Hi Everyone

I am going to start the sharing session now if that is ok with everybody. There is so much to say about Lorraine that we could be here for two weeks just to sing some of her virtues. But that is truly the last thing she would have wanted. She made me promise that I would not let anything “drag” at her celebration so I will hold myself to that as best I can.

I have been in awe of Lorraine since the first day I met her. She used to work for a trust company called National Trust years ago and her journey through the banking industry best exemplifies her incredible personality and spirit. She started out as a teller and within short order became the most valued employee in the branch due to her naturally superior work ethic. By this I mean when others would content themselves to sit idle when there was “nothing to do”, Lorraine would be busy doing something constructive. Lorraine could never stand to simply do nothing when she was getting paid to work. She’d rather sweep the floor if there was nothing else to do, just to stay busy.

Lorraine was a very enterprising person and found valuable ways to be highly productive at work and she soon found herself promoted to the role of assistant branch manager. You know, that indispensable assistant right hand to the manager who does all the work and gets none of the credit? That was Lorraine. But she was crafty too. She used an offer of employment from the Royal Bank to ask her boss to give her a 30 % raise. Her boss came back with 40 % and begged her to never scare her like that again.

When one of her co-workers took a job at rival Canada Trust and coaxed Lorraine to come over there to work, a pattern began to emerge that I think best exemplifies a trait that I simply have to try to articulate about her. She was given a mentor to help her learn her new job. It was actually the person who used to have the job that Lorraine got assigned to be her mentor.

This mentor absolutely hated Lorraine and pretty much set out to make her life miserable in any way she could. We think she resented Lorraine as an outsider who got a job that people historically had to work for years in the company to get. In any case, I remember begging Lorraine to quit. She was so stressed out with the woman’s behavior but refused to complain to anyone about it. Instead she just put her head down and learned the middle management job without any help from this woman whatsoever. I remember the many nights with Lorraine reading policy documents and other stuff on her own time just to get the next day’s tasks ready.

It seemed like it took a long time back then, but in retrospect Lorraine had managed become utterly irreplaceable to Canada Trust in about 4 months, just like she was irreplaceable to National Trust as their assistant manager. That evil mentor became humbled by Lorraine’s work ethic, just like anyone else who ever knew her. She was one of those rare people who honestly prefer to be occupied constructively all day, every day.

In the year 2000, when our twins were born, Lorraine trained that work ethic on our family full time. And just like everyone else, we have been humbled by her steadfast ability to systematically make every aspect of our lives so easy and wonderful for all these years. From cooking and cleaning to budgeting and taxes, she had so many things on the go at any one time that it would make your head spin. And she pretty much always completed everything that she set out to do. I wanted to write a book about how a stay at home wife could save more money than she could make from working by simply collecting coupons and cooking everything at home. Her primary focus or career was always her family, and as I reflect, I can see the direct effect of that love and intense devotion each and every day.

For example, I remember how before Lorraine made the decision to be a stay at home mom, I always had problematic cholesterol and triglyceride counts every single year when I had a physical exam done at the doctor office. From the first year she stayed home and onward, my cholesterol and triglyceride counts plummeted to a healthy level and have stayed there ever since. My kids are all nearly fully grown and only one of them has ever had a single cavity at the dentist’s office. That’s right, One Cavity between 3 kids in over 20 years.

The kids themselves are models of their mother in all that they do. They are all three lifeguards and employed as such with the City of Winnipeg. Each is fast developing a solid reputation as a hard worker that can be depended upon at all times and in all cases. None drink or smoke, despite the fact that I keep encouraging them to do so. (Kids these days) They are a constant testimony to her excellence as a mother and role model. I see her influence on them each and every day. Thank God we were blessed to have had her in our lives all these years to guide, nurture and teach us. Rest in Peace now my love. You have more than earned it. We’ll take it from here.

Mick