Eulogy:

We wish to celebrate the life of Joanne Beryl Cairns (Feb 12, 1933-  Dec 28, 2014) with you.

Our mother Joanne Beryl Erlendson was born Feb 12th 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.  She was the second child of Magnus and Cora Erlendson. From a young age she knew she wanted to pursue higher education, however, her family were not able to help her financially with this goal.  As a result, she decided to go into the nurse training program at Winnipeg General Hospital and graduated as an RN in 1955.  She found that she loved nursing.  She worked as a nurse for a short time in Winnipeg before falling in love with Vancouver on a trip to visit her uncle Joe and aunt Thelma.  She moved out west and began work as a nurse at Chilliwack Hospital.   She also decided to obtain her university degree, and obtained her BSN in 1961 from the University of British Columbia.

At the wedding of a friend of her uncle and aunt, she first met Edwin Charles Cairns.  They dated for a while, but no sparks flew.  Fortunately for us, they reconnected again a year or so later, and this time there were wedding bells in the air.  Ed and Beryl were married on July 15, 1961. 

Mom worked at Vancouver General Hospital as a head nurse until 1964.  From 1961, she and dad began working on their own to build a house in Coquitlam; a complicated project that was not completed until the mid 1970's.  After May, 1964, our mother took on a much more difficult job than nursing; raising three children born in 1964, 1965, and 1966.  She often remarked of those years that it seemed like the diaper changes were never ending.

Mom threw all her energy into this new job.  Although she loved it, there were times when the slave-like working conditions did not live up to her expectations.  Several times she famously threatened to “go on strike” if certain children did not help out more with the chores….Fortunately for us, she never did, and she was always there for all the bumps and scrapes along the way.  As a nurse, she always tied to be compassionate when childhood injuries, such as broken teeth or bleeding head wounds, caused us to need her care.  But, even she could be tested.  When she arrived to take the most accident prone of her 3 children to the hospital after a second broken arm in less than a year, she did look him in the face and with great empathy stated, “you stupid kid”.
 
In the mid 70's, mom started to get an itch to go back into the nursing profession that she loved.  She took a refresher course at BCIT and restarted her nursing career, first at Royal Columbian Hospital.  However, she soon wanted to be more involved in community nursing, and took a position with homecare, which she continued in various locations until her retirement in 1994.  She had a true passion for nursing, and it was very difficult for her to leave the profession when the time came for her to retire.  Amongst the many people in the Coquitlam, New Westminster, Port Moody and Port Coquitlam that mom nursed, was a young man named Terry Fox, who had tried to complete a run across Canada in support of cancer research that ended when his own cancer returned partway to his goal.

Mom and Dad retired to Osoyoos in 1996.  Mom was at first reluctant to leave the lower mainland, particularly because her first grandchild, Alex, had been born in 1994.  More grandchildren arrived in 1996, 97 and 98.  Although it took time, mom slowly fell in love with living in the Okanagan and the wonderful friends she made in the town and surrounding area.  She told us many times in the last few years that she had no desire to live anywhere else.

What our mother loved most was planning and organizing things:

Travel:  Our mother lived to travel.  She loved to relive her trips, experiences and meals with us.  Perhaps it was her Viking blood, as she was especially proud of being of Icelandic descent.   Mom travelled widely through North & Central America as well as the Caribbean, to Australia and New Zealand, Indonesia, and throughout Europe and Scandinavia.  In 2001, she finally got to Iceland, the home of her ancestors.  She liked it so much, she returned a few years later with her sister, Ina, to see more of the country.
Above all, a near perfect trip for mom involved a cruise ship and/or a tropical destination.   If you wanted to get our mother excited, you just had to mention that perhaps she should take another cruise, and you would be treated to an enormous smile.  In particular, she really liked going to Caribbean and Hawaii.   Most of all, she loved going on trips with the whole family.  She always wanted all of us to share her enjoyment of travelling and exploring, and we did!

Parties:  Mom also was passionate about parties.  She loved planning them, inviting guests, and enjoying the company of the many people she held dear at these events.  She loved attending parties at others houses, or events, such as New Year's eve parties at the Osoyoos Senior's centre.  If she was responsible for the party, she really wanted and worked very hard to make sure that everyone was having a good time.  But of course, she also often had a very good time, and occasionally “too” good a time.  This never dampened her enthusiasm.  She greatly looked forward to any social gathering, big or small.

Family Gatherings:  Mom especially liked to have the family around her.  She was particularly fond of family dinners and planning the menu.  Many of our family traditions revolved around certain dishes that mom liked to make, such as 7 layer salad, and for Christmas, desserts such as Crème de Menthe, broken glass and peanut butter squares.  Mom also made delicious oatmeal and peanut butter cookies.   Although in her final few years she found baking difficult, for Christmas this year she made a special effort to supply peanut butter cookies for our family dinner in Richmond.  She would do anything for family.

Stories and coining new terms:   Another thing Mom loved was to tell stories.  She told us many stories about her youth.  A particularly funny one was about her getting caught trying to give an enema to one of her siblings; a sure sign that she was destined to be a nurse. Another story she told us every time we travelled south to Osoyoos through the Okanagan valley was about the Indian maidens who were sacrificed from the steep cliff just south of Vaseux lake.

She could also come up with really funny misinterpretations of names for things.  In the mid 1980's Dairy Queen introduced a new frozen treat and, knowing she loved ice cream, we brought one to Mom.  She said she loved it so we brought her another one a few weeks later and she said "Oooh a BUZZARD!  I love BUZZARDS!".  And we said buzzard? What is a BUZZARD? What are you talking about mom?  And then we noticed the "L" and "I" on the cup look like a "U"... Ohhhhhh.  Most people would just call them blizzards after that but not mom.  She didn't like to be wrong about anything.  She was also prone to silliness.  She had many more blizzards and, with her tongue in her cheek, she insisted on calling it a BUZZARD every time for the next 30 years!

We will close by reading an old Irish Blessing that our mother wanted to share with all of you and the Lord's prayer, in Icelandic:



May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be forever at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
May the rain fall soft upon your fields, and until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.



Faðir vor, þú, sem ert á himnum. 
Helgist þitt nafn, til komi þitt ríki, verði þinn vilji svo á jörðu sem á himni.
Gef oss í dag vort daglegt brauð. 
Og fyrirgef oss vorar skuldir, svo sem vér og fyrirgefum vorum skuldunautum.
Eigi leið þú oss í freistni, heldur frelsa oss frá illu.
Því að þitt er ríkið, mátturinn og dýrðin að eilífu.
Amen.

So sad to hear of your loss.  Beryl was a special person and I know will be greatly missed.

Merv & Rosemarie Olsen,Coquitlam

My deepest sympathies to the Cairn  family. Beryl will be missed  by all who knew her. She was a special member of our 55A WGH nursing class.
                                                                 Barbara Whiticar (Burnaby B.C.)

With deepest sympathy to you in your sorrow at this difficult time. Beryl will be missed by all who knew her. She was a devoted wife, mother and nurse.

Ed and Family:  so sorry for your loss.  Beryl was a special classmate of our close knit  Winnipeg General Hospital nursing class of 1955A.  We will miss her so much at our 60th reunion  in Winnipeg this spring. 
Marilyn Reddy Regina, Saskatxhewan

We are thinking of you and so sad to to hear of your loss.

Jim and Sheila Skinner
Winnipeg, MB

We are so very sad to hear of your loss and we send our deepest sympathies to Ed and family of Beryl.  Ron and Marlene Johnston, Green Valley, Arizona

Dear Ed & family
Our sincere sympathy, goes out to all of you at this sad time. I feel very blessed to have spent quality time with Beryl & You, Ed, during our coffee breaks, & playing cards, while we lived in Osoyoos..
Beryl was a great lady, & a good friend to me..& will be sadly missed.
Love Virginia & family.

Please accept our most heartfelt sympathies for your loss
Our thoughts are with you Ed and your family during this difficult time
Rick and Lois

A loving farewell to my special sister, Beryl. You will always be my hero. I will miss you so much

OBITUARY

Joanne Beryl Cairns

12 February, 1933 – 28 December, 2014

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