Bernice Elizabeth (Couch) Sauer passed on the 8th day of the 8th month of her 98th year, in her home with her gardens in full summer bloom. She was the wife of Harry Sauer, mother of Laura, Ted, Bev, and Craig, sister to Guy Couch, Jeanne McCourt, and Lois Corney, mother-in-law to Gerald Rosberg, Maureen Sauer, Diana Krinner, Richard Jones, Eric Gawman, and Patti Sauer, grandmother to Leslie (Sudeep), Leonard (Danna), Robert, Harrison, Emily, and Carson (Cassy), and great-nana to Rohan and Ashwin, Sloane and Jasper, and player to be named in coming weeks.
What mattered most to Bernice was loving her family, each as she/he/they were, and caring for Harry through his 100 years. Bernice could lead: she was nominated ‘Business Person of the Year,’ elected President of Lady Shriners overseeing fundraising for Cripple Children’s Hospital, and was one gold point shy of ‘Grand Master’ in Duplicate Bridge. Bernice would learn: she studied architecture and design to work on plans for the house build, joined an ‘Investors’ Club, was computer savvy, and ‘News’ was the white noise of her home. She rallied around her Blue Jays, her Queen, and Women Heads of State. On pretty much everything else she was open to suggestions.
Bernice ‘Skidge’ Couch born to Clarissa and Leonard in lower Stamford, lived above ‘Couch’s Grocery’ and then the ‘Patterson House’ on Church’s Lane. There was joy in accomplishment at the elbow of Grandma Potter, matriarch of ‘the Cedars,’ and reading ‘Black Beauty’ to her. She learned charity helping mother use end-of-week butcher meats for ‘Clara’s Coronation Meatloaf’ and serving it to those in need on Mondays before School. She even entered politics as a schoolgirl passing out pamphlets for her father who became Reeve of Stamford Township. At Stamford CVI, Bernie was a cheerleader with Judy LaMarsh, a gymnast, and in Drama Club. Foremost as a student of Elocution, she memorized poems and dramatic readings for exams in Toronto and to entertain at social gatherings. Poetry recitations settled her children for bed and her love of theater influenced us as professionals and patrons of the Arts.
Wartime put young women to work. Bernice ran Dr. Colin Brown’s office where she saved a patient’s life with a direct transfusion of her O-negative blood. The morning bus to Niagara Falls dropped her at Walker’s Drugstore with time to read ‘the paper’ over coffee. Young pharmacist Harry Sauer took notice. Bernie was wedded to Harry in a ‘wartime short’ blue dress. Their honeymoon was cut short when her brother, Guy Couch, was killed grounding a Lancaster Bomber in woodland to avoid civilian loss in Langon, France. By 1946, Harry and Bernice opened ‘Sauer’s Drug Store’ and then ‘Stedman’s Centre 5 to $1.00’ at the site of a wartime ‘Soldier’s Social Club’ on Victoria at Clifton Hill. Family lore has it that sales of 222’s, Joy Perfume, and ‘Surprise Packages’ covered University Tuition for four children.
Business was consuming, but Bernie and Harry loved ‘sprees’ and ‘jaunts’ and travel. With a young family, staff training week at Fern Resort on Lake Couchiching was a tradition, and eventually grand cruises with Reef and friends to the Caribbean and Hawaii. Bernice went to Europe and to her brother’s grave. In 40 years, this was the first that Bernice did not spend a winter week at St. Pete’s Beach, Florida, and a summer week on her beloved Lake Couchiching.
The Sauers are deeply grateful to the medical team who cared for Bernice with warmth and sensitivity, and especially to ‘Team Mama’, the caregivers and family who daily re-kindled her characteristic curiosity, humor, dignity, and gratitude.
A visitation will be held at Stamford Lane Church on Saturday, September 24, 2022 at 12:00 pm followed by a memorial service beginning at 12:30 pm. A livestream will be available at www.heatheringtonanddeans.com by clicking the "join livestream" button. The Interment will follow. In lieu of flowers, the family welcomes memorial donations to Shriners’ Hospitals or the Juravinski Cancer Clinic in Hamilton or a charity of choice.
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