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The entire month of April was tough, but nothing compared to my aunt's battle with cancer. We were overwhelmed by the 400+ people that came to celebrate my aunt's life, but we all got through it together. She gave us the strength to get through the day, but she also gave us lifelong best friends to get through the rest our days without her. That day & every day after will always be for you Aunty Hel; we hope we made you proud 💕

The following is the eulogy I wrote and read about my Aunty Hel in front of all 400+ people that attended her celebration of life on April 29, 2019:

My Aunty Hel touched the lives of so many people and she definitely is not making this easy for me right now. It pains me to be standing up here reading this eulogy, but my family and I appreciate each and every one of you for taking the time out of your day to be here to celebrate the life of Aunty Hel.

My Aunty Hel was 57 years old when she passed away peacefully surrounded by family and her closest friends on the night of April 13, 2019 - just a couple months shy of her 58th birthday. She was born on June 3, 1961, in Vancouver, British Columbia. She was a loving mother, wife, daughter, sister, sister-in-law, aunt, cousin, coworker, and dear friend to many. She graduated from Britannia Secondary School in 1979 and was employed at Correctional Services Canada, before moving on to work for the City of Vancouver in the payroll department for more than thirty years. In 1988, she married my Uncle Sherman and they had two children together: Jordan and Shannon. In 2009, Aunty Hel overcame breast cancer and was diagnosed with ALK lung cancer in July 2018. Throughout her treatment, my Aunty Hel remained strong, brave, and incredibly optimistic about fighting cancer for the second time. During her resilient nine-month battle with this aggressive cancer, she never once complained about the pain and the side effects.

We will always remember my Aunty Hel as an incredibly social individual who loved trying out new restaurants. She loved her food, but especially her desserts. Aunty Hel enjoyed going for coffee and traveling with friends and family; she also enjoyed baking, crafts, going for walks, and collecting Starbucks cards from around the world. My Aunty Hel also loved putting together photo albums, which we all had fun going through when organizing this celebration of life. There will be photos shown on the screens throughout this service and we hope you enjoy the memories that these photos preserve.

My Aunty Hel was always a friendly, dedicated, selfless, and strong woman, but her resilience, determination, and strength really showed in her final days. She never wanted to give up and she didn't want to leave all of her family and friends. If you just look around, there are a lot of people in this room - it is clearly evident how much of an impact my Aunty Hel had on each and every one of you. To say that my family and I are overwhelmed by the turn out today is an understatement. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to celebrate the life of my aunt. We all knew she was loved by many, but we never really knew just how many until today.

I came across this quote a long time ago and I think it is fitting for this speech, it goes:

Family isn't only defined by last names or by blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs. It's defined by commitment and by love. It means showing up when they need it the most. It means having each other's backs. It means choosing to love each other even on those days when you struggle to like each other; the ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything to see you smile and who love you no matter what. Families are like branches on a tree; we grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one.

Families always grow in different directions, but throughout my Aunty Hel's life, she was always able to bring our family together. Now, more than ever, the bond between her chosen family and some of her blood family is unbreakable. We all know that we aren't able to choose our family - the people who are related to us by blood, but my Aunty Hel's ability to choose the most incredible people in her life has me at a loss for words - she built herself an empire. My Aunty Hel chose to marry my Uncle Sherman and to raise two incredible children with him.

Uncle Sherm: I have always known you were a caring and nurturing person, but the amount of love and care that you gave to Aunty Hel each and every day is something that I can't even put into words. You gave true meaning to the wedding vows "in sickness and in health until death do us part". You were there until her last breath; you cared for her, loved her, and never treated her any differently throughout her entire battle - you just loved her for her. You are the epitome of a perfect husband and father, and I am so glad that Aunty Hel chose you to go through life with.

Jord and Shanny: I will never understand the pain that you're going through having to lose your mom at such a young age. Since your mom's diagnosis, it's clear that you get your strength and resilience from her, sorry Uncle Sherm. You both have the ability to look at the bright side of things and not complain about all the pain and hurt that you are going through and that's something you got from your mom. You both are some of the strongest kids I know - I hope the bond you have between each other grows over the years knowing that you will always have each other. I hope you know I will always be here for the both of you guys no matter what. I promised your mom I would take care of you, so you both better stay out of trouble and be on your best behaviour. I am so proud of you guys - who you are today and who you are becoming & I know that your mom would be incredibly proud of the both of you too.

There are a lot of people we would like to mention because they deserve to be recognized: Aunty Kathy, Uncle Claude, Alex, Aunty Deanna, Uncle Randy, Ryan, Aunty Mischy, Uncle Ritchie, Aunty Joyce, and Aunty Phyllis. Thank you to each and every one of you for spending almost all day every day at the hospital with my Aunt. For the days you got up early at 5am to have freshly baked muffins and goodies for us to eat at the hospital, for comforting us when times were too hard to keep it all together, for keeping my Aunty Hel comfortable in her final days, hours, and minutes of her life. There are no words to describe how thankful we are for you - thank you for being in my Aunt's life through the good times and bad, for showing up when she needed you the most, and for loving her no matter what.

A few other people that we would like to mention are the home care nurses that came to my Aunty Hel's house to take care of her so she wouldn't have to constantly go back and forth to the hospital, Bronwyn, Nathalie, Mali, and all of the volunteers that brought their therapy dogs to visit and brighten my aunt's day. For those of you who don't know, Bronwyn was one of my Aunty Hel's favourite nurses at the BC Cancer Agency.

Throughout my Aunt's stay at BCCA, Bronwyn had the ability to light up my Aunt's face and get her to smile with just a simple hello. Bronwyn, we have told you this already, but I cannot stress it enough, my family and I will be forever grateful for the way you cared for my Aunt and my entire family while we took over the entire fifth floor of the hospital all day and every day. My Aunt adored you and I hope you know that you have an incredible talent that I wish all nurses had. You made my Aunt's stay as comfortable as possible and I know she just loved you, so thank you for everything.

A special thanks to Nathalie. Nathalie was always so caring and polite towards my Aunt. Although my Aunt and our family told her multiple times to call her Helen, every time Nathalie was there, she would always address my Aunt as Mrs. Quon. Nathalie not only took great care of my Aunt during her time at BCCA, but she also made sure to take care of our family as well. There were a quite a few times when she offered sandwiches and snacks to our family and brought us juice cups to keep us all hydrated. The little acts of kindness that Nathalie showed my Aunt and our family at BCCA made a profound impact on us.

And Mali. Mali, your aura is something that I cannot put into words. The moment we met you, you instantly calmed all of us just by speaking. You have a special gift and my family and I are so grateful you decided to pick up that shift on that Saturday night because I truly believe my Aunty Hel needed you. You relaxed her and let her know that it was okay to leave us all behind - that we will all be okay without her. Everything that happened that night feels like a dream - it honestly still doesn't feel real. You lead my Aunt and my family on a spiritual journey that provided all of us with a sense of peace. Our gratitude for the presence of both you and Bronwyn that night is infinite.

Thank you Surekha for your urgency & selflessness to try and help fast track my Aunty Hel's CT and MRI scans. My family and I will always appreciate you.

I would also like to give a special thank you to my Aunty Judy. For those of you who don't know my Aunty Judy, she is one of the best bakers we know. Every Christmas my family hosts a party for family and close friends to get together and celebrate the holidays and every year we play a game called White Elephant. Every year my Aunty Judy wraps up a bunch of her cookies as a gift, and for those of you that have been to our Christmas party, it's the one gift that almost everyone will fight over because the cookies are that good. Just this past Christmas, my Aunty Hel won the basket of Christmas cookies. I will never forget how happy she was when she won them, her laugh and her smile is something we will never forget - it was contagious. My Aunty Judy was gracious enough to help bake all of the cookies that each of you will be getting when you leave today. I think her end count for the number of cookies she baked was around 420. Thank you Aunty Judy for taking on this enormous task so graciously without hesitation. You know how much my Aunty Hel loved your cookies and I'm so glad everyone here will get a chance to enjoy a little taste of your amazing baking. As you leave today, there will be heart shaped cookies at the door. Please only take one, as we want there to be enough for every person that is in attendance today. We hope everyone enjoys the cookie as much as my Aunty Hel enjoyed them.

To everyone that has sent flowers or made a contribution to the BC Cancer Foundation through my Aunty Hel's donation page, thank you so much.

I hope everyone takes the time to look around and check out this beautiful venue. The Riverway was always a place that my Aunty Hel really enjoyed, and when we were planning this Celebration of Life, it was one of the first places my Uncle Sherman and my cousins mentioned as a possible venue. We are so grateful that this place was available for all of us to enjoy and to celebrate the life of my aunt.

To close, it's been bittersweet to write and read a eulogy about my Aunty Hel - she is so well loved by so many. There are some interesting things I've learnt throughout this process and looking back on my Aunty Hel's life which I think are worth mentioning.

Eulogies are always about the things we don't necessarily prioritize in our every day life: what the person gave, how they were connected, how much they meant to their family and friends, small kindnesses, lifelong passions, and the things that made them laugh. We spend so much of our limited time on this earth focusing on all the things our eulogy will never cover, such as materialistic things, and why is that? If you look around this room today, and listen in on the conversations about my Aunty Hel and how she lived her life, no one is talking about these materialistic things because all of that "stuff" doesn't matter after you die. The true meaning of life isn't about how much money you make or all of the things you have - things will always be things and they can always be replaced. Life is about the relationships you make, the connections you make with others, the friends that turn into family, and the memories that are made along the way - these are what truly matter in life.

Many people have been kind enough to send their condolences to our family ever since my Aunty Hel passed away, and almost everyone, including the nurses, always said that my Aunty Hel was so lucky to have such a large circle of friends and family who have supported and cared for her throughout her entire battle. While this is all true, I think the general consensus between my family and I, is that WE ALL are actually the lucky ones. Each and every person in this room was lucky enough to have had my Aunty Hel in their life. Whether that was as a family member, a friend, a coworker, whatever connection you had with my Aunty Hel, she made an impact on so many lives and I truly believe we are the lucky ones.

We will miss her laugh, her smile, all of the photos she would send of food, desserts, or lining up in a crazy long line for free food or a good deal, and so much more. My Aunty Hel is the epitome of true strength and resilience - she is the toughest person we know. It brings us peace knowing that she is no longer in pain and no longer suffering and that she will continue to watch over us and give us signs that her spirit is all around. The void she has left in our lives can never be replaced; family dinners will never be the same - life in general will just never be the same without her.

Although my Aunty Hel's life was cut short, she made the most of it throughout her 57 years on earth. She made a lot of friends - every individual in this room was somehow connected to my aunt. I hope that you leave here today with a new perspective on your own life. I hope you leave here realizing that life is short and it can be over at any minute, so love the ones that treat you right, the ones that show up when you need it the most, the ones that remain through good times and bad, the ones that love you no matter what, and just forget about the ones that don't. My Aunty Hel went through so many adversities and obstacles throughout her life, but I know that she would like each and every one of you to leave today with a new found admiration and perspective on life: to live every moment like it's your last. We hope that whenever you indulge in sweets or Starbucks you think of my Aunty Hel. She is loved beyond words and will be missed beyond measure.

-lyss

xoxo

You are loved beyond words & will be missed beyond measure