Unitarian Church of Montreal

Gordon Lorimer: February 15, 1922 - September 29, 2011

Remembrance by Rev. Diane Rollert, October 29, 2011

There are stars whose light reaches the earth only after they have disintegrated and are no more.
And there are people whose scintillating memory lights the world after they have passed from it.
These lights which shine in the darkest night are those which illume for us the path.
There are stars indeed.
Gordon is one of those people whose memory will continue to light the world long after he is gone.

Remembering Diana Kleins 1934-2011

A memorial for Diana, who died at home March 3 after a long illness, was held on Saturday, March 19, 2011


The following was written by Rev. Diane Rollert

The first time I met Diana Kleins, David and I were invited to her house for dinner. It was the summer before my ministry at this church began, and Diana was on the ministerial settlement negotiating team. She greeted us with so much warmth that we were instant friends. Over the years, there was rarely a week that went by without our paths crossing.

Early on, we’d chat when she came to volunteer for telecrew. Then, when Diana became the liaison between the church and the developer next door, she would stop by to commiserate. Throughout the years, I cherished the many Tuesdays when she and Nancy would share their mother-daughter perspectives during our Sacred Stories group. She also became a covenant group facilitator and led a very successful afternoon group. Diana was always a good sport and willing partner in gentle debate.

Campbell Laing: January 26, 1925 - December 15, 2009

A memorial service, delivered by Rev. Diane Rollert, was held for Campbell Laing on April 26, 2010

I first met Campbell when he was in the hospital nearly four years ago as his illness was just beginning to take its toll. We spent a delightful hour together, as he told me of his love for his sister and his frustration that he was no longer able to drive himself to visit her on the West Island.  He shared stories of his having left his law practice to run his father’s textile business. 
He spoke proudly of his nephew Fred, and expressed his gratitude that he was always there for him.
 
Campbell was a very private man.  He grew up in anglophone Montreal, and had a great love for all things British throughout his life. Perhaps that included keeping a stiff upper lip, since he never complained, even to his last days. When asked how he was, he’d always answer, “Everything is fine!” 

Dorothy Adams Clarke, October 17, 1918 - April 11, 2010

A memorial service for Dorothy was held on May 8, 2010 and delivered by Rev. Diane Rollert.

There is so much to say about Dorothy. How can I capture all that she was to each of us? 

She was born here in Montreal. The daughter of an architect, she grew up in the downtown core. She was one of four children, sister to George, Margaret, and Ken. Her family originally hailed from Scotland -- Brechin near Dundee, of the Gordon clan, to be exact.  She was always proud of her Scottish heritage and would chuckle when her friend Barbara Jackson would call her a “doughty Scott.”

Celebration of the Life of Mitchell Bourke: March 26, 2010

This remembrance of Unitarian Church member Mitchell Bourke, 8 February 1923 - 23 March 2010, was delivered by Rev. Diane Rollert

Our opening words come from a poem by Howard Thurman 

I share with you the agony of your grief,
The anguish of your heart finds echo in my own.
I know I cannot enter all you feel
Nor bear with you the burden of your pain;
I can but offer what my love does give:
the strength of caring,
The warmth of one who seeks to understand
the silent storm-swept barrenness of so great a loss.
This I do in quiet ways,
That on your lonely path
You may not walk alone.
 

Remembering Roseann Millin: A jewel in Indra's Net.

Remembrance of Roseann Millin 19 August 1938 - 30 November 2009
by Rev. Diane Rollert

How can I speak about Roseann without beginning with a haiku, that simple Japanese form of poetry she so loved.  This one is from Canadian poet, Alice Frampton:

 
rock throwing

our circles

about to meet


I first met Roseann when I arrived here in 2006.  I’ll never forget her warm welcome and the large bag of inspirational books she handed to me, along with several editions of her TaiJi newsletter.  That was Roseann.  She always had something to share. She would cast stones into the water and they would ripple ever outward.

It wasn’t until the following September that we really talked in depth.  She had offered to plan an All Souls service with me and we sat for a long time over lunch at the Claremont Diner.  That day, Roseann shared with me several stories of the strong connections she had to loved ones as they were far away and dying.  She could feel the moment that they left this earth, as if they were reaching out across time and space to say goodbye.  She knew that she was deeply connected to this world and to the spirit world.  

It was during that conversation that she asked me if I knew about Indra’s Jeweled Net, a metaphor that explains Buddhist thought.  “You see,” Roseann said to me, “Each of us is a jewel in Indra’s Net.” The net is like an infinite web of connections.  At each intersection of the web there is a light-reflecting jewel.  Each jewel at each intersection contains another web, and each jeweled web reflects on the others.  It’s like a hall of mirrors that goes on for infinity.  Everything is interconnected.  If we damage one single strand of one jeweled web, we damage all the others.  But the more compassionate we are, the more we create a ripple effect that reverberates throughout the universe.  

Edith Jacobson Low-Beer, 1916 - 2009

Edith passed away peacefully at the Hotel-Dieu Hospital in Montreal, on October 28, 2009, after a short battle with cancer. Beloved widow of John Low-Beer, daughter of May Silver Jacobson and Percy Nathaniel Jacobson, predeceased by her son, Peter Alfred, she will be fondly remembered by her daughters, Susan and Jane, her grandchildren, Luke (Shani), Leif, Nathaniel and Jules, as well as her great-grandson, Jasper, her son-in-law, William Parsons, her sister, Janet Jacobson Smith, and her niece and nephew, Joann and Peter Kwass.

Remembering Jean Mary Cumming: June 15, 1913 - March 24, 2009

A memorial service for Jean Mary Cumming, who died March 24, 2009 at the age of 95, was held March 27, 2009 and presided over by Rev. Diane Rollert.

Welcome to this space which is made sacred again and again by your presence.

Here we gather to share the milestones of our community, the beginnings and the endings.
Here we cherish life, celebrate love, and mourn our losses.  

Today I welcome you into a place of memory and compassion as we gather to say goodbye to Jean Mary Cumming.

Andy Hugessen - June 30, 1926 - December 5, 2008

Remembrance of Andy Hugessen, delivered by Rev. Diane Rollert at a memorial service Jan. 11, 2009

My last memory of Andy before he went into the hospital: he was coming in the back door of Phoenix Hall with his heavy winter coat and his big boots.

I was rushing past the open door in the foyer, all the way on the other side of the hall, when I saw him out of the corner of my eye.
“Oh good,” I thought, “Andy’s here, even if Jane isn’t well enough to come today.”

I smiled with thanks to see him, and for a moment, even from a distance, I saw that twinkle in his eye.

Jane Currie Hugessen - July 10, 1930 - November 25, 2008

A memorial service was held for Jane on December 6, 2008 and was presided over by Rev. Diane Rollert.

This is a hard day to welcome you to this sanctuary.

Your presence and your love is most needed this day and in the days to come. I know that Jane wanted us to celebrate her life, and that we will do.

But I know Jane would have forgiven our sadness and our tears this day, for I bring you painful news.

We start this service with the sad announcement that Andy, Jane’s beloved husband, died late yesterday afternoon.

Remembering Breen Marien - August 28, 1925 - September 30, 2008

At a memorial service held Oct. 10, 2008, Rev. Diane Rollert delivered these opening words, from Unitarian poet and minister Robert Terry Weston.

"In mystery our whole life is lived, nor may any one see behind the veil of physical existence.
Yet in the little knowledge we do taste, there is a suggestion of a mystery still more sublime and wonderful than life.

To look out into the stars in the deep of night is to feel the vastness of space as beyond our ken, to feel infinitely humbled; yet how much greater than the stars, and more wonderful than space and night, is the miracle of human life!

Here in this tiny corner of the universe we know a mystery more profound, a glory more sublime, than all we know or guess about the stars, for here within the mystery of flesh is worked the miracle of mind and love.

This is the greatest wonder of them all, beside which our little knowledge is a paltry thing, dry dust beneath the living flesh of a truth so great we dare not even guess at it.”

Remembering Leonard Picard - February 15, 1915 - August 16, 2008

 A memorial was held for Len on Sept. 5, 2008. This is the eulogy read by Rev. Diane Rollert.

This is hard. I loved this man. What a treasure in our community. I will never forget the first time I met Len. It was my very first Sunday two and half years ago.  

“I wouldn’t have missed this for the world," he told me, smiling that big smile of his, as he shook my hand.

Just like most Sunday mornings, he had cheerfully ridden the bus to church by himself that day.

What a surprise it was to learn that he was in his early nineties. 

A tribute to "Papa" (Len Picard), by his grandson, Andrew Glencross

I’m Andrew, Leonard’s grandson. To me, he was always known as “Papa,” and I feel lucky to’ve grown up with such a strong and unique example of what it can mean — if one is lucky — to be an old man.

His sense of humour, generosity, goodwill, and determination have been beacons to me of a life properly lived, over the years. And if I haven’t inherited these traits through the blood, so to speak, I hope that I will continue to remember Papa’s example the rest of my life. Because I’d like to become the rare kind of old man who is fun and excited by new possibilities, patient and kind — not from a sense of duty or manners, but from a genuine caring about everyone around me, spreading joy wherever I go.

Lucia Ann Hunt - 10 March 1957 - 30 April 2008

A remembrance for Lucia Ann Hunt by Rev. Diane Rollert, May 5, 2008

Ann was born Lucia Ann Gilbertson. When she married Hugh she joked that it was a marriage of convenience, since Hunt would be a much shorter name to spell. And so she became Ann Hunt.

Ann came from a long line of Lucia’s dating back more than 200 hundred years – all history that she carefully uncovered, researching and reading through family letters. Ann could trace her family history back not only through the long list of Lucias, but also back to a woman named Rebecca Nurse, well-known in US history for having been condemned at the Salem witch trials. Her family history was rich and that was important to Ann.

Memorial for Jeffrey Browman - June 23, 1941 - January 24, 2008

A memorial for Jeffrey Browman, who died Jan. 24, 2008, from kidney cancer, was held April 19, 2008.

Opening Words:

We gather this afternoon to say goodbye to Jeffrey Browman, beloved husband, dearest brother and uncle, good friend and valued member of this congregation.

Oh, we were not ready for this. His life ended much too soon. How can we not mourn this day?  How can we not cry?

But let us take this time to remember a man well loved, let us celebrate all that he was and all that he loved. This hour we spend together will be filled with the songs, the music, and the poetry that Jeff loved. In this hour, we will celebrate Jeff’s faith as he knew it, as a Unitarian, as a man who deeply loved nature and humanity.

At the same time we will honour the intertwining of Jeff’s family’s Jewish roots and his wife Sonia’s Armenian Evangelical roots.

Most importantly, we will celebrate Jeff’s life, a life well lived and bravely lived.

Remembering J. Peter Kohl - November 22, 1925 - December 27, 2007

A memorial service, presided over by Rev. Diane Rollert, was held Jan. 2, 2008 for Peter Kohl.

We gather this afternoon to say goodbye to Peter Kohl, a man so many of us admired and loved. We gather to say goodbye too soon. It is too recent and too raw for us to fathom the depth and the breadth of his loss.

Yet he would have wanted us to celebrate his life, as he celebrated and treasured the gift of living to the very end. He would have wanted his family and his friends to laugh and to sing on this day. 

And so we will.

We will cherish the memories of the spark and spirit that he was.

But we will also give ourselves permission to cry and to mourn. No loss so great and so beloved can be easily surrendered. 

We begin with a reading from John Burroughs. Peter’s son Jeff said that it was as if his father had led him to this poem the other day, as the pages of his book instantly fell open to these words that truly capture Peter’s essence.

David William Jones - July 10, 1929 - August 6, 2007

Memorial for David Jones delivered by Rev. Diane Rollert on September 8, 2007

David was one who had an eye for such mysteries: He had an eye for the full-starred heavens that the winter sees, for the heights of the mountains where he skied with joy, and for the beauty of the oceans and lakes he sailed.

Diana Wells Scott October 29, 1920 – August 13, 2006

In Celebration of the Life of Diana Wells Scott
October 29, 1920 – August 13, 2006

Opening Words
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven;
A time to be born, and a time to die…
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn and a time to dance.