Elsie Mae Jeffries, our mother, was a force of nature. She was a strong, independent woman long before it was cool to be a strong independent woman. Here are just a few things that we think speak volumes about who she was. When she was 19, World War II was still going strong. Upon graduating from high school, mom immediately joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. When asked if she was scared to join the war, she said no. She said it was just what you had to do. You had to help. You didn’t think about it. And that's how she lived her whole life – helping. She re-met our dad during the war. They had gone to the same public school, but he was a bad boy and she was a good girl and didn’t speak to him. By the time they met again, they were both engaged to other people but that time, they spoke. They fell in love and married. Mom became a police man's wife and together they had three daughters - Deb, Sue and Pat. Our dad developed a serious heart condition in 1964, leaving mom having to do most everything – and she taught us to do everything, too. We were raised never believing that we couldn’t or shouldn’t do something because we were girls (except phoning boys – she always said, "nice girls don’t phone boys"). I think it served us all really well because she raised three, strong independent women, just like her – if we do say so ourselves. Mom became a widow in 1976 at 50 years old. When one door closes, another one opens and she began working as the Assistant to the Artistic Director at George Brown College in the Theatre Arts Department and a whole new world opened up to her. She became the "mom" to all of the students that passed through those doors, many of whom ended up living in our basement at one time or another, when they couldn’t afford rent or had some other crisis in their lives. This was the 70's and the beginning of the AIDS crisis in Toronto, which had a huge impact on the arts community that she had become a part of through her job. As many of her students became ill with this unknown sickness that terrified everyone, my mom would come home from work, have dinner, and head back downtown to various hospitals, armed with candy and flowers and stuffed animals to take to these young kids, many of whose families had disowned them because they were gay. Our mom had no fear of the disease and no patience for intolerance. She loved everyone, unconditionally. We know that her love and compassion had a huge impact on the lives of so many of those students, just as it did with us at home. When mom retired she devoted her life to her grandchildren, Amanda, Jeff, Jenni, Dru, Jim, Kelly and Emily. She loved her grandkids and, boy, did they love her back. She had a very special bond with each and every one of them. She was lucky enough to have six great grandchildren as well – TJ, Sydney Mae, Charlie, McKenzie, Silas and Jessica – and they were so lucky to have her. It takes a certain type of tenacity to live to be 92. She had tenacity in spades. Everyone who loved her and was loved by her have our own special memories of the woman she was. These are just a few that stand out to us. Our mom was a force of nature. She was deeply loved and she will be forever missed. Please refer to the video tribute to learn about Elsie's life.