Sharlene Morely wanted to spend one last special Mother’s Day with her mom.
Gail Jurick, 75, was fighting stage-four ovarian cancer tooth-and-nail for the last three years.
It was a tough slog, but despite the struggle, Jurick would often have a smile on her face, and still shared many a laugh with Morely.
Fearing the end was near, Morely bought two cards – she couldn’t decide on one – and a few balloons, and decided to celebrate the day on May 1.
Jurick sang You Are My Sunshine to her daughter, and the pair shared a lovely moment.
It’s well they did. The cancer would not let the queen of Hammond see Mother’s Day 2021.
Gail Jurick died on Friday, May 7 at 10:06 a.m.
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She was Hammond through-and-through, and lived a full, fascinating life, Morely said.
In addition to raising four children, Connie, Rick, Gina, and Sharlene, Jurick was also the first Canadian woman to race a hydroplane boat back in 1959, her daughter proudly said.
Tragedy was to strike the family – Connie died when the family house burned down 36 years ago, and in 2009 Rick passed away at 42-years-old – but Jurick remained strong.
Her relationship with Bob Jurick, who survives his wife, helped.
“It’s a beautiful love story,” Morely said. “They went together like peanut butter and jelly. They held hands, and they still kissed.”
The couple celebrated their 44th anniversary on Sept. 3.
Morely said Jurick wrote – Each day is a happy day – on the wall in the hospital she spent her last days at, and noted her mother took pleasure in seeing a beautiful rhododendron bloom from her room’s window.
“She was always smiling at me,” Morely said. “She’s smiling, not because she had to smile, but because she loved me.”
Memories include a trip to Disneyland, travelling to Summerland with Moreland’s basketball team, Sunday dinners at Panabode in west Maple Ridge, and lots of camping and fishing.
“It was awesome,” Morely said. “We were really spoiled.
Friends knew Jurick as Mrs. J, or Mama Jurick, Morely said.
“To me, she was the queen of Hammond, a magical person.”
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