Helen (White) Sirois

When a precious girl breathed her first breath and arrived in the lives of her parents on June 29, 1921, it gave incredible joy to her father, Jay Newman White, and her mother, Inez May (Rodda) White, of Coaticook. They named their daughter Helen Alberta White and she spent her formative years in Coaticook alongside her older sister, Joyce Noreen White. 

Her life spanned nearly 100 years and was full of accomplishments as devoted wife for 72 years to our father, Yvon Sirois, Dispensing Optician, of Sherbrooke, who predeceased her in 2018; as caring mother of her two children, Neil Sirois (Angelika) and Charlotte Sirois Di Stefano (the late James Di Stefano); as loving grandmother of Jennifer Di Stefano and Nina Di Stefano-South (Robert South) and Michael Sirois, and great-grandmother of Emerson Di Stefano, Henry and Étienne South.

Our mother successfully trained as an optician and was an invaluable help to her husband Yvon in building his business. She also developed a lifelong passion for the fine arts, producing more than 100 paintings during her 70-year career and showing an exceptional talent for detail that gave her paintings great expressiveness and a photo-like appearance. She had a keen and ongoing curiosity for learning, loved history, geography and acquiring facts, had a lifelong interest in the English and French languages, and was an advocate of proper nutrition as a key to a healthy lifestyle.

She will be remembered as a loving, intelligent, determined, creative, informed, articulate, generous, and elegant lady, with a dry sense of humour and genuine concern for people.

In the early hours of October 23^rd, our beloved mother breathed her last breath at the age of 98. Although this is a very sad time for her family, we are so thankful for the rich values she instilled in us: hard work, thrift, honesty, loyalty, and self-discipline.

As a family, we especially wish to take this opportunity to extend our heartfelt appreciation to Mrs. Sandra Klinck of Grace Village in Huntingville, and to the doctors, nurses and staff who showed our mother such tender, loving, and professional care in her final weeks.