Mrs. Diane Kennedy Ingles

Thank you all for coming today.

Mom was born in Vancouver December 12th, 1928 at Vancouver General Hospital to Tom & Marjorie Kennedy. Her dad Tom had arrived in Vancouver as a young lad from the west coast of Scotland while her mom Marjorie had arrived in Vancouver from Ontario via horse and covered wagon as a young girl. Diane was born a milk mans daughter as Tom was the original horse and buggy milk delivery man that eventually became known as Dairyland. Mom would tell us stories about how her dad (our grandpa) would arrive home sleeping in the buggy while the horse brought him home safe and sound. As the story is told...money was short during the depression years and people would pay their milk bill to grandpa with alcohol. Mom was always amazed how the horse knew the route back home with her dad sleeping away the effects of the payment. Mom’s parents where well known in the race track, bowling, baseball, lacrosse and field hockey communities in Vancouver. As a young girl her dad would take her down to the Hastings Race Track to spend the day. Mom had fond memories of those days and the thrill of watching horse races stayed with her until the end. Mom also had memories of going to bed at night with her dad at the kitchen table surrounded by his friends who would gamble with cards until the wee hours of the morning. In fact, mom remembered many times that the same card game was going on when she woke up in the morning to go to school and at times Grandpa’s pay check was sitting in the middle of the pile. Times were tough in the depression days. Mom had very proud memories of her parents because they were prolific bowlers and avid sports achievers. Both her mom and dad bowled while her dad was busy as a baseball umpire and her mom played lacrosse and field hockey. Both Tom and Marjorie were in the Vancouver Hall of Fame for bowling and lacrosse.

Mom attended King Edward High School in Vancouver and this is where Diane and Bill first met in 1942. The handsome football quarterback and the beautiful bright red-head fell in love immediately. They were married in September 1949. Diane had a very successful career working for the Royal Bank. Diane started with the Royal Bank right after her high school graduation in 1947. Diane and her best girlfriend Teeny Smith worked at the original deposit centre at Broadway and Granville. Bill, following in his father-in-law’s footsteps, joined the company of Dairyland. Bill was eventually transferred to Terrace B.C. to start up a Dairyland plant and distribution centre in 1962. Bill and Diane along with their two young daughters Donna and Laurie moved to Terrace and lived there for the next 25 years. Diane and Bill had a very active community life. Dad became the Northwest Regional Manager for Dairyland from Prince Rupert to Prince George, President of the Terrace Rotary Club, and ran for Alderman. Mom was active in the Mills Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, Candy stripers, Brownies organization, when Donna and Laurie where in the Brownies and Girl guides, as well as the Rotary Anns who were wives of the Rotarians. Both were active members of the Royal Canadian Legion in Terrace. Mom continued to work full-time in Terrace for the Royal Bank reaching the status of a deposit officer until 1983 when her health became too compromised to continue working. Mom loved working with all the staff, managers, and customers over the years that knew her so well in Terrace. Mom and Dad had many good friends that included Dairyland, Rotary and Royal Bank friends. Of special note, Harry and the late Binnie Rogers where amazing friends and second parents to Donna and Laurie. Mom and Dad enjoyed passing their summer time at their cabin on Lakelse Lake 20 minutes outside of Terrace. Mom and Dad where well known to have a never-ending stash of cold beer lying in the creek beside the cabin. All who visited them knew they were welcome to a cold beer anytime. Even during the liquor strikes in the late 70’s and 80’s Mom and Dad had a very well stocked creek with the special “Black Label” fish!

By 1985 it was time to move and Mom and Dad lived in Vernon for a short time with Dad finishing his career at Dairyland there and then they retired to Abbotsford in 1988. They moved into the brand new Crown Point Villa and have stayed here ever since. They met and enjoyed new friends here, rekindled old Vancouver friends and family, and enjoyed being with their daughters and their growing families in Langley and Abbotsford. Mom and Dad enjoyed their travels twice to Hawaii and then once to Arizona until Mom’s health stopped all travels.

Mom’s health would be the dominant focus for her for the last 30 years of her life. She had her first heart attack at the age of 55 and over the next 30 years she would undergo 2 open heart surgeries, 14 angiograms, 5 rounds of stents, 2 pacemakers, many, many blood tests, procedures and hospital admissions into St. Pauls, VGH, Abbotsford, and Tucson, Arizona. To the surprise of many doctors mom had beaten the odds and came back from the brink of death more times than one should endure. We can all agree that mom’s tenacity along with her red-haired temperament helped her to stay with us as long as she could. In 1991 Mom’s arteries from her first open heart had started to close down again. Her heart specialist at St. Pauls wanted to do a very new procedure called angioplasty back then by placing stents in the artery to open them up. Mom was ready to go and bravely faced the new procedure...during the procedure while mom was awake the doctor was telling her what was happening ....”and there is the line and there is the stent and good there is the new blood flow working....uh oh....the artery had burst... we need immediate open heart....as mom recalled they literally ran with her on the stretcher down the hall having her sign papers on the fly for permission to do another open heart surgery....mom always said it was like being on tv watching the lights in the hall way zoom by....the heart team had just put to sleep another lady to for her open heart instead they took her off the table and put mom on where she had another successful open heart surgery which saved her life. This doctor actually used mom’s case to teach the heart surgeons in Ontario because no one usually survives this trauma...but hey...we are talking about our Mom here....of course she beat the odds again. And mom didn’t mind being famous in the heart specialist field either! Another time when she was close to death 5 years ago, two of Mom’s doctors greeted Laurie and I in her hospital room and told us that Mom will not come back this time. They told us to prepare for the worst because no one comes back from this situation. Mom was unconscious and in a very poor way. We gathered the family around her bed and said a prayer. A few hours later Mom seemed to be struggling with her oxygen mask and all of a sudden she threw off the mask, sat up in bed, looked at us and asked “What happened? Did I get hit by a bus?” We were all stunned and then laughed and then hugged. The nurses came in and said “Welcome back Mrs. Ingles”. This was a familiar and happy sound to hear over the years....welcome back Mrs. Ingles.

Her last hospital admission was on September 23, 2010. We all knew this time, once again, it didn’t look good. The emergency department admitted her to the ACE unit which stands for Acute Care for the Elderly. Mom had fought very hard for years not to be admitted there...she always told us that that place was for the old people anyway....and she refused to go.... there is that red-haired temperament at work again...and we always laughed together about that....and she was always subsequently admitted to Cardiac Care with the nurses telling her “welcome back Mrs. Ingles..."

This time however ....would be the only time that she could not win that battle. The nurses there were fantastic and cared for our family as well as mom to the very end. Her sister Helen, Donna ,Laurie, Dave, Jaime, Kelly, Cassandra, Delaina and Connor were all with her when Mom passed from this world. Mom was conscious although unable to communicate with us.... I told mom that Dad was waiting for her with a nice cold beer and his arms are ready to hold you and to dance together once again. I told her that along with Dad their was a party of people ready to great her...her mom and dad, her brother Gord, her nephew Kirk, her sisters-in-law Sheila and Laura-Mae, her brothers-in-law Jack and George and her niece Wendy along with many friends. We all told her we would all miss her so much but we would be okay...she took a few more breaths and she passed in the morning of September 30th. Her suffering was over.

Today we celebrate Mom’s life with many memories that each of us here have today. You will see during the slide show the many times spent together with family or friends with trips to Banff, Jasper, Seattle, Vegas, Arizona, Hawaii, Vernon, Terrace, dinners, family get togethers, weddings, births of her grandchildren and two great grandchildren who she all loved and adored.

We also celebrate today with the Yellow Roses that you all have as they are a symbol of love. Mom and Dad were married with Yellow Roses and these are moms very favorite flower. Dad always sent anniversary or birthday flower arrangements to mom at the Royal Bank that always included one yellow rose in the centre to symbolize their love together. At Mom’s retirement party from the Royal Bank in 1986 all fellow employees, managers, customers, family, and friends each brought a single yellow rose to give to mom. She had well over 250 roses at the end of the night. What a tribute to a very much loved and admired lady. So today, our family continues to share her love and celebrate the symbolic meaning of yellow roses... to feel mom’s love, and our family’s love for her and to extend that to all of you.

Our family thanks you so much for coming and offering us your support today and in the weeks to come. With love, Donna, Laurie and all of our families.