Maureen Hamill, age 89, of Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, passed away on September 1, 2022.
Maureen was a loving, doting and caring mother to Kevin (Carole) Gaffney, Eamonn Gaffney, Sean Gaffney and Laura (Paul) Gibler as well as grandmother to Nicola Gaffney, Steven Gaffney and Kate Gibler. Full of life and good humour throughout all of her 89 years, she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
Born in Strokestown, Ireland, in 1933, Maureen had her first job at age 15 working as a barmaid in Neary’s Pub in Strokestown. She left the family farm for England in her teens to work as a nursing aide in London. She married Hugh Gaffney in 1957 and gave birth to her first two children, Kevin and Eamonn, in Buckinghamshire, England before the family moved north to Perth, Scotland where she gave birth to her other two children, Sean and Laura. The family emigrated to Canada in 1966. She worked as a psychiatric aide in Canada for many years until her retirement.
Maureen was a beautiful woman, inside and out, full of life, and enjoyed dancing and socializing and simply loved being Irish. There were many times that we laughed so hard, we had tears rolling down our faces, ie., a bean bag incident in a department store when she couldn’t get out of it and the sales person thought she was crazy because she was laughing so hard that she couldn’t speak.
She traveled back to Ireland, England and Scotland several times with Eamonn and was able to visit Strokestown to reminisce about her earlier life. She traveled back to London to see her first-born, Kevin, marry Carole. Maureen and Eamonn traveled to Delaware to meet her third grandchild, Kate. She enjoyed her trips to Hawaii with her friend, Collette, and experienced a lesser-enjoyed but yet adventurous trip to Ocho Rios, Jamaica with Laura but was still able to laugh about it. She loved to people-watch and took full advantage of it while visiting Laura in New York City—a city she found fascinating.
There was absolutely no chocolate or cake that she would ever turn down. Her dream job would have probably been to work in a bakery but she would have probably stuffed her pockets with all the goodies just like Lucy and Ethel in the chocolate factory episode of “I Love Lucy.”
She unfortunately developed dementia in her later years, losing memory of family and friends, but retained her natural good humour until the end.
Special thanks to Dr. Nick Petropolis for providing excellent care to our mother for many years. The guidance he gave us was immeasurable.
Hoping there is a cozy Irish pub in Heaven where she’s enjoying Irish Coffees with all her siblings and favorite people — Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Johnny Cash, Steve Lawrence (who actually kissed her after his concert), John F. Kennedy, Muhammad Ali and then Don Rickles to make them all laugh. She will be flirting with all of them. Just keep her away from the karaoke machine because Maureen loved to sing but could not carry a tune whatsoever.
Maureen was the last of her siblings to pass and is predeceased by Patrick, Rita, Agnes, Joseph, Tom and Anthony.
Maureen has been cremated and her ashes will be spread in some of her favorite places. As Maureen would not want all the fuss and attention of a funeral, there will be no service. Instead, we ask that you raise a glass of your favorite drink in her honor. Here’s to you, Maureen!
She will be missed.
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