It is with profound sadness that I announce the passing of my wife, Memory Pond, on November 30th, 2017. Memory had just turned 53, and had recently gone into Riverview Health Centre after an incredibly brave and graceful battle with cancer. It was in their wonderful care that she spent the last 11 days of her life.  She passed peacefully while I stroked her hair and her children held her.

Memory devoted her entire career to helping the less fortunate, even while she struggled to raise her young family amidst very challenging circumstances. Memory first joined government on April 9th, 1984, with the City of Winnipeg Social Services department, located at 705 Broadway. In 1997 her office location changed to 896 Main Street, still with the City of Winnipeg. In 1999 the City of Winnipeg Social Services department was taken over by the Province of Manitoba’s Department of Family Services, so Memory became a provincial employee, and remained at 896 Main Street. She was there for the following 20 years, when her illness forced her to take a leave on August 16th 2017, when she was diagnosed with cancer.

Memory’s professional legacy is compelling. The words I have most often heard when people comment about her work include kindness, generosity, dignity, caring, and consideration. Having worked closely with her (as well as being married to her), I can say that she took a very defined job description and altered and tailored it to the needs of a very vulnerable and often overlooked clientele, while remaining true to the necessities of the position.

The most recent part of Memory’s career was also the most rewarding in many ways, when she became an acting Community Social Services Supervisor, under the tutelage of her friend and mentor, Pamela Dyck. Memory relished the added yet often challenging aspects of the job, and put in the additional hours without complaint. This was the position she held when illness forced her from work.

 

On behalf of myself and her children, Shaun, Devon and Andrew, I would like to thank the staff of Cancer Care Manitoba, Palliative Care Manitoba, and most of all, the dedicated people at Riverview Health Centre. And words cannot express my thanks for the outpouring of love from friends and family, who were suffering their own tremendous grief, including Ivy, Misty and Raegan (all three of whom whom kept me fed and still do), Rose, Pam, Laura, Memory's cousin Vanessa, and Memory's closest friend of 42 years, Donna Summers.

Regarding funerals, those that were close to Memory know she wasn’t a fan… she also firmly told me she did not want an organized celebration of life. After she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, I sat with her and asked her one more time if she wanted any type of service. Her answer, which I later wrote down and still have in my wallet, summed up her humility and her sense of perspective on life. 'No service", she told me. "People will know I was here".

They sure will, Mem.