BETTY L. O'MALLEY (EARL) (LOUISE)

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BETTY L. O'MALLEY

"Well, that's the first time that's ever happened"!! For our precious mum, her life with dementia was an endless series of surprises and new experiences. And so, her gentle death on October 16, 2019 at Deer Lodge Centre was assuredly true to her words.
Our Mum lived at West Park Manor for three years before moving to the Special Care Unit, 3 East at Deer Lodge Centre in June 2017. There we were blessed to meet a team of professionals who walked with our mum and us for the remainder of her journey. Providing care with patience, generosity and love, enriching each day, finding and facilitating laughter, delivering medical care with expertise and compassion. Deer Lodge Centre is a magical place filled with people who every day show up and love those who need loving, even when it's hard. Our gratitude and respect are profound.
Experiencing life through the lens of dementia can be heartbreaking if you let it. We, her kids Patricia (Toronto), Wendy (Winnipeg) and Brian (Calgary), decided to find the joyful and happy in every day with our mum, and we were rewarded by being able to experience the simple joys of life. Among them, ice cream, music, jersey milk chocolate bars, dancing, singing, coca cola, and seeing her tucked in under her white and yellow afghan knitted by her longtime friend, Vera, for her afternoon snooze with her much loved bear, Teddy.
Our mum Betty Louise O'Malley (Earl) was born July 31, 1924 at her family's cottage on Spruce Street at Winnipeg Beach. She was the youngest of the five "Earl Girls", and grew up on Bannatyne, Juno and Dorchester Avenues. She attended Hugh John MacDonald and DMCI and graduated from business college as a crack stenographer. She met our dad John Samuel Rogers O'Malley from Jubilee Avenue at the Canoe Club, and they married on November 16, 1946. Together they took on the adventures and challenges of married life and kids and work and, well, life. They lived on Queenston Street in River Heights for 56 years. They were devoted to one another for 65 years until our dad's death in December 2009.
Our mum and dad were founding members of Christ Church (Anglican) which was on the corner of Corydon and Lanark. Our mum used to say that she would have been a stage singer had she not needed to wear glasses. The church provided a place for her to be that singer, glasses and all, and there for more than 50 years she made "a joyful noise unto the Lord". She also made soup, and pies and sold plants at the annual plantstand, square danced, helped with rummage sales and teas and whatever else was needed. She loved it there, cherished her friends, celebrated her faith, and was heartbroken when the church had to close.
We let our darling mum go with both joy and sadness. There's so much to celebrate and so many memories that will make us smile and be grateful for her. Not perfect, but better still, perfectly human, she leaves us now to be held safe and warm in the arms of our dad. How we will miss her; how lucky we are to have had them both.
A family service will be held when the sun is gentle and warm, and birdsong is in the air; hopefully a chickadee or two will attend.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 19, 2019