SOBIERA, Mary Sobiera

She put it best, when he said his Mom had moved on up to tend to the Big Garden in the Sky.

They’re in for a Treat. Anyone or anything that Mary cared about became infinitely Better.

Mary Jean Sobiera was the eighth of eleven children born to Warren and Jean Leonard of Toronto. In the mid-1980s, she and Paul Sobiera married, and built a house in Jerseyville, where Mary unofficially created the blueprint for the job of ‘MamaBear’. Her four children – John (Katherine), Trish (Chad), Matty (Kendra), and Lindsay aka Lindz (Jake) – have a library of stories of a fiercely loving and unconditional Mom, (who apparently had little difficulty raising her voice when she felt the need.)

The Christmas stockings she assembled had so much thought and content that in later years they would be replaced by laundry hampers overflowing with goodies. That happens when the shopping starts in August.

In 2015, Mary started a new chapter, moving to the North End of Hamilton, with her partner, Guy. She took a backyard that had been all paving stones and a dead grapevine, and created her own oasis with a fountain and pond, teeming with plants and birds and colour and positivity. Her favourite thing was to enjoy some wine out back with a ciggie or three, swear at the crossword when she found the clue too silly, and overfeed the birds.

Mary’s other passion was getting her way. After giving cancer a mighty tussle, she spent her last day with three of her children close to her, and Matty present in spirit and on the phone. She said she wanted to be in her house, and as usual, she got her wish. Family pictures were scrolling in front of her, and Billy Joel was playing.

Two weeks before, Mary insisted on going shopping  after her last discharge from hospital. Because she had Christmas presents to buy in advance.

Besides her four children and their partners, Mary Jean leaves behind siblings Paul; Norman (Bonnie); Libby; Ted (Pam);Chris (Susie), and Michael (Faith), along with so many nieces and nephews who cherished their fun Auntie.

Mary also had four brothers who will be waiting for her in that Big Garden. Larry (Lindsay), Greg (Mary), Jeff (Betty) and Robert (Lisa).

She will also be very missed by her partner Guy, and their two cats Lexi and Buddy.

‘Someday we’ll all be gone/But lullabies go on and on/They never die/That’s how you and I will be…’