The following was read at Mom's memorial mass:

My name is Elyse, this is my sister Laura, and we are two of Eleanor’s granddaughters.

We have many wonderful memories of our Grandma from throughout our lives.  Among our earliest memories are those of happy times spent at Grandma and Grandpa Bernard’s house.

At these family gatherings, we would all enjoy Grandma’s delicious cooking.  We were introduced to many snacks and foods on these occasions that will continue to remind us of Grandma throughout our lives.  Things like spinach dip in a pumpernickel bread bowl, guacamole, her famous turkey stuffing, and stedanina – okay for that last one, which is jellied pig’s feet, we knew what it was but we didn’t actually eat it. 

There are many things that will continue to remind us of Grandma:  cardinals and cardinal-decorated items; Lindor and macadamia nut chocolates; licorice; beautiful sunsets, like the ones we saw in Florida; the shopping channel; and some ballets and musicals. For this last one, we both have wonderful memories of Grandma taking us individually for dinner and a live show in downtown Toronto – such an exciting and grown up thing to do when we were young.  I remember seeing the Nutcracker with Grandma several times and it remains one of my favourite live shows to attend.  Laura remembers when Grandma took her to see the musical Beauty and the Beast, and how during the song “Be Our Guest” they kept laughing together over one utensil dancing on the stage that they just couldn’t identify.

Something that we noticed over this past week was that in most pictures of Grandma with the two of us as young kids, she isn’t looking at the camera but is looking at us with a big smile on her face – happy to be with her granddaughters and happy to see us happy. We are grateful to have these pictures to help remind us of the wonderful memories that we made with our Grandma.  We love you Grandma and we’ll miss you.