In Memory of

Victoria Margaret
Edwards (Cheropita)

1929 - 2016

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Graham A. Giddy Funeral Homes Ltd.
280 St. David Street South
Fergus, Ontario
CANADA
N1M 2L5

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Obituary for Victoria Margaret Edwards (Cheropita)

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Life Story for Victoria Margaret Edwards (Cheropita)

Victoria Edwards was born on October 25, 1929, in Yorkton, Saskatchewan as Victoria Margaret Cheropita.
She was the 8th of 10 children. Born on a farm during the great depression, Mom wasn't aware of any troubles, but apparently she caused enough. ...haha
Mom began her adult life as a hairdresser, she met our father Ken Davis while he was working at a local radio station. They loved to dance and danced well together, winning contests for their jitterbug.
Mom had her first child at 18, Beverly Lynn, then a year later came Barbara Gayle in Winnipeg. Later, Mom and Dad ended up living on Toronto's Centre Island where Bonnie Jane and William Richard were born, not enough time for the ferry to get to the hospital so the police boat filled in. It wasn't until they moved to Port Credit that they had their 5th child, Candice Joy. As a family of 7 there was lots of fun and music.
Unfortunately the marriage didn't last and they were divorced. Mom married Ron Palmer 2 years later and they all moved to B.C. Mom worked at Palmer's Men's Wear as a seamstress. All the while it was a tumultuous time for her.
It was 7 years later in the summer of 1970 when they moved back to Ontario, to St.Catharines. A year later Mom took Rick and Candi (the others were married by then) and moved to a tiny apartment across from, what was called at the time, Lester B. Pearson Park. She had divorced her 2nd husband and for the first time Mom was on her own.
She managed to get work at a woman's clothing store and at the same time, put herself through college for bookkeeping, while raising 2 teenagers.
At 42, she became a grandmother. Being Ukrainian, her grandkids would've called her Baba, but Mom felt too young to be called Baba. And besides, her mother was called Baba, (2 Babas would be confusing to the little ones) The women at work, who were Jewish, called her Bobi. So Mom changed the spelling and became Babie to all her grand children.
Once she got her diploma for bookkeeping, Mom worked for Datsun before it was Nissan and after, an air conditioning company, until she met her 3rd husband, Eddy Edwards. They enjoyed a good time together and in 1975 Mom and Candi moved to Mt. Clemens Michigan to start a new life with Eddy.
Once again things were not what they seemed and within a year Mom was back in St. Catharines with Rick and Candi.
It was there that Mom started to enjoy being single. She enjoyed the Grape and Wine festival held in St. Catharines every fall and would participate by billeting guests from Trinidad. She also traveled there for their Carnival in February, with her sister in law.
Mom loved to dance and as she got older the Trinidadian music and dance was perfect for her. Her favorite song while dancing was "bom bombom bom" she's known for that phrase, throughout the family and always will be.
Mom worked with our brother Rick at his business in Port Colbourne, ON , in fact they were working when the blizzard of 1977 hit and ended up being stranded without food, heat and very little water for 3 days.
Eventually Mom was able to purchase her very own home. A condo/townhouse. This was quite an accomplishment after renting and being a single mother for so long.
It was a few years later, when she met Bob, who made the best fudge in Niagara. They decided to pack up and move to Arizona to start up a fudge business there. Mom always loved Arizona for its dry air. She never had a problem with her sinuses the 5 years she was ín Arizona.
Unfortunately Mom was missing her family and things weren't working out with her and Bob liked she'd hoped. She moved back just in time for Candi's wedding in October of 1986. She lived with Rick in T.O. until she decided where she wanted to lay her hat.
It wasn't long before Mom found the perfect spot, back in St.Catharines once again, in a cozy little apartment right beside Lester B. Pearson park. She started to do independent bookkeeping from her apartment. The grand children would always comment on how big Babie's house was and what a great park she had ....
Mom lived there on Carlton St, (right across from the apartment building she moved to with Rick and Candi 18 years earlier) until one day Rick took her to the doctor and discovered she had had a heart attack. She was taken to Hamilton immediately to have 2 stents put in and sent back to St. Catharines General Hospital to recover. It was there that she had a massive stroke, which left her unable to talk, walk, eat on her own and incontinent. Mom was 79 and just recently had completed the T4's for the construction company she did the books for.
She was sent to Shaver hospital across from Brock University where she under went rehabilitation. Mom eventually was able to talk and feed herself, but she still couldn't walk. Doctor's proceeded to tell her 5 children, through a conference call, that their Mom had a massive stroke and her cirabelum was affected to the point that Mom would never walk again because her brain could not compute to her legs to walk. She would from now on have a hard time thinking because her brain isn't getting information to her extremities like a healthy brain would.
We needed to find a nursing home for Mom and this is how she end up at Caressant Care in Fergus.
Mom lived there for 6 years, underwent surgery for colon cancer, the loss of her son Rick and from there started to fade. She was loved by all the staff and got all the hugs and kisses one person could handle.
Barb and Candice stayed with Mom for 10 days, from morning into the night. Until she sadly took her last breath on January 4, 2016.