Grateful for the hospital staff whose efforts allowed her to spend her last days as pain-free as possible, Schultz thoughts turned to how best to memorialize a woman whose life was a primer on optimism through adversity.
“She escaped an abusive husband to raise me on her own and a few years later broke her back,” while working at a job from which she was then let go, he explained.
In a memory from his early youth in Kitchener, Schultz recalls his mother helping a young girl who was fleeing from an attacker.
“My mom ran to the balcony, we’re on the first floor … I literally watched her grab this woman and flip her over the railing like sack of potatoes,” he explained, noting his mother was still recovering from the back injury at the time.
Schultz said in later years Stuebing’s home burned down while she was out driving community members without vehicles to visit their families.
She was also struck while driving her passenger van by someone running through a stop sign.
Police told Schultz his mother’s driving skills probably saved her life.
He says she was a natural driver, “born with a steering wheel in her hand.
“When her and my father had their own towing and hauling business she ran dispatch, she drove tow trucks, and she did snowplowing. Anything with a wheel she could drive,” he stated proudly.
“My mom was a hero to me for how often she would open her heart and home to those who needed help despite everything she endured.”
Stuebing was known as “Lou” around the village of Clifford, where she ran a business, Kingsway Furniture, with her husband John Stuebing.
Schultz said the business flourished until the early 2000s and John Stuebing passed away in 2003.
After she was gone, Schultz sought a way to keep Lou’s memory alive.
“She donated her body to science, so there’s no body to bury,” he explained.
Noting “normal was not her way,” Schultz came up with an idea for a different sort of commemoration.
“I was thinking, ‘How do I pay tribute to her?’ And I thought, okay, I’ve seen memorial benches available before elsewhere…
“I’ll just contact the Town of Minto and ask them … ‘do you folks have anything like that?’
“And then very quickly, Minto got back to me and said, ‘Oh, we actually have a program to do exactly what you want to do.’”
Minto’s Commemorative Bench and Tree program was launched in 2021 to “streamline any requests that come to the town for these types of commemorative items,” said town landscape coordinator Paul Judge.
“Although it is likely they will be most often donated to memorialize someone who has passed, the intent is that they can honour or pay tribute to an individual or group, either living or deceased,” Judge explained.
The memorial bench concept also fit in with Stuebing’s concern for others, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“She believed in science, and she believed in doing the right thing and being as safe as possible. And when we were discussing issues, she really didn’t even want to have a memorial or a gathering,” Schultz explained.
“So having a place where people can safely go, when there’s no risk of anybody else around them, just go and say hi, and just enjoy nature, it’s a perfect tribute and a very safe way to do it.”
He added, “I think paying tribute to her in a way that other people can share is a perfect way to share my love of my mom.”
Schultz raised a portion of the $1,500 cost of the commemorative bench through a crowdfunding program and the bench was installed in Clifford’s Cenotaph Park in late June.
Judge said it’s the first, and so far only, bench purchased through the program, which has also resulted in one memorial tree purchase.
However, he notes there have been numerous inquiries about the program.
For more information visit town.minto.on.ca.
Some days afterwards I posted about her, what she endured in life, and her final days and also taking the opportunity to thank Palmerston And District Hospital for their wonderful care in her final days:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ontario/comments/qye3du/my_mom_passed_away_while_i_was_at_bedside_she_was/
My mom passed away while I was at bedside. She was my hero, and she was given amazingly beautiful care by heroes - the medical professionals at Palmerston And District Hospital.
My mom was able to finally pass peacefully at Palmerston Hospital and I take solace she was able to have her last days as pain-free as possible despite the adversity she challenged. In my lifetime, she experienced these hardships:
She escaped an abusive husband to raise me on her own and a few years later broke her back at work who fired her after - and then a few year after that used unbelievable strength to literally pull a victim escaping from a sexual assault up over the balcony to protect the girl until emergency services arrived. Home burned down while driving those without vehicles to visit their families. Struck while driving her passenger van by someone running through a stop without stopping at 80-100kmh, police say her driving skills kept her alive... not surprising she was born with a steering wheel in her hand. Was victim of three attacks by neighbour until that person was finally arrested and held for show cause by OPP Wellington after fourth incident. And there's more, but this helps give context - and yet despite all she endured my mom was a hero to me for how often she would open her heart and home to those who needed help.
Mom was brought to Palmerston And District Hospital by ambulance last week and she died in palliative care this morning.
As I grieve this loss and celebrate her life there is something I am compelled to say to commemorate her passing, and that is to acknowledge the wonderful treatment and care my mother had in her final days at Palmerston And District Hospital.
Health care workers are true heroes.
I have rediscovered the deepest amount of respect for them and the work they do with compassion, respect and exceptional care. Even the food is great there too.
We live in a wacky world where some people don't care to find a shred of respect for what these true professionals do daily, doing more and more with less and less and caring for people at the worst times of their lives with utmost dignity.
In lieu of any internet awards or whatever, may I please ask that you thank a health care worker whenever or however you can and if possible consider donating to the Palmerston and District Hospital Foundation.
Thank you for taking the time to read this, kindness matters.
Update: I am pleased to announce that in keeping with her giving nature the university where she wanted accepted her request to have her body donated for the advancement of medical research.
She can serve humanity one more time, yep that's mom.
