Obituary of Ann Magdeline Drake

It is a rare and beautiful thing to find a true heart of gold: our mother was just such a treasure.

 

Ann Magdeline Drake passed away peacefully on January 8, 2025 at age 90. While we are grateful for a long life and many precious memories, she is mourned deeply and missed terribly. Ann’s love remained the dependable centre of our lives. It was a privilege to have had her as our mother, and to witness the gift she was to this world.

 

Ann was born on September 23, 1934 in Windsor, Ontario to her beloved immigrant parents Stephen and Margaret Hervoly. A piece of her heart would always remain in Windsor, and she was immensely proud of her Hungarian heritage. Her lifelong best friend Margaret Peto, our dear Godmother or “Keresztmama,” was born the day before, their mothers having gone into labour together while canning peaches on the back porch. Ann moved to London, Ontario as a young girl, where she attended Tecumseh Public School, then Beal “Tech” Highschool. She recalled bicycling on Commissioners when it was still a dirt road, and roller-skating to school with her longtime cherished friend, Diane Sweeney.

 

A precocious student, Ann skipped two grades and won a nation-wide stenography and typing award, averaging 120 words a minute. This skill would later serve her well. Ann graduated early and went on to work for Supertest, enjoying lunches with her girlfriends at the Toddle Inn. Ann married Charles Drabick (later Drake) in 1959 – he reminded her of Cary Grant – and they settled in Toronto and later moved back to Lambeth first, then London. Ann instilled in us responsibility and a strong work ethic. She later worked for the Nursing and Ob-gyn departments at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and then in Graduate Studies at Western University, serving as the respected right hand to the Provost until retirement. She held students very dear.

 

Mom made life magical. She had a beautiful voice, and could recognize just about any song within the first few notes and then sing it all. We grew up belting out musicals together, the car or house always full of music. One of her most prized possessions was a signed dinner card from the Four Aces after our father surprised her by having the band members come to their table.

 

Ann inspired a deep love for nature, animals, books, art, music and puns. She knew much poetry by heart and could do a mean crossword. Ann hyperventilated over hot-rod cars, famously driving her prized red Fiero much like the little old lady from Pasadena. She could stay up later than anyone watching her murder mysteries and goldie oldie movies. And she truly wouldn’t kill a fly – she’d scoop up wasps with ease and set them free. Once she deftly removed a snake from under the piano with BBQ tongs and placed it gently in the garden, bidding it adieu. Ann’s favourite place on earth was Point Pelee, where she loved going to the lake and long walks in the park. The monarch butterfly migration was a sacred pilgrimage every year. Any way of enjoying the water – the beach, swimming, sailing – was heaven for our mother. Another much-loved spot was Port Stanley, where she grew up dancing at the Stork Club and visiting Mackie’s, returning there joyfully to spoil her grandchildren. Stopping for a double-scoop ice cream from Shaw’s remained her favourite treat to the very end.

 

Ann embodied honesty, integrity and compassion. We can say with all confidence that we have never known anyone to have lived life so winsomely, completely without pettiness or malice. Ann always gave others the benefit of the doubt. She often reminded us that life was too short to waste any of it fighting or hurting one another. Ann preferred to be a peacemaker, but injustice angered her, and she would step to any plate to defend or help someone she believed in. She may have been gentle, but she was fierce.

 

Our mother did not have an easy life. She faced many painful losses, injustices, and obstacles, but she always persevered, and always conducted herself with dignity and grace. She remained thoroughly kind. She modelled how to do the right thing. She reminded us constantly how precious we were to her, and how dearly we were loved. She told and retold family stories until we could finish her sentences while rolling our eyes. She was self-effacing and happy to be on the receiving end of many family jokes. But most of all, our mother was devoted to her children, and her grandchildren were the light of her world. As her granddaughter, Victoria, put so well upon Grammy’s passing: “I wish everyone could have the love Grammy wrapped around my heart that will be me with forever. I pray everyone could have someone love them like that.”

 

Simply put, Ann was the epitome of true class: someone who immediately put others at ease, regardless of circumstance. We haven’t known of a single person who didn’t like our mother. She endeared herself to everyone she met, most likely because for Ann it was never about her - she was truly concerned for the other person, quick to express gratitude for even the smallest service, and not one to trump your cares with her own. She often reminded us how others are carrying burdens that we may not see.

 

Ann was a truly beautiful person, inside and out. And while this may seem like an overly extravagant obituary, if you knew our mother, you know it is sorely understated.

 

Ann is predeceased by our beloved father Charles, and our precious big brother Mathew. She is survived by her remaining children and their families: elder daughter Dr. Carolyn (Drake) Weber, of Nashville, TN and her husband Kent, and children Victoria, Byron, William and Kingsley; younger daughter Kelly (Drake) Rivard of London, Ont. and her husband Jason, and children Taylor and Spencer; and Matt’s wife, her daughter-in-law, Wendy Drake, and children Jennifer and Christopher, to whom she was their Special Nana Ann. Mom cherished us, each and all.

 

Ann was very much about family and adored her siblings: Margaret, Veronica, Isabel and Steve, and all their children. She was particularly grateful to her “sweetie” niece Joanne, who provided without hesitation extended emergency care for Auntie Annie in a time of need.

 

We wish to express our gratitude to the Waverley Retirement Home staff in London for their excellent care of mom, and the Parkwood Hospital team following her surgery and rehab.

 

Cremation has taken place and a private memorial by the lake will follow this summer. Please, no flowers or fuss. If desired, donations may be made in Ann’s honour to a charity or church of one’s choice.

 

After Jesus’s command to “Love one another,” Ann’s favourite Bible verse was the following, from John 14:1-4. She wished to share it as a departing comfort:

 

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. You know the way to the place where I am going.

 

Adjon Isten jó éjszakát, Mama.

 

God bless and grant you a good night, Mom. You will always be that gold-hearted treasure, with your eyes brimful of love as you look upon us – your own kincee. Sleep in peace and wake in glory.

 

And now you always get to eat dessert first!

 

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