BOYLE, Monica (nee WALL) - Monica Boyle died peacefully in her sleep on November 2, 2021 under the care and supervision of the excellent staff at Carefree Lodge, Toronto.
Thank you Margery, thank you Skylyn, thank you Rose Marie, thank you Maria, thank you Pearl, thank you Norma, thanks for you all, too numerous to name for the quality of your care.
Life began for Monica Mary in Windsor, Ontario on February 8, 1921, first born of James E. Wall and Florence (nee Pageau).
In an orderly fashion brothers and sisters soon followed – Margaret Anne, Leonard J. (Archbishop of Winnipeg), Claire Marie (Howard Greason), and Vincent (Terry Fayette).
Her first steps into the world led her to St. Mary's Academy in Windsor, in a few short years under the guidance of her parents and with the example of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus she learned the faith that would sustain her throughout her life.
In the 1930s the family moved to Toronto. She attended the School of Nursing at St. Michael's Hospital, graduating as a Registered Nurse and posted to the newborn nursery.
She quickly discovered an important part of herself – she loved children. Which was good because in her future was a young soldier named James K. Boyle (deceased).
In time they wed and proceeded in a less ordinary fashion (two sets of twins), to have seven children: Jim – deceased (Pauline St. Jean), Brian (Suzanne Patten), Teresa (Richard Shields), John – deceased (Kathryn Egan), Gerard, Leonard and Mary (John Mundy).
Raising seven children with limited resources is a difficult task, yet with courage and determination she managed to do it. She may even have taken some small satisfaction with the results. Her life touched so many people – Sister Mary Lou Harris, CSJ, Vince Greason, Mary Lou Bacher, the Walls, Jim, Fred, Kathleen and Patty – countless cousins and nieces and nephews, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, friends and chance encounters, strangers scattered like fruit across one hundred years of living. Each fresh with the memory of a kind smile or the soothing touch of an encouraging word.
In her busy life she found time for the Catholic Women's League. She was a sought after speaker and a valued member of the Catholic Church extension, and Extraordinary Minister at Blessed Trinity Church, and with her old friend Sister Mary Agnes a longtime secretary at St. Cyril's and St. Leonard's Schools.
At the end of her life, disabled and immobilized in bed and suffering the terrors of dementia, she cried out in agony "O God, where are you?" Monica Boyle died peacefully in her sleep on November 2, 2021.
God heard her prayer and called her home. We who remain invite you to remember her in your own way.
A private COVID-Restricted Mass of Resurrection was celebrated on November 8, 2021.
A donation to Share Life https://www.archtoronto.org/en/contact-us/donations/donate-pages/donate-to-sharelife-in-memory-and-living-gift/ will be appreciated in Monica Mary's honour.
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