Maria Eugenia Henriques
Maria Eugenia (Vovo) Henriques, in her 90th year, passed away peacefully on April 6, 2021 in Mississauga.
Eugenia was born on December 18, 1931, to Matilde and Antonio deFreitas, in the village of Camara de Lobos, Madeira, Portugal. She met her husband, the late Manuel Ricardo Henriques, and was married in Sao Martinho on September 2, 1954. Their first daughter, Maria Salome, was born in Madeira prior to their move to Toronto Canada in March 1956, where their second daughter, Eugenia (Gina) Maria was born.
Eugenia worked for 25 years in the garment industry in Toronto, where she was a master seamstress and assembled many haut couture fashions for top clothing retailers in Canada. At home, her vintage Singer sewing machine only operated at full speed. There wasn’t a bolt of cloth that she could not fashion into matching outfits for her daughters, and subsequently her grandchildren. The culmination of her sewing talents was evident in the exquisite, hand-crafted wedding dresses she created for her daughters. Eugenia was also a consummate gardener and was proud to bring some of the colorful flora of her native Madeira to her adopted home in Toronto.
Eugenia will be dearly missed by her children, Maria Salome Stewart (and husband Donald) and Eugenia (Gina) Bekkers (and husband David), her four grandchildren, Meghan (Ren) Reyes, Douglass (Melissa) Stewart, Justin (Brianne) Bekkers and Mark (Kristie) Bekkers, who each have fond memories of summer weekends at the Lake Simcoe cottage and winter trips to Port Richie Florida. She will also be missed by very special friends Eugenio and Fernanda Rodrigues and Beatriz Moniz. We all look forward to sharing our memories of Vovo with her six great grandchildren, Julian, Nathan, Nora, Connor, Clara and Emma.
The family is immensely grateful to Dr. Chris Gilchrist, Nurse Practitioner Anna and the PSW of Care Partners who took gentle care of Eugenia over the last months of her life.
Eugenia will be laid to rest with her husband at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery with a private, invitation only, service. In lieu of flowers, the family would be grateful to honor Eugenia’s life with a donation to the Dorothy Ley Hospice (www.dlhospice.org)or to Save the Children Canada (www.savethechildren.ça).
In light of the current COVID 19 Pandemic, the family will be having a private Funeral Mass on Wednesday April 14, 2021 at 10:30am. To watch the Mass live, please click the link below.
2021
Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Maria Eugenia Henriques 2021..
Décès pour la Ville:Mississauga, Province: Ontario