We scattered Anne’s ashes, but she’s alive in the air we breathe
We opened your urn to the wind,
and thought we were letting you go as your ashes dispersed,
But morning keeps finding your voice
in the thrum of the rain, in the garden’s newly green insistence,
in the patience you taught us to bring to one another.
There is no hard stop to life,
only this tender changing of form,
love taking the long way home through memory, breath, and light.
All that we have met in you is part of us now:
your courage, your quirks, your wit, your fierce attention to small mercies,
the way you made many a conversation feel like a shelter.
Anne, you are no longer held by the body’s sorrow,
yet you move among us still, rich in the air we breathe,
and in the lives we choose to lead because you lived yours as you did.
Our elder son Dan, our daughter-in-law Marie-Eve, and I scattered Anne’s ashes on Tuesday, May 12, according to her wishes, in a grove of trees along the Byron Park Pathway near our Ottawa apartment, among the birds and wildlife that Anne adored:
- Year-round residents: Black-capped Chickadees, Cardinals, Downy Woodpeckers, Hairy Woodpeckers, White-breasted Nuthatches, and Blue Jays.
- Birds of prey: Cooper’s Hawk and owls are sometimes spotted.
Eastern Cottontail rabbits are also frequent visitors along the Byron Park Pathway.
Anne loved all these creatures, their bouncy energy and mellifluous songs, in all seasons.
I also buried two ceramic hearts that she adored beneath the tallest tree in the grove.
Upon learning of Anne’s passing, our kind friend Heather Davis, who volunteers with Hospice Care Ottawa, and whose gentle presence was a balm for Anne throughout her arduous cancer journey, cited the poet Alfred Lord Tennyson: ‘Our echoes roll from soul to soul, / And grow for ever and for ever.’ “It’s true,” Heather wrote, “there is no hard stop to life, and the legacy of Anne’s life and what she held dear will endure. I truly believe that those who are no longer with us live on in how we continue to lead our lives.”
“I’ve always liked Tennyson,” Heather continued, “ In Ulysses, he writes , ‘ I am a part of all that I have met ...,’ though I’ve always read it backwards, as in, ‘All that I have met is part of me.’ And so it is. Thank you, Anne, for the privilege of being part of your life at such a time. You are now a part of mine and I treasure the memory of our quiet hours together…
Lighting a candle for Anne, tonight, and thinking of you all with love”
If you feel like reading more about Anne’s cancer journey, I’ve chronicled it in prose and poetry here:
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/news/
The Celebration in Honour of Anne’s Life will take place on Saturday, May 16, 2026, from 2 – 4: 30 p.m. at Canvas Lofts, 18 Hamilton Ave. North, Ottawa in the 8th floor penthouse.
Here is a page that I created for her:
https://btfc.akaraisin.com/ui/BTW2026/p/RobertMcBryde
And her “official” obituary:
https://www.basicfunerals.ca/obituaries/anne-schlenker-mcbryde
Your friend,
Robert
https://robertmcbrydeauthor.com/