My deepest, most horrendous fear.

We are gathered here today to remember the life and times of our once dear friend Caitlin Noelle Wood. As you all remember we were all quite close. We came from a small boring town, and made it a beautiful place to live. We shared passionate hearts and encouraged each other with inspiring words. We remember Caitlin for her passion to serve the poor - the same passion that many of us shared and her desire to change the world.
Caitlin at the young age of 19 flew off to the country of Romania and worked with the forgotten children of that poor country. She came home with hopes, dreams and visions for her own lives and the lives of others. Many of you will also remember the group we created called the Love Labour Movement, and how passionate we were to help in that way. We dreamt large dreams, and along with Caitlin held great, yet naive hopes for this world. Caitlin went to school for Early Childhood Education and soon moved to Toronto to be closer to her school and move in wth friends. However soon the cost of living was raised and Caitlin stopped going to school and began a waitressing job downtown which she didn't much enjoy, but it paid the bills. Caitlin for quite some time like a boy she knew but out of stubbornness and fear of the what ifs never shared the way she felt, and soon ignored the possibility of it altogether. As many of us remember she became bitter and quite lonely sometimes and led her to-what i believe - make the decision to date and quickly marry Geoff Barkley. I feel that to do Caitlin honour on this day, we should but just mention his name, as many of us know the hardships and heart-aches that marriage led Caitlin to.
After the final divorce of Geoff, Caitlin had to work quite hard with two jobs to support the family of two children who she loved with all her heart. She longed to be spending her days in an orphanage loving and playing with children, but instead worked hard during the day taking orders at a downtown diner, and spent nights scrubbing the toilets of a local office building. Her passions were lost but reality was found. It wasn't realistic for us to think that we could change the world. It wasn't realistic to think that we could handle this world. Or that we were destined for more. We were young, we were naive, and at this point in our lives understand that our goals were impossible goals, and our dreams were foolish dreams.
Caitlin left us as a good woman. She gave to salvation army every christmas, and although her jobs made her work on Sundays, she always continued to pray. May we remember her for the good times we shared, and the dreams we all once had in common.