Published June 2025
For the past two years, Joanna Miller has been leading a quarterly Memorial Service at St. John’s Kitchen. Each quarter we have remembered up to 25 people who have died during that time from the wider community of those connected to the St. John’s Kitchen community. Here is part of the reflection by Joanna from the service held at St. John’s Kitchen on May 27th, 2025:
Henry David Thoreau said, “there is no remedy for love but to love more.” And that is the other option, the one that requires us to expose our hearts to more risk, but also to more love.”
I went back and counted last week and this is my 8th time leading a memorial service for The Working Centre; some have been at the King St. Shelter and the others here. And I say that only to note that many of your faces are familiar, you have been to almost all of them, and likely many before I ever led one.
Because you keep showing up – I see you. You keep coming, to meet your friends and community members, the ones you know, work with, volunteer with – all the ones you love. You keep choosing the open heart.
And while that is the very thing that continues to another beautiful human to grieve, it is also the thing that keeps making your heart more tender, more beautiful, more loving.
It is nothing short of heartbreaking that we find ourselves here again: Remembering people who had gifts and talents, who shared their own love and light with us. It is not fair.
So, we do only what we can do… commend them to the One who created them, pray that they rest in peace beyond what we can imagine, and commit that we will keep our broken hearts open to keep on loving.
The Working Centre is blessed by memorial contributions each year. The following list is all those who have requested memorial donations in their name since 2023. Also included are annual memorial donations made regularly in honour of a loved one. We are grateful for all the generous gifts these memorial donations have offered to The Working Centre community.
Saul Ross, Theda Saunders, Mary Eleanor Merritt, Waltraud Michi, Marjorie Guerra-Francis, Rosemarie O’Connor, Christopher Pedjase, Don Reist, Gary & Valerie Lebold, Andrew Telegdi, Kari Kokko, Lydia Roser, Susan Margaret Dedyna, Joanna Gogos, Bruce Barber, Scott Butler, Bruce Lippert, Bill Stankiewicz, Barbara Howe, Nora Kudrenecky, Emil Roser, Lucas Sproll, Sheldon Goldstein, Krishnapillai Balaskanthan, Palmer Patterson, Gianni Battista Degani, Jordan Scherer, Mary Pappert, Rosemary Paul, John Degani,
W. Phil Heinze, Anthony Baldasaro, Pushpa Mathur, Marie Clarke, Ian MacNaughton, Ian Glibota, Rada Jankovic, Daryl Reeves, Jim Crawford, Tulsi Ram Peetush, Garry Paquette, June Graham, Peter McCullough, Denis Taylor, Irma Kadela, Endla Loney, Carol Southwood, Joyce & Alan Rigby, Orval Coupal, Susan Oberle, Geoff Fellows, Christine Edwards, Ray Steinmann, Michael Bunsch, Paul McNamara, Katie Davies, Sylvia Sawatsky, Larry Crawford, Lise Naish, Barbara “Pinky” Julien, Eugene Doherty, Hawk,
Trevor John Clough, Chone Williams, Gord Crosby, Herbert LaPier, Don Ksenych, Anita DesRoches, Timothy Roedding, Rudolf Pawelowski, Marilyn Voisin, Jean Horne, Sharon MacDonald, David Milne, Dave Riley, Norman Davis, John Nuernberger, John Upham, Oscar “Oz” Cole-Arnal, Ian Martin, George Ashcroft, Kyle Walton, Arthur Prudham, Mark Keczem, Yvonne Archer, Alan Cozzarin, Paul Griffin, Apoorva Yadav, Pushpa Mathur, Geoff Malleck, Ian Martin, Louise Kirvan, Robert Dale, Heather Marie Pickup,
Tulsi-Ram Peetush, Lillian Isabelle Barnes, William Taylor, Peter McCullough, Crissy George, Hope Eaton, Steve Kennedy, Nada Vrbanovic, Queenie Wiens, Roger Farwell, Micheal & Rose Steven, Jackie Mattson, Elizabeth Montag, Cathy Maureen Jenkins, Chris Harding, Christopher Mitretodis, James Nish, Ann Kittler, Erma Shantz, Betty Schierholtz, Marie Schnarr, Stanley Reitzel, Anna Kerty, Charlie Roe, Delores Sedlmeir, Earl Martin, Giovanni Battista Fusari, Janet Carol Prudham, Julia Hamel, Kate George, Margaret Wey, Scott Hudspeth, Tim Montserine
