Unitarian Church of Montreal

Roseann Millin: A Jewel in Indra's Net

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.

It was during that conversation that she asked me if I knew about Indra's Jewelled 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 jewelled web we damage all the others. But the more compassionate we are, the more we create a ripple effect that reverberates throughout the universe.   
 
  Roseann was a jewel who had consciously and clearly dedicated her life to sending out compassion so that it would reverberate throughout Indra's Net. That was what made knowing Roseann so amazing. She did not speak empty words. She truly lived her life according to her beliefs. 
 
  Roseann's calm, peaceful presence revealed little about the challenges she had faced in her life. Born in England in 1938, her earliest memories were of Nazi bombing raids on Newcastle-on-Tyne. Her mother had gone into labour and Roseann was left in the care of the air-raid warden. Her mother nearly died, and her newborn brother was temporarily lost in the confusion.  Roseann was sent to an orphanage evacuation home (a truly Dickensian place, she said) where she had no contact with family for six months, until her mother was finally well enough to resume care of her two children.
 
  In 1952, the family immigrated to Canada. They were the only Scottish family in the district. They had lived a spartan life in England, so coming to Montreal and living with electricity, indoor plumbing and a telephone were great luxuries. Roseann and her brother kept themselves amused writing and performing puppet theatre plays. They got so good that they would perform for birthday parties and other events for pocket money. Singing was also an important part of her young life -- something that would remain so throughout her life. 
 
  Roseann's family moved Mexico for a time, a rough period for Roseann since dyslexia made it hard for her to master a new language. Later she would go on to study at Victoria College and then McGill. She began working as a counselor at Dawson College in the 70s and stayed there until the 90s when she was diagnosed with MS.
 
  Her learning disabilities challenged her, yet she figured out strategies that got her through. I remember her telling me that writing was very hard for her, yet I will always think of her as a superb communicator. Health challenged her as well, yet she took her own adversity and she used it to help others. This is what so inspired me as I got to know her. She was a teacher to her very last moment. 
 
  I have received so many memories about Roseann and her caring, supportive and loving ways. She traveled. She sang. She introduced TaiJi to so many. She was a listener and good counselor. She organized a first-ever alternative health care program for doctors at the Royal Victoria this year - an accomplishment that was hard won and for which she was extremely proud. 
 
  In her last days she told me that she hadn't had an easy life, but she had had a good life. "I feel so surrounded by love."  She was surrounded by love. Roseann had a goal of staying home as long as she possibly could. It took a huge team to make that happen, from dear friends, neighbours, her complimentary health team and members of the Caring Network of this church. It took so many people, and each act of compassion will continue to reverberate across Indra's web.
 
  A few days before Roseann died, I asked her what message she wanted to leave for all of us. "Just love," she said. "Only love. That's what it is all about. Love."
 
Rev. Diane Rollert

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.