Ada Wright

Our mother, Ada Wright, passed away this morning on Tuesday October 15, 2024.  She was born in Chatham on May 11, 1933 and walked this earth for over 91 years…58 of them with our father Bill Wright who passed away ten years ago.

Mom was the eldest in a family of three girls who have stuck together through thick and thin.  She, Aunt Joyce Guerin (Bill) and Aunt Brenda Rumble (late Ted) were always a strong presence in each others lives and were role models for generations to come.  Mom was predeceased by her parents Harry & Velma (Walker) Payne, and her infant brother Earl Payne.

Mom and Dad were married on July 7, 1956 and started their family that would come to include Kelly Wright & Gary Oliver, Craig Wright & Lynne Sears and Philip Wright & Kerstin Essmann.  She was proud of all of us and when our families grew to include grandchildren (great-grandchildren):  Jared & Emma Oliver (Henry and George), Blayne Oliver & Mackenzie Aldridge, Kary & Edwin Phillip, Andrew Wright, Stacey & Brad Gulliver (William and Finnegan), Matthew Wright & Brittany Brassard, Tiffany & Jason Lafortune (Oliver and Levi), Tyler Oliver (Hannah) and Vincent & Veronica Oliver (Violet), she was over the top proud of each and every one of us.  She was “Auntie Ada” to many nieces and nephews.

Mom was a school teacher who had an uncanny ability to remember something special about each one of her students.  She saw the potential that each child had, and she drew on those things because she understood that positive expectations from a teacher would influence positive outcomes from a student.   She gave respect and she received it back tenfold.  It always made her day when a former student stopped her on the street to talk to her.  She was happy, when at the age of 70 she took a job at the funeral home and got to meet so many families whose lives she had been a part of.

Always a teacher, always a student, Mom was quick to share her words of wisdom and always kept an open mind to learning new things.  At the age of 90 she took up playing a ukulele.  She joined the Fit Club in Blenheim and worked out three times a week.  She would have said that beer doesn’t hurt anybody and if you go to Sons of Kent or the Red Barn, you’ll find a flavour that you like.  She did her best to leave this world a better place than she found it, to make everybody feel important and instil values in us that we will carry forward and make her proud.  She would have told us to be kind, be respectful and to look for the best in people.  She would have told us to live our lives so that at the end of the day we would be able to look in the mirror, shake hands with ourselves and say “I’ve done my best”.

Thank you to everyone who made a difference in her life and helped her out in the past few years.  She was blessed beyond words.

Visitation for Mom will take place at the Blenheim Community Funeral Home on Saturday October 19, 2024 from 2:00 – 5:00 & 7:00 – 9:00 p.m.  A private family interment will take place at Evergreen Cemetery with a Celebration of Life at a later date (to be determined).

Family and friends wishing to remember Mom with a memorial donation are asked to consider the Blenheim United Church or the Blenheim Youth Centre which were near and dear to her heart.