May 14, 1924 - Dec. 18, 2020
Some people wear their heart on their sleeve. Mom kept hers on the small table beside her bed. There along with the clock radio and the phone stood a box of treasured photos and four displayed ones that would greet her every night and morning.
The photos were from 70 years before. She'd been a widow for over 35 years by the time she died but the photos at her bedside those of her young self and the young Frank Werbecky she'd married on May 6, 1949. Two of the photos were the frontpiece of a box of photos that Mom could open and leaf through for photos of her parents, her brothers and sisters, her in-laws, long-ago friends and neigbours... but above all photos of her own family at picnics, birthday parties, sports events....
Her husband and a family of eight children were what Mom dedicated her life to. When the kids grew up, they were still welcomed back at times of illness or trouble, or to have Mom cook Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners for all. When her children had children of their own, Mom was always there to be a grandmother, a babysitter, a helper to a two-wage-earner family. And when her daughter Linda fell into a long illness, Mom moved into an apartment in the same building to nurse her.
Even in her 90th year, Mom seemed indestructible. But shortly after losing her daughter Linda to ovarian cancer in 2015, Mom's own health deteriorated. She loved to look at photos of her great-grandchildren but she could no longer babysit or cook for them.
Anne was predeceased by her husband Frank and by her daughter Linda. She was also predeceased by her own parents, Stan and Rose Chamba (nee Molduwan); by her brothers Jack, Tofi, Eddie, Frank, Steve and Bruce; and by her sisters Mary Chambers, Josie Einarson, Nell Kachur, Sally Bennet and Vicki Stefaniuk.
She is survived by their son Robert; by her daughter Susan (Bill) Bradley and Sue's stepchildren Tammy and Jason; by her son Blaine (Robin) Werbecky and Blaine's stepdaughter Crystal Colby; by her daughter Judy (John) Suttie and Jude's daughter Anne; by her son Duncan (Cheryl) Werbecky and Dunc's stepson Mike, daughter Lyndsay and son Reese: by her daughter Joan (Errol) Schell and Joan's children Megan and Beau; and by her son Frank (Corrina) Werbecky and Frank's children Kaleena and Dallas.
Her great-grandchildren are Crystal's children Haley, Cage, Jackson and Charlie Kneebone; Anne and Josh Klok's daughter Eliza and son Lukas; Lyndsay (Brendan) Bowes' sons Eddie, Keides and Stryder; and Megan (Dave) Wilson's adoptive children James and Annabelle.
Those who knew Mom loved her. When she died, our world dimmed.
Rest in peace, Mom.
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