Heavenly Father, Thank You for being here with us today as we remember Jane’s life.

Thank You for bring all of us together today to celebrate what she meant to us and how we are all thankful for her love and having her in our lives.

We will never forget the love she had for her family and friends.

So again we thank you Lord, and ask that you be with us today as we celebrate the memory of Jane, and also ask that you comfort our grieving hearts as we will all miss having her in our lives.

Amen

Before I start, a big thank you for everyone who helped put this together, especially my cousin Caroline who helped put together my mom’s obituary and to my wife Leanne and her mom Sunni for putting everything together.

Thank you all for coming here today to celebrate my mom’s life. This park is a special place for my mom and I like to spread a small portion of her ashes and then like to make a circle to share stories and fond memories of my mom.

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I have nothing but fond memories of my mom. She was the best most loving mom. One of the fondest memories I have was making homemade ice cream and bearnaise sauce from her food processer when I was a teenager. For some reason that sticks out over anything else. I have memories of ski trips with a condo on the slopes of Heavenly Valley. But for some reason, that memory sticks out. To this day, I smother all my food in bearnaise sauce whenever we make it. Also, the ice cream we made was the best ice cream I ever had. I wish I could remember how she made it.

My mom loved and cared about everyone. She loved to work, but I think it was more about being with her work friends than working. She always spoke fondly of the ladies she worked with and never had a bad thing to say about anyone.

Mom had great love for all her friends too. I’m so happy to have some many friends and family here to share stories and celebrate her life. I know it was not easy for most of you to make it, but thank you for coming. I know many more wish they could be here too.

My mom’s love for her children was strongest of all. I know she would have done anything to help me if I needed it. For Vince Jr, it was complicated and tough. But she loved him deeply. And the love for Debbie hurt her deeply when she passed, but gave her peace to know she would be with her soon when she became sick.

My mom loved her life partner Bill with all her heart. Bill gave her much joy and had many fun adventures from Fun Runs to awesome vacations. But she mainly just loved just being with Bill and I know his love for her is the same.

Lately and why we are here today, mom loved her grandchildren, Zane and Zada. She was so proud of them and loved them so much. She was so impressed with Zane and how smart he is. She was equally impressed with how talented Zada is. When she lived closer, she would take the kids so Leanne and I could have a date night. Their favorite thing to do was to get dinner at Presto Pasta (which will be coming here today), go get ice cream or Shave ice, and come to this park.

So we picked this place to physically have a piece of my mom, but also share her memory and love here as well. My mom’s love touched us all. I am touched by the overwhelming support from all of you in sharing in our grief. I am thankful that her love still flows with us and through us today. And I believe that it is “this love” that is “her spirit”. Thank you for carrying on his spirit.

I like to open this for other to share formally here in this spot and informally later over Presto Pasta lunch.

Richard James Reis