A full life and a Coptic funeral

Eva was born in Germany in 1932 and died on New Year’s Day in Ottawa this year. Last weekend, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Ottawa to which she belonged, St Mark and St Mary of Egypt, held a postponed celebration of her life, which the priest described as “a song of love.” 

Eva grew up in Ottawa, her family moving here from Germany when she was a baby. As a young graduate, she began a teaching career, but her desire for adventure induced her to apply for a post at the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, where she lived and worked for ten years. Her official obituary says, "Her tact and bravery served her well in dangerous times during the Lebanese Civil War." She also worked in Cyprus, Singapore and Egypt, interviewing applicants for permanent residence in Canada. Her kindness to refugees was exemplary.

 

After retirement, as a member of the Diplomatic Hospitality group I belong to, she would always make friends with the diplomats we invited to our events. 

Eva, 2nd from right, with foreign diplomats' wives: my photo

Although Eva had no children of her own, she was loved by all the generations of her extended family. She was an affectionate pet-owner too. She enjoyed hiking, cross-country skiing, swimming, gardening, acting, and hosting dinners; she sang in a Greek choir. She liked the German carols regularly sung by my Konversationsgruppe before Christmas. 

 

During the last few years of her life Eva lost her ability to speak, but even then, so the carers at her nursing home affectionately reported, her face would light up when seeing, hearing or thinking of the people who were important to her. By suffering gracefully, as someone at the memorial said, she was an inspiration.

The religious part of the memorial ceremony was an unusual experience for me. Icons hung around us and the urn containing Eva's ashes stood on an altar at the front draped in ceremonial cloths. For all of the prayers and Bible readings the people present in the pews were asked to stand, not being told to sit down again until the end. The priest and his assistant (robed like the clerics on this page) intoned both prayers and readings partly in a speaking voice and partly in a rapid Byzantine chant that was not unlike orthodox Jewish chanting, although they did not sway their bodies while doing so; they swung censors that diffused incense so that the front of the church became smoky. The congregation could follow the words of the prayers because they were projected onto a screen; some of these words were new to me. I didn't think it right to take notes but I memorized and looked up Pantocrator and hegumens when I got home. "Pantocrator" means "Almighty" — referring to Christ — and "hegumens" are the leaders of orthodox monasteries.