BELANGER, Mary Cecilia (nee Sexsmith) 1924-2014, in her ninetieth year at Extendicare in Peterborough, Ontario where she resided amongst friends for the past several years. Mom passed on, from complications due to pneumonia, late Thursday evening May 1, 2014, but still too suddenly for all those that love her. Born the eldest of seven children to Frank and Marguerite Sexsmith (nee McCauley) of Selby, Ontario, Mom was always and in all ways, a go-getter. Born on the family farm, she grew up through the depression and learned the habits of thrift and hard work. She attended private boarding school, made possible by an uncle, at Notre Dame in Kingston, Ontario earning top honors for her scholastics and, of course, being regularly selected to assist the attending priests in celebrating the mass at school, an honor customarily reserved for boys. In many ways she was already breaking the molds of her day.

After high school and during the war years she decided to become a teacher, a vocation that remained with her for her entire life, and was admitted to the Peterborough Normal School where she again excelled. She accepted her first teaching position at a one room school in Mount St. Louis, Ontario where she soon made herself indispensable to the local community. It was there that she met a returning soldier from World War II, Regimental Sargent-Major Roland Albert Maurice Belanger. After a whirlwind courtship of 30 some days they were married in Gravenhurst, Ontario on December 1 ^st , 1945. Mom's teaching career spanned 42 years, most of them spent in and around Peterborough where she and Dad worked very hard to raise a family.

Mom gave birth to ten children and buried one of them, Robert born in 1958. She has never forgotten "Bobby". She had many highlights in her life including the birth of 22 grandchilren and 23 great-grandchildren, achieving her Masters Degree in Library Science at Queens University, two tours of duty setting up library systems in Malawi, Africa (during one of which she survived a military coup), a trip to the Holy Land, taking care of her own father until his passing in 1979, the numerous achievements of her children, her long commitment to hospice care at Extendicare, her invitation to tea with the Queen and countless others. Most recently she shared her Christmas memories with Extendicare's in house Christmas Card Contest that was selected as the 2013 Company Christmas card. This tickled her fancy just as much as the $100 she earned for the piece.

Mom is pre-deceased by her parents and by brothers Jack and Jim Sexsmith and her sisters Evelyn Nicholson and Dorothy Brickan. She is survived by her sisters Marje Simon of Kitchener and Helen Sweeney of Dornoch, Ontario. She is also survived by her children James Francis and his best friend Barbara, Elizabeth Ann Fisher and husband Dan, John Paul and wife Janus, Margaret Jane Rykers-Lazure and husband Nick, Thomas Patrick and wife Diana, William Gerard and wife Karen, Joseph Gregory and wife Darla, Michael Christopher and wife Susannah, Mary Louise and partner Mike Thompson and by her grandchildren Kristie, Sarah, Chris, David, Jenny, Josh, Jordan, Ryan, Nicole, Ryan, Rayna, Renee, Ben, Jason, Tracey, Amber, Shannon, Cristina, Megan, Ethan and Owen and her great-grandchildren Jacob, Sydney, Emmy, Bradley, Griffin, Grace, Gabriel, Alyssa, Taylor, Mia, Calum, Olivia, William, Oliver, Roland, Rosemary, Rebeca, Bella, Autumn, Brooklyn, Kaleigh, Kalen and Roxanna. Sincere thank you to the caring and compassionate staff at Extendicare Peterborough. It was "Home" to her.

A wake for Mom will be held at Duffus Funeral Home from 4-8 p.m. Monday, May 5, 2014 with Parish Prayers at 8 p.m. before a mass at St. Alphonsus Liguori Church on Tuesday, May 6, 2014 at 10:30 a.m. and interment at Rosemount Memorial Gardens beside her husband Roland, Dad. Donations to Friends of Honduran Children would be appreciated.