Words of Tribute by Richard Schroeder, Melany’s husband for 47 years….
Melany Rose Schroeder (nee Palleson), the love of my life, mother of our children, business partner extraordinaire and my true best friend forever, passed away peacefully in her sleep at Eagle Ridge Hospital, Port Moody on the morning of December 10, 2020, one day short of our 47th anniversary. She was in the hospital for one week only. Thankfully, her final pain was short lived. Cancer was the Dark Villain in this story. Melany was born August 3, 1952 in New Westminster, BC.
Because a traditional funeral gathering is not a practical option in these Covid times, I have pulled together some of the words I might have awkwardly tried to deliver as Melany’s Eulogy.
On her side of the family, Melany leaves behind her mother Shirley, brother Rob, his special friend Naomi and Rob’s son, Cody, his wife Anna and their son Elias, Rob’s daughter Courtney plus some aunts, uncles, nieces and cousins. Melany’s dad, Larry and her grandparents died some years ago.
On the Schroeder side of the family, Melany leaves our daughter Allison, her husband Ryan plus their children George, Jack and Samuel, …. our son Aaron and his wife Reagan and their daughter Charlie, … our son Ben and his soon to be bride, Mojgan and their two fuzzy cats, … and me.
I woke up that December 11th morning (our 47th anniversary), and It finally hit me. Melany was not coming home again. Melany and I were almost like a single entity over our entire time together. We were more like a set, not individual pieces. We really liked being together, whether at work or play. We teased and joked with each other all the time, just like best friends, which we definitely were.
If you knew Melany early in her life or in more recent times, let me tell you a little bit about her earlier years that you might not know. She started life as one of those lucky kids who had good, kind, caring and honest parents. She and I both shared that same piece of good fortune. Having that strong start in life was like winning a lottery ticket, in my opinion looking back. We were both so lucky.
I knew Melany since elementary school and from the neighborhood. She once told me that she had marched in parades and knew how to twirl and catch a baton. She wasn’t bragging. Thinking back with my adult brain, I think she was trying to catch my interest, but I wasn’t reading the signals. I was one year older than Melany and it was not considered cool to pursue younger girls at school in those days, even one year younger. As a 12-year-old businessman, I used to sharpen Melany’s ice skates. I remember just now as I write this. I always hoped that Melany would come by herself to pick up the skates that her mother had dropped off. Sometimes she did, and I liked those moments. There must have been some spark for her in my simple 12-year-old brain, but I didn’t realize it at the time. I always thought Melany was a cutey through junior and senior high school, but we each had our own groups of friends. My girlfriends in high school were mostly blonde. Again, I missed the signals when Melany would tease me about “my blondes”, as she called them during my grade 12 year. Why did she do that? Her interest in me flew right over my head. I was the opposite of perceptive.
Things didn’t start to heat up for us until May of 1970, after I returned from an interrupted motorcycle trip that was supposed to end up in South America. An engine failure brought me back to Canada. That misfortune was a stroke of luck for me. My unfocused life changed dramatically. Within days of my return home, Melany and I bumped into each other, literally, at a local soul music dance club we sometimes visited. It was at that seemingly chance encounter (Was it just chance?) where she invited me to accompany her to her high school grad (prom). She was a friend and my occasional dance buddy, and I thought there might be a good after-party. I am not sure how she viewed that first date. To me, it was just a party, but we got to know each other slowly over the next few months. I was captured. I fell totally in love with her. I am not a guy who says that sort of thing out loud, but today seems like a good day to write it down. It was not just and rock and roll. I loved everything about Melany. She was kind, considerate, funny, great to be around and very smart. She was the whole package. My princess treated me like her prince, then and right up to the end. While my buddies at the time were enjoying the free love phenomena of the late 60s and early 70s, I was not interested. I had found the one true Love of My Life. I know she felt the same way. You can’t fake that sort of thing for very long, and definitely not for 50 years.
Our life together has been intertwined with our business activities since day one. That business collaboration started about 1971. I was a suit and tie wearing, Lincoln Continental driving, cosmetic sales entrepreneur and she was my #1 beauty advisor. We felt like Bonnie and Clyde, only with lipstick instead of guns. We sold cosmetics direct to consumers. I went door to door booking cosmetic parties and she did the party presentations and made the sales. I performed part of the blackboard presentation at the distributor recruitment meetings and Melany did the beauty advisor recruitment parts of the program. We were a team. I wish I had video of that, but Betamax cameras were just coming onto the market. No regular people had them. Melany was fearless and we motivated each other to keep doing better. She also supervised a small group of other beauty advisors on our team. That was her first management position.
We soon opened our first retail wig and cosmetic shop in Surrey as three partners, with my mother. Melany was also a skilled seamstress. She did a feature window in our shop showing that service. She made wedding and formal dresses to order. I don’t think our children even knew that fact about her. I worked part time behind the scenes in the business and kept my travelling welding supply salesman job until we started to make enough money to pay me something. Melany and I were both living with our parents at the time, so we didn’t need much. Later, after our wholesale wig business was bringing in enough revenue, I secretly rented and furnished an apartment near the business and took Melany to look at it one afternoon. She was surprised, but more surprised with my proposal of marriage, including a Justice of the Peace appointment for the next day. We were married and moved in together as husband and wife that evening, December 11, 1973. Melany got along great with my mother, before and after we got married. My dad was also thrilled with this new found family member. My mom remained working with our wholesale wig and beauty products business until she retired at 80. In the latter years of my mom’s life, Melany took on much of the responsibility of helping my mom with her day-to-day needs. Our kids grew up in the business with us as each was born. I can’t leave our kids out of this picture. Allison, Aaron and Ben also did a lot to support their Granny, right up to her final days. I must also give credit to Melany for doing the lion’s share of raising our children. I was there as the dad figure, but she did most of the real work.
There is not enough time and space to include all of the great in-between years and landmark moments in our lives leading up to present day. They were mostly sweet and rewarding. Our little Mom and Pop cosmetic business evolved into two strong companies, Nutri-Nation Functional Foods Inc. and Bio-Care Laboratories Inc. plus a growing industrial property group. Without Melany, none of that would have happened. Melany was also not afraid to get dirty. One of my dad’s (Grampa Ben) greatest joys in his life, was when he helped us clear our forest acreage to build our first house. He had worked as a logger in younger years, and he loved to show off his bush skills to Melany and me. We fell truckloads of big hemlock, spruce and cedar trees. Melany’s Uncle Walter supplied the dynamite and we blew stuff up and burned stumps for many weekends before construction could begin. Melany was right there in the mud with her bib overalls and rubber boots. Our life together was not all work. We usually added on vacation days to business trips. Our kids went to Disneyland almost every other year during their childhood. We had business in Southern California, and often stayed an extra week or so to be tourists. We did take some actual vacations, usually by boat around the Gulf and San Juan Islands. Melany also took frequent friends and family vacations to Mexico and Hawaii without me over the years. I didn’t care much for laying around the beach or pool getting a sunburn. We accomplished a lot together. Our three adult children have all grown into competent, kind and productive people. That is our #1 accomplishment. We checked that box some years ago. They each manage important parts of our family enterprises now.
In recent times, Melany’s role has been Chief Financial Officer. In reality, she has always done much more, and whatever was needed at the time. She has always been a true equal partner and should take equal credit for any business success we have achieved. Not only was Melany the “mother” of many of our business projects over the years. She was also a mother figure and mentor to some of our staff members and others outside of work.
Melany and I started to wind down our work commitments over the last two or three years. We both still love to work, but not all the time. Her intention was to have more time as Grandma and less time as boss. She has cherished her 6 great years as Grandma, but was really looking forward to the end of Covid to jump further into that roll, hopefully for a long time to come. We thought there would be more time.
I wanted to share these little pieces of Melany that are not really known to many. If you are reading this sad, yet happy story, you probably know and care about Melany and our family. I sincerely thank you for that. As Allison told our Team at work the afternoon of Melany’s passing, … Don’t worry…The show must go on. For my part, I will have to learn how to create some of the behind the scenes magic that Melany brought to our home and workplace.
In closing, I am sure Melany would have liked to have had the chance to say, GOOD BYE to everyone, so I will say it for her…. GOOD BYE my friends. It has been my privilege to know you. Don’t cry too much for me. I left earlier than I wished, but I have had a great life… Melany.
I think she might have said something like that……Richard
In place of flowers, a donation to the BC Cancer Foundation or other cancer research group might help save someone you love someday.
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Nos plus sincères sympathies à la famille et aux amis de Melany Schroeder Thursday December 10th 2020..
Affordable cremation and burial
Décès pour la Ville: Port-Coquitlam, Province: Colombie britanique