OLIVE GORY (RYBAK)

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OLIVE GORY (nee RYBAK) Because the family often joked about death - after all, it's going to take us all - Mom's passing on January 15, 2012 at the age of 92 feels as if she is just playing the part - except she's not around to comment on how it went. "Be a toughie, Mom," she was urged in her closing months but she shot back in her cute earnest way: "I don't want to be a toughie." And that was that. She slipped away peacefully Sunday and her ashes, as per her wishes, will be scattered in a blueberry patch in the wild this summer, evoking the memory of her waking up a bear once while picking berries but fearlessly continuing to pick as the bear ambled into the bush. Mom had a public persona: she was the "tomato woman" featured in TV ads in the 1990s demonstrating how a water-filled frost cover called a Kozy-Coat could help gardeners pick ripe tomatoes before their neighbours. Producing the product was a family business. "Perfect" is a very big word but Mom's life was about as perfect and exemplary as they come. She lived every moment with tireless gusto, never complaining about anything, with a smile that lit up a room, always looking fabulous - right to the end. Everybody loved her. An award-winning gardener, an amazing cook, a skillful golfer, curler, pottery-maker, bowler, violinist, confidante. Missed most will be asking her opinions on stuff - she always gave the straight goods. She lived for her family but she made sure she took care of herself, too. She had no momentous words about life and the aging process: what she missed most at 90, she had confided, was that Dad at 91 wasn't cutting the mustard as often anymore. That was Mom. Family get-togethers usually degenerated into uncontrollable bouts of laughter, usually while playing penny poker, with Mom having to flee to the biffy. Her kids, Brian and Pat and close family companion Alta are among many who will cherish her memory. She was predeceased by husband Nick, "the Investors man", who died in March and son Garth. She has a grandchild, too - Candice Lee. To celebrate her life, get flowers for yourself - not, please, for family members - and live well. She would want that. Olive loved begonias, especially the giant-flowered tuberous ones. Cropo Funeral Chapel 586-8044

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Jan 21, 2012