There is one woman out there who unknowingly serves in the role as my number one inspiration. With the personal privilege of only having been in her company a handful of times, her name and all that she stands for are written on my heart. For decades, this inspiration to all who know her has kept loving vigil at the side of her bedridden husband. She has always moved the earth in trying to make her husband as comfortable as possible. Dedicated by day to a job where she literally seeks out others to help, she returns home each evening to a husband whose only means of communication with her, after years of debilitating illness, is through eye contact. Now in the age bracket some would call elderly, she seems to defy time, being tall and fair with an inner beauty that shines through, making her appear to be much younger than her chronological years.
To me, she embodies womanhood, the word 'wife' and 'mother'. In those dark, late-night hours when worries come rushing in, the very thought of her keeps me going. My mentor is living walking proof that love conquers all.
The lady who is my inspiration has much in common with the late Marion Barnaby, whose daughter says died of a "broken heart".
The love of Mrs. Barnaby for her husband is truly of epic proportions. It is a love that lasted through 44 years of marriage and even death, and whose simple everyday beauty will never be forgotten by any who have heard the story.
It was her beloved husband Clyde Barnaby who was struck and killed by a fleeing van during a police chase May 11 last year.
Although the 15-year-old youth at the wheel of the stolen van that killed Clyde Barnaby cannot be named under the Young Offender’s Act (YOA), Mrs. Barnaby was in court to look into the face of the teenager, who had careened through five stop signs and a red light before hitting and killing her husband and his two little dogs, as he bicycled at the intersection of Oak Park and Lumsden Avenues.
On the day of her husband's death, Mrs. Barnaby was home making soup for him. They had the kind of marriage where she would remember him as "my best friend", always there to rub the pain away from her aching legs at the end of the day. The pain she must have felt on hearing that he and his little dogs had been struck down and killed cannot even be imagined.
Admitted to hospital on Easter Sunday after suffering a heart attack, Mrs. Barnaby died at age 72.
"She fought so hard, but her heart was broken…She thought about him right up to the end," said her daughter Brenda Bice.
In the sad days after her husband's death, Mrs. Barnaby had the heartbreaking task of packing away the mementoes of 44 years of married life before moving out the East York home they shared together to move in with Brenda and her son-in-law Scott Bice.
Much of her died with him, and that she died within a year of her husband's death adds a heart rending dimension to the true love story of Clyde and Marion Barnaby.
It's a story of true love never penned by a Shakespeare, but immortalized with the common touch of unsung heroes struggling through every day life.
Their youth was lived in an era of more simple times. During World War II, at age 15, Mrs. Barnaby was one of the first women in Toronto to drive a horse and wagon for a bread company. It was a time when summer days ended by drinking lemonade on the front porch swing, when pressed flowers from the garden marked passages of the Bible.
In today's world where nothing seems to last and with so many marriages ending in divorce, the two women written about here leave the rest of us a remarkable rose of the soul with petals that never wither.
All the days of their lives have shown that love truly conquers all.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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