I Will Always Be Her Namesake

Christine Elizabeth Young LeBlanc 1917-2009
Eulogy delivered by Susan Christine Manzer Morell February 9, 2009

There are people in our lives who we do not expect to have to live without. Or maybe it’s just that we don’t want to have to think about it. So how then today do our collective hearts express the loss of someone who has meant so much to so many?

We can weep for the loss of her absence. We can console. We can grieve. We can celebrate her life. We can heal... together.

And we can do this... together... because Chris - Mom - Nan - Booie lived her life for others and created a family circle that has no end.

Bucky and K-K unselfishly shared their mother and their father with their cousins and so many others - we were not extended family. And they took us under their wing and made each of us feel very special.

I visited Booie every day of my pre-school life, and come to think of it, most days after school. Even though I interrupted her busy days, she took time to teach me - to drink tea from a china cup, make sandwiches, wash dishes, iron and fold clothes. And it was fun She helped me with my knitting, and listened to my tales and my troubles. She didn’t talk down or to, she talked with - even if you were just four years old. Her door was always open to us, we never needed to call ahead - just show up for a little TLC, and maybe one of her famous doughnuts Although I still contend the holes were the best

From the time I was a little girl, she would tell me about my father growing up and would affectionately call him her “Audie Iddie.” She mothered her little Turney and was a dedicated sister to Jean, John and Rass, and of course Betty and Marjorie. She shared maternal challenges and supported my own mother. If I had a nickle for every story that included them with wet pants, I’d retire today.

She absolutely adored her grandchildren - ‘Colie, Heather, Matthew and Jode. And her great-grandchildren - Chelsey and Ben. She had a wonderful relationship with her daughter- and son-in-law, Terry and Paul. She would proudly say how good they have been to her. She had the capacity to share her love and never made anyone feel left out.

The family friendship with Pat and Burton Colter was steadfast and I wish I could recount the antics that the friends shared. Again, Booie had a way of making people family.

Each of you know how she made you feel like the most important person in her life. I know of no one who genuinely cared more about family.
For me, it was the fact that I was given her name Christine. I was her Susie Teen.

She had such a great sense of humour and loved to laugh, even if it was at her own expense. As everyone knows, she had a propensity for nicknames. Maybe because of her own. The story goes that a friend of the family, Henry Lipsett, used to play Peek-a-Boo with her and ended up calling her Boo, a name that stuck and it was one my grandmother always called her. I know that because Eve would often mistakenly call me, and probably at one time or another every other female here, Boo. Now I believe the rest of the story is, and don’t correct me if I’m wrong, that the kids in our family migrated the Boo to Booie. And I thought she had forgiven us for that too ... but then I started thinking that it was likely my sister, the first born, who was responsible. Booie called her Poopsie, or Poops for short. So maybe she did get her revenge

Throughout her life, Booie was dedicated to the greater good and gave of herself to her community, in particular through the Carleton York Chapter, IODE and completely supported Sir Henry with his considerable public service (the Red Cross, the Legion and so on ... ) including his military career that took them overseas for an extended stay. Together they set a wonderful example of what marriage should be - partnership, friendship and love.
I read this quote online on the weekend and immediately thought of her, “When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses, are family happinesses.” If this is so, Booie is very happy right now.

And most importantly, let’s not forget what the Bible says, “Love never fails ... And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

How true, for while she had all three - faith, hope and love; love of family was the greatest gift given on this earth by Christine Elizabeth Young LeBlanc. And for that she will live in our hearts forever.

Let us pray.

May the love of God and the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ bless and console us and gently wipe away every grieving tear from our eyes, for our loved one is rewarded in heaven: in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord.

Amen