Hill, Vera
(Nee Lepore)
Nov. 15, 1920 – June 15, 2020
Vera entered peacefully into eternal life on June 15th, after having had the consolation of receiving the Last Sacraments ten days earlier, at the Yaletown House (Nursing Home), Vancouver. She had been recovering there since the beginning of June 2019, after a lengthy stay in hospital where she fought a hard battle between life and death. Her family is immensely grateful to the dedicated staff of this nursing home. Adelle deserves special mention for the tender loving care she offered her.
Born in Rome, Italy of Lepore, Arturo and Magnanini, Ada, she is remembered with great gratitude and much love by her children Ann (Sr. Chiara Anastasia, O.S.C. of the Protomonastero S. Chiara in Assisi, Italy), Joan, Arthur (Maria), Francis (Catherine), Lawrence (Anne) and Robert (Katherine) together with her nine grandchildren Elisabetta, Nicholas, Thomas, James, Daniel, Richard (Yoo Hyun), Christine (Matthew), Jenifer (Jeremy), and Klara and her six great grandchildren Max, Conrad, Hugo, Lauren, James and Jackson.
Vera was predeceased by her parents, her husband, Oliver Maclear Hill, who passed away June 5, 1991, and their oldest daughter Mary, who died shortly after her birth in 1947.
In Vera not only her family, but many others of all ages found a hospitality of the heart that had a beneficial effect on their lives. She did not have ‘recipes’ to hand out, nor genial solutions to the problems that were bothering them ready, but she did have a gentle way of helping each person to put them in a less-self-centered perspective. Often she would do so by awaiting an opening to draw attention to the humorous side of things. This did not come spontaneously to her. As the only child whose delicate health often obliged her to remain indoor she was inclined to be overly sensitive. Grandma Saveria, her paternal grandmother, noting this tendency of hers, took her under her wing and taught her forgetfulness of self in ways that exercised a profound lifelong effect on Vera.
A longtime parishioner of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish, when her children became adults, Vera attended daily Mass. She would walk to and from the Church each morning in all kinds of weather favorable or unfavorable as it was. She continued to do this until she was more than 95 years of age. Both family and her many friends are convinced that the secret of her long life is linked to this habit of hers which she maintained with no small cost to herself until it became impossible for her to continue.
Let us continue to show our affection for Vera by continually praying for her. In faith, she is also praying for us. May she rest in peace.
The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish on Friday, June 26, 2020 at 11:00 AM by invitation only. Interment at Forest Lawn Cemetery.