Remembering Diane

Diane Itterman was born on January 19, 1938 in Winnipeg, Canada. She moved from there to BC. with the family. She was the second oldest of 10 children.

Even at a young age, she was taking care of others. She helped her Mom with her younger siblings. She was always doing for others.

She learned to sew early on, and made outfits for her sisters. She enjoyed sewing and always felt accomplished when she saw them wearing what she created.

She met and married Pete van Tunen on June 16, 1962. She became a mother on Jan. 30, 1963. Back then, you weren't allowed to touch your preemie babies, but the nurses could. Mom said she never wanted to scratch someone's eyes out like the nurse that got to hold her baby Lisa, when she couldn't. It made her so angry. Mom was a protective mother from the start.

She spent some of her early married life in the Yukon. She was a young mother of two babies in the middle of nowhere. If that doesn't speak to her strength, I don't know what would. Even up there she made the best of it. Something else she just did. She was first and foremost a mother, a Mom. She had 9 children altogether, as she would tell people, girl, boy, girl, boy, girl, boy oh boy oh boy oh boy. She took pride in her family. Most of her life was spent raising children.

But before that she was a daughter. She was helpful, smart, and doing for others. She was a sister. She loved time spent with them, so much that she braved an airplane ride to go to Mexico with her 3 sisters and their daughters. She came home with a henna tattoo and a grin on her face.It was a highlight in her life. Later on in life, the Ipad became their connection. Mom figured it out.

She'd save patterns, watched YouTube videos and messaged us every morning on our family group. “Good morning, happy face, white glove guy, kissy face and a Granny emoji”. And I looked forward to that each morning. We all did.When her ipad wasn't working, oh boy, call Joe quick. Mom liked things to work the way they were made to. She was creative. She knew how things went together. She continued her love of sewing. Sewing now for her kids and grandkids.

People would always ask where I found the beautiful dresses for my girls. My Mom. This skill also helped to supplement her income when she became a single Mom. Diane's Alterations. She was proud to use her skills to provide for herself and her kids. I would go over sometime and help her organize her sewing room.This box was for her UFOs,(unfinished objects) Mom's pet peeve and this bag was for fabric scraps.

And I'd pull out a scrap, and say well this isn't big enough for anything. She would stop what she was doing, look at the fabric scrap and a smile would come on her face. Oh that's the fabric I used for that dress for Lisa with the ruching. Next scrap, oh I made a shirt for Frank out of that. Next one, oh I made a dress for Keanna and a matching one for Sholina. And on it would go. Every scrap was a memory, so I put them carefully back in the bag and put them away to open up another day. She'd look at me, smile and nod.

Everything she did was near perfect. Never perfect. She'd say if you want perfect, go see God. Her humour was sometimes subtle and sometimes irreverent and cheeky. In the hospital, they were renovating. You could hear hammers and saws. She looked at Teresa and asked, “Are they making my coffin already?” . Our jaws would drop, and we'd burst into laughter and she would just shrug and smile. She took up crocheting in a big way as she got older.

She always knew how, but now it became her passion. She made 1000s of hats. Our heads were always warm. Her needle never stopped moving. She made scrubbies, potholders and baby blankets. They went to the homeless in Surrey, orphanages in Mexico and to people living in Nunavut. If you needed a toque, you saw Mom. She traded patterns with her sisters, shared tips back and forth. My daughter Sarah is now a crocheter because of Granny.

My Mom knew a lot about a lot of things. Mom was the daughter of a master craftsman and it showed. Loved going with her to Home Depot and listen to her talk circles around the workers there. She knew the lingo and how things were done. She was soft spoken and always polite. Mom would also talk to any cashier or salesperson. Make a joke and smile and then ask us later if we were embarrassed by her. Nope, never Mom.

She made us smile too. My Mom did not have an easy life, but she made the best of what she had. She became a single parent taking care of 4 young boys and then a teenage boy as well. She just did what she had to do. But she didn't forget that life needed treats. She didn't want to deny them anything that others had if she could. When we lost my brother Nick, she changed. Some of the joy she always had, left. She adjusted, she lived with this loss, and she found ways to smile even though the pain was always with her. She could still see joy in life's moments. She found it in her family, her kids, grandkids and great grandkids.

Our Mom raised us to be hardworking, respectful of others and their choices, to be kind and to give of ourselves. She also taught us that we mattered, to her and to others.

When she did something it had to be done right, not "good enough". If it wasn't, she'd mention it, nicely. She was always nice about everything. She had a unique relationship with each of us kids as well as her grandkids, she made sure we knew she saw us. I can't speak to their relationship with her, but I can speak to mine. She taught me to curb my tongue, to speak as kindly as possible, that my opinion mattered, but so did hers and others. She taught me to sew. She'd let me guide the fabric through the machine and step on the gas pedal.

After I had Frank, I called her everyday for years. The phone calls came less often, but lasted longer. I can still talk to her. Each time she held a grandbaby in her arms, She would look and say "Beautiful job". I loved that. She would do for all the grandkids what she did for one. She was Granny. She'd be holding a baby on her lap during a celebration, she'd look at the cake, look you straight in the eye, take her finger, scoop up some icing, and pop it in that baby's mouth, and just dare you to say anything. And just smile at that happy baby. I just smiled back.

She celebrated their successes and sympathised with their hardships and would say it'll get better, it'll be alright, or congratulations!! Good for you! I'm so proud of you. And she was. She showed up to every baptism, first communion graduation that she could. She loved unconditionally. She wasn't afraid to voice her opinions, but always left it up to us to decide what we would do with it. I valued what she had to say. She was my creative supervisor when I took on a big project.

My memories of sewing with her, making wedding dresses for her daughters, soon to be daughters, in her sewing room, are my most treasured. My mother gave me practical advice about babies and life. When my world fell apart and I didnt know what to do with the hurt, she grabbed my hand with hers and held on tight and I knew she'd have taken that pain on herself if she could. She felt all her kid's pain and all their joys.I spoke about her as sister, Mom, Granny, but she was also Diane. She liked quality things, a job well done.

She enjoyed her BritBox TV, had a wide range of music tastes, Reggae, Nana Mouskouri, Old Country, and Thunderstruck. She enjoyed making things. She liked McDonald's Fish Fillet. The only person I know that likes that. She liked a little bit of whimsy, a little bit of colour, like a little holiday red in her beautiful white hair at Christmas.

She didn't like excess, less was more. She liked to be a part of things but never the center. She liked herself. We loved her. She was our center. I didn't think that on that Tuesday, this would be the end of her journey here with us. Those last 2½ weeks we had with her are so precious to us now. There is so much more I could say, except you already know who she was to you.

Our mom was quiet strength wrapped in kindness, wisdom, laughter, respect and love. She sacrificed a lot to love us well and I will forever be grateful for the beautiful way she did that. We will miss her so much.

Love you Mom.