Maria Bruni Bossio

BOSSIO, Maria – It is with great sadness that we the family announce the passing of Maria on Monday, October 19, 2009 at the age of 71. Beloved wife of Agostino for 51 years. Precious and loving mother of Laurina Cobisa (Julian), Maurizia Meraglia (Robert), Milva Grammatikakis (George), Nita Garofalo (Lorenzo) and Iva Miller (Joe). Cherished Nanna of Sabrina, Dante, Frank, Michael, Dimitri, Alexandra, Albert, Maria, Julia and Joey. Daughter of the late Antonio and Luisa Bruni. Sister of Angelo Bruni, Carmela Coccimiglio (late Gaetano) and Emilio Bruni (Maria). Sister-in-law of Fiorenzo Bossio (Teresina) and Adolfo Bossio (Isabella). Also survived by many nieces and nephews. Her genuine love will remain in our hearts forever. She will be greatly missed. Friends may call at the Arthur Funeral Home & Cremation Centre on Thursday, October 22, 2009 from 6 – 9 pm. Funeral Mass to be celebrated at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 10 am. Rev. Eric Pannike officiating. Interment Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. Memorial contributions to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church would be appreciated.

Eulogy read at Maria's Service

On behalf of our family, I would like to welcome and thank everyone very much for being here today.

At this time, we would like to share our thoughts about our beloved and very special and beautiful mother, Maria.

She was a woman whose life was dedicated completely to her family. She nurtured, comforted, and supported her five daughters and ten grandchildren and husband throughout their lives.

She welcomed friends and family with open arms, a warm, sweet smile, and lots and lots of home made food …. always prepared completely from the heart.

Throughout her life, she went above and beyond to bring the family together to celebrate special occasions and holidays. One of her greatest joys were family gatherings where the family members were all together sharing a meal. She would often have two stoves working and prepared wonderful meals.

There is a very long list of foods that only she could prepare in her own special way. To name a few, her gnocchi, biscotti, green olives, homemade pastries, pastas …. we could go on and on – the list is too long to mention. All of her food was prepared with the greatest of care and love.

We will always feel her presence at future family gatherings and meals. She was very hard working and extremely giving. All of her efforts were tireless, and no task too large if it meant helping her family.

She was very wise and knew all the right comforting words that would help ease our pains or worries. She always kept things peaceful. She knew what to say and what not to say at all the right times.

She kept the peace among all family members and made it quite clear that she was unhappy whenever anyone argued – she had her gentle way of expressing her wishes that we should all get along and love one other.

She had a wonderful life and experienced many celebrations. She shared in all our happiest moments in life, our younger growing years, marriages, birth of all ten grandchildren, each were all equally special to her. She was extremely proud of her daughters, and grandchildren . She was also very proud of her sons-in-law who she treated like actual sons…and enjoyed having them in her life.

She was an excellent example to all of us – never raised her voice, never had any hurtful words, gave freely of her time, was COMPLETELY unselfish, strong, caring, giving, courageous, kind….. Her patience in life was beyond belief.

She truly had all of these qualities each and every day of her life.

She walked step by step beside her daughters as they raised their children. Giving advice and easing worries, especially after the births of each of her grandchildren.There was nothing that she would not do at any time. She offered her complete time, support, and care in order to help in the raising of the grandchildren. This brought her great joy.

Each and every grandchild can share with you how special nana was to them. She knew exactly how to comfort them, cook their special meals, spend quality and comforting time with them, always making them feel safe, loved, and very special. She adored all her grandchildren.

She loved to laugh and enjoyed very long conversations, many that would go on for hours and hours with her daughters, friends, and other family members, be it in person or on the phone.

She provided a strong shoulder to lean on whenever anyone was going through difficult times in their lives and always found a way to leave everyone feeling that things would be OK no matter what challenges they faced.

She was a loving and completely devoted wife to our dad, Agostino -- in good times and bad, in sickness and health all the days of her life. They were married 51 years -- a strong team that loved each other very deeply and shared all the same family values through the years. They supported each other in all major family decisions and were always close together through their lives.

She was a very devoted and special daughter to our late beloved grandmother Luisa Bruni who loved her dearly through her life. A wonderful sister and sister-in-law, a special aunt and a very good friend to many -- all who knew her felt her love and genuine care.

In life, we all encounter many challenges. She faced her share of struggles but she never complained and never gave up. She understood that this was balanced with much happiness and joy.

She drew great strength from her love of family and faith in God. She endured and accepted what she faced and never complained.

Unfortunately, the last two years have brought her major challenges which could not be overcome completely. After a long stream of tests she was finally diagnosed with a rare incurable illness called PSP(Progressive Supranuclear Palsy) - The symptoms of this disease progressed very quickly. This year, she began to realize that she could no longer do what she had been doing all of her life – giving and caring for her family in her own way – all of her energy and her ability to be mobile was taken from her, along with her voice, in the most recent stages of her illness.

This was extremely devasting to her – especially because she now realized that she could no longer continue doing all the things that she loved to do for her family.

She did not enjoy having to be so dependent on her family, and being in such a difficult state. This greatly saddened her. We as a family understand how difficult this was for her and all tried to help her through this as much as possible.

Despite all this, she continued to push to be herself and to continue to express her love and care for us right until the last second of her life.

We all want her to know that she has given us more than words can ever express and we are truly grateful – The family, and especially our dad, tried their best to do all we could to help her through her illness. Unfortunately – this battle was too difficult to overcome.

She is now very peaceful – her love will remain in our hearts forever.

We are forever grateful and thank God for the gift of having our beautiful mother, Maria in our lives. Thank you for your never ending unconditional love.

You have taught us many great lessons – we your daughters, and all who knew you, can now honour you in many ways and will try to follow your examples of goodness, kindness and love in our lives.

You will be greatly missed and never forgotten. YOU WILL REMAIN IN OUR HEARTS FOR ETERNITY.

WE LOVE YOU….

For everything there is a season,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up

that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones,

and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to

refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate;

a time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecc. 3:1-8

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

1 John 3:1-2

Jesus looked up to heaven and prayed:

“Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; And these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.

John 17: 24-28