, 2022, after a long battle with metastatic breast cancer.

The wife, best friend and soulmate of Alexander Adam and beloved mother of Sean Hegarty Adam. She is survived by her father-in-law Reinhardt Adam (Germany), and her brother David Hegarty (Toronto), our cat Gizmo, and family and friends. Beloved god-daughter of Nevaida.

Predeceased by her mother Anne and her father Anthony, her mother-in-law Helga and her faithful companion Bandit. She will be missed by many members of her extended Canadian, German and Irish family, who are too numerous to mention.

Leanne was a Graduate of Queens University of Kingston with a Bachelor of Arts - Economics and the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Commerce.

She started her career at CIBC in Toronto, continued her career in Alberta with CIBC, Nakiska Ski Area, Ernst & Young, before moving to Southern Germany to work for SAP SE in Walldorf/Baden. There she married and gave birth to her son Sean before returning to Canada in the summer of 2008. She continued her career at SAP Canada Inc in Montreal, before switching to Sunlife Insurance Company and then Morgan Stanley.

When first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, she quickly underwent treatment, determined to beat the disease. For many years she was in remission before it returned in January 2020. Her positive attitude and fighting spirit continued as she researched all her options and was always pushing the doctors for new treatments or new avenues to pursue. She fought to the end so that she could continue to be with her husband and son.

Leanne loved to travel throughout the world, embracing different cultures and exploring the great outdoors, especially mountains. This led her to places, like the Rockies, The Alps, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and Mount Ngauruhoe in New Zealand. If you wanted to find Leanne on any vacation, you had to look outside of the hotel or resort as she was always in search of an adventure.

She was known to her friends, family and colleagues as a very open-hearted, caring and thoughtful person. She valued her friends and treasured the relationships she made throughout her life.

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Please RVSP for the Church service and wake:

https://forms.gle/Z6Vjx7xK3WNRgBi39

Guests who invite or become aware of additional numbers attending the day, should get in touch (with Organizer) regarding numbers, and refer them to the survey link.

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For those wishing to make a donation in her memory, please give consideration to one of the following registered charities:

* Breast Cancer Society of Canada https://bcsc.ca/

* Nova Home Care, Westmount https://www.novasoinsadomicile.ca/mission

* Hope and Cope, Montreal https://hopeandcope.ca/en/

* Germany/Europe: Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, Memo: ‘Leanne Hegarty’, https://www.dkfz.de/de/spenden/Trauerfall.html?m=1593624498&

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If you intend to send flowers for the Church Service / Wake - flowers must be delivered to the funeral home by 9:00 am EDT on April 8th, 2022.

The funeral home is working with:

Rita Fleuriste Montréal,

4487 Ch. de la Côte-des-Neiges, Montréal, QC H3V 1E7, Tel. +1 (514) 725-0444, https://www.ritafleuristemontreal.com/

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Pamphlet/worship guide for the memorial service - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kqXy1GdTo62EXcGcsSpkS9z-4Y3dj8F0/view?usp=sharing