To know her was to love her
ST. STEPHEN - Virginia Louise Armstrong is being remembered as the kind of woman who would tell people she barely knew that she loved them - and mean it.
Armstrong died on July 15 at the Lincourt Manor in St. Stephen. She was 86.
She is survived by three children, Robert Armstrong of Stanley, Debra Sprague of Baileyville, Maine and Pamela Tucker of St. Stephen.
Sprague said her mother and father were sweethearts, always dancing and singing. She said theirs was an example of what a relationship should be.
When her father died at the age of 47, Sprague said, her mother had to give up staying at home, go back to school and find a job.
Sprague said her mother was incredibly strong and bore the pain silently alone, while caring for her family.
After her father died, Sprague remembers a house full of friends. She said her mother wanted her three teenagers to be happy and invite any of their friends over for as long as they wanted to stay.
"There was always somebody sleeping on a couch," said Sprague. "Everybody loved her. "¦ Our home was always open."
Sprague said her mother took on the role as worker and single parent without complaining. She found faith on her knees praying to God.
Sprague spent the last few years of her mother's life caring for her in her family home.
Her mother, known as Nana, was always getting visits from teenagers that knew her children.
"She had a way of relating to children, and so many of my friends called her Mom. They loved her," said Sprague. "They loved her because she loved them and showed it to them so easily."
Robert Armstrong said when his father died in 1967, his mother always put their concerns before her own and it has made him who he is today.
"She was selfless," said Robert. "Nothing she did was for herself, everything was directed to other people.... If she saw someone down and out, she helped them."
He said his mother gave donations anonymously and always had a smile on her face when she saw a person or child that had been given something they didn't have before.
Robert said he learned his religious values from his mother and also mimicked her generous heart
"She taught me how to bring my children up properly and teach them the values she taught me," Robert Armstrong said, his voice breaking. "I'm going to miss her "¦ she was my everything."
Nicole Harding, a worker at Lincourt Manor where Armstrong spent her last days, said she was everyone's favourite grandmother. Harding said Armstrong was always singing and all of the nurses would go into her room and sing along with her.
"She liked it when we crawled in bed and cuddled with her or read a book," said Harding. "She was so loving and she just wanted to help everybody. She always had a love pat for everyone. She was so caring."
Avis MacIntyre, a former caregiver to Armstrong, said every day she took care of the elderly woman she enjoyed herself and felt as if she were taking care of her own mother.
"Her last words to me were, 'I love you, darling,' " said MacIntyre. "And, oh, that just hurt my heart. I just enjoyed being with her. She was funny. Even though she didn't have much to say, when she did it was always funny."
The funeral service will be held at St. Peter's Anglican Church, Milltown, today at 11 a.m.
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