Monday, January 14, 2019
Hello everyone. I am Anna�s son Joe and I am a gym teacher in Toronto. I teach a grade one student named Mia Blackmore-Barnable and she�s taken a bit of a shine to me. One day, back in the fall, Mia said �I love you Sturmy.� I think I might have said �Thanks,� or �That�s nice,� as a reply. Since then, Mia has adopted a standard greeting and farwell of �Love you Sturmy�. Eventually, I started to say �Love you too.� It took a while but this six year old managed to teach me that it�s ok to say that you care about someone. Children have this figured out. I didn�t tell my mother that I loved her as often as I could have. I also know that Anna did not always tell the important people in her life how she felt about them. The problem with putting things off until to tomorrow is that sometimes tomorrow doesn�t come. Children were one of the few sources of joy for Anna over the last several years of her life. She loved to see and hear about her grandchildren Ethan, Jayden and Benjamin. Mom had no trouble telling these little guys how she felt about them. She wanted to do everything she could for them and with them while she was here and even now that she is gone. Anna was a social person. It didn�t matter if you were a neighbor, a vacuum cleaner salesman, or a Jehovah�s Witness, if you knocked on her door she was happy to have you come in so she could �shoot a shit� with you. Even when my brother Frank would throw one of his epic parties on South Cameron, everyone would always get a kick out of Anna. There would always be some point during the night when you could find mom sitting at the kitchen table holding court with a group of our friends. She might have been crude, used way too many vulgarities, and butchered the language but if she made people laugh and everyone was having a good time, Anna was happy. In speaking with many of her friends over the last few days, one thing that was said over and over was �Annie had a good heart.� She really wanted to do the right thing, help people, and to have a good time. These are the things I will remember. My brother Frank and I would like to thank you all for coming and for all the support we received over the past few days. Just as it can be difficult to share your feelings, It�s hard to say goodbye to someone you love.
