Friday, November 1, 2019
My dearest friend Sharon where do I begin to celebrate your beautiful Mom and the lifetime of memories we have shared together. Your Mom was and is such an integral part of who I am from the moment I was welcomed into your home. The welcome was not only from you, your Mom and Dad but from your siblings, Wayne, Cindy, Craig and Valarie, as well. As Cindy said “The Walsh’s and The Wall’s” and we were certainly like a package deal in our younger years. I can still hear your Mom calling out across the field to everyone as we played ball, hide and seek or picked berries.
The path between our homes across the field and through the hole in the fence (which your Dad lovingly made so we could go back and forth freely) lead me on a regular path to a home where I was loved, shared in so many family celebrations and maybe a few disagreements as is normal with children and helped us grow into the women we are now. To the friendship we have shared for so many years!
Your Mom loved each of you dearly and in turn welcomed all your friends who became “family” too. In later years, that love grew to include not only your friends but their families as well. I can attest to that as she welcomed my son Justin as if he were one of her own. To this day we have beautiful gifts she made as we all know it was not just her love of baking but her many talents of crafting were gifted to loved ones and friends. And if you were fortunate to be a friend of Mrs. Walsh you were a friend for life as was evident with my Mom and how she showed her love and friendship during my Mom’s illness and passing. For that, I am eternally grateful.
So many of us share in the memories of sleepovers where we would wake to the smell of her delicious homemade bread and when sliced was too big to fit into the toaster! It was a home constantly filled with her love of baking and which I can happily say I shared in. I was also blessed to have birthday cakes baked by your Mom even when I became a Mom myself. To this day I still bake her Cherry Cake for Justin’s birthday, from her tea-bun recipe to date squares and more. I was one of the fortunate ones she shared her recipes with. Unlike, the one and only time Mrs. Walsh left Sharon and I in charge of baking her bread. Being inexperienced at the time we placed the bread in the oven at the same time we turned the oven on not realizing the bread would continue to rise; believe me when I say even when cut in half it wouldn’t fit in the toaster when baked! These are some of the beautiful funny and caring memories that we all have, we have laughed about and will help all of us celebrate the woman and the "Mom" Mrs. Walsh was to so many of us.
She was blessed with each of you as her children and your families whom she so lovingly talked about and shared many stories of but most important loved, especially her grandchildren and great-grandson. You each had a special place in her heart.
My only regret is I am not home to celebrate in her memories with all of you but Justin and I will think of her all this weekend especially on Monday when we share the Cherry Cake to celebrate his birthday and as you all celebrate the life and love of your Mom. I will cherish my visits with her this summer and my last one to the hospital before I left. I am happy I told her I loved her, kissed her gently goodbye and received that wonderful hug not realizing at the time it was my last. Now a treasured memory of her smile, her wave and her last words to give Justin a kiss and a hug will always be in my heart.
Justin, Roy and I send our heartfelt sympathies to you Sharon, Len and Brooke; and to Wayne, Cindy, Craig and Valarie and your families.
Your Mom and Dad are now lovingly reunited and will watch over you. They will be your brightest stars in the sky.
Love and Hugs to All!
