Bernice Zang passed away peacefully at Southlake Residential Village on Thursday, May 11, 2017 at the age of 88. Predeceased by her husband Joseph Zang and her brother Joseph Carroll. Loving mother to Pauline (Paul), Tony (Dale), Michael (Sophia) and Mary Anne (Steve). She will be deeply missed by her granddaughters, grandsons and great grandchildren. Memorial Mass at St. John Chrysostom Parish, Newmarket on Wednesday, May 17 at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations to St. John Chrysostom Parish, Newmarket would be appreciated. A special thank you to everyone at Southlake Village especially 3 East for the special care they gave our Mother during her stay.


Memorial Memories of Bernice Zang

Thank you all for coming to this celebration of the Eucharist for our Mother Bernice Zang. Everyone who knew Mom, loved her. Mom was born in Owen Sound and was always proud to say she was raised in the Irish block. We never knew what that meant. Maybe there was a nice pub in the neighbourhood? Anyway when she married my Dad, Joseph Zang on July 25, 1953 she moved right into their family owned hotel in Chesley, so that worked out all right. I always had lots of great memories of the Hotel but most of them involved when the Rintouls came to visit.

Mom and Dad moved to Toronto in 1976 and were living there when Dad passed away on June 25, 1983 in a car accident. As you can imagine that was a devastating loss to Mom and to us all but with her strong faith and legendary good spirits, she pulled through. She also became the remaining grandparent for the Bath family and she played that role in the years to follow with such grace and unconditional love.
While Mom was still able she was always very active. She loved walking, playing cards, lawn bowling, line dancing and volunteering with the Catholic Women’s League and the Young at Heart Club. Mom also loved to travel. She went on a tour of China and Germany and had a fantastic trip to Ireland with Pauline. She always loved to laugh and Irish humour was in her blood. She even came to visit me twice in Africa, the second time at my wedding to Sophia.

I think my fondest memory of Mom was the first visit when I was able to take her on an extensive driving tour of South Africa. As all who knew Mom well, she loved everything, in particular the Kirstenbosch Gardens in Cape Town and the waterfront of Port Elizabeth. And she was always up for an adventure. When I was called back to work early and had to head immediately to a bush camp in Namibia, Mom couldn’t wait to get in the truck. I thought she might get a little bored waiting for me in the camp while I was away all day and part of the night so I asked if she would like to join a tour of the Etosha Game Reserve. I drove her a few hours to the only highway in the country and put her on the bus with a nice bunch of German tourists. One lady in particular fell in love with her and took a lot of nice pictures with Mom’s camera. Mom’s friends at home said they were fabulous pictures but why was Mom in so many of them?

Mom will be greatly missed by her children and their spouses Mary Anne and Steve, Tony and Dale, myself and Sophia, but most of all Pauline and Paul. Pauline especially worked so hard to make Mom happy and saw beyond her dementia to the precious Mother that she was, fully deserving of respect, affection, care, attention, and the dignity that God intends for all his children.

She will be deeply missed and fondly remembered by her grand children Paula, Katie, Bryan, Matthew, Andrew and Leonie, her step grand children Melanie and Nicole and all her great grand children. She will be missed by everyone who knew her in particular Doreen Myatt and Aunt Marg Rintoul and all the Rintouls who so recently lost Uncle Perrie.

Thank you very much for being with us today to honour our special Mother.