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From the Eulogy written by Ron and delivered by Rommel

My mother Carmen left this world the way she lived in it. Some people say that you choose they way you go. It seems fitting that Carmen left trying to squeeze the very last zest out of life. Trying out wild mushrooms was just another example of her exploring some thing new and exotic. Not knowing all the rules never stopped Carmen from playing a high-stakes game.

Maybe it was because of her deep belief in an all-knowing God. She absolutely believed that the Lord knew all the rules even if she didn`t. To be safe, all she had to do was follow Him. Take her love-hate relationship with machinery, especially cars. Just when most people are buying no-nonsense sedans, Carmen went for a muscle car. In her 50s Carmen talked Jim into buying a 20th anniversary edition jet black Transam with gold hub caps. She had to use her tip-toe to press on the gas so she could see over the dash board. But that didn't stop her.

She used that all-abiding faith in God to accomplish some very remarkable things. We all know what a devoted grandparent Mom was to her grand twins Taylor and Maegan. When they were just born Mom travelled from Wolcottsville to Toronto every week for five weeks in the dead of winter so she could help my wife Caroline with early morning feedings.

Carmen was certainly inspired by something spiritual all right, some times it led her to speak in tongues.
We are all familiar with this scenario. The phone would ring, it was Carmen. Your ear fills with a stream of chatter about everything and nothing. Before you could say one word, she`s says good-bye and hangs up.

That same high energy also led her to perform almost miraculous feats of good works. At last count, she volunteered for nine charities … from soup kitchens to the Legion of Mary . As the saying goes, she performed many random acts of kindness. Mom was genuinely interested in people, some times perfect strangers. Do you remember Carmen doing something like this? One time Caroline mentioned to Mom that the people next door to her home may be a Filipino family. Without thinking twice, Mom just marched over to their door, rang the bell and asked ``Are you Filipino?`` She was not intimidated by anybody or anything.

It is harder to bury a parent under a cloud of tradgedy, but Mom had a flair for the dramatic. Candy calls her the Drama Queen. There was no lingering illness for Carmen. When she passed from this world she was surrounded by family …. and a team of very expensive specialists … just the way she would have wanted it. Her last moments even reduced hardened intensive care nurses to tears.

Her loss is easier because she has left such a rich legacy. From the many acts of kindness to strangers ….. to her children, step children, grand children and great grandchildren that survives her ….. Carmen Wagner .. . wife of Jim Wagner, loving mother and grandmother left this world a richer place than she had found it.

From Jose and Angela Faustino (Carmen's brother)

As the sibling that followed Carmen, I felt a disadvantage for a long, long time.   First of all, she could draw faster and talk faster and longer than I could.   She was more imaginative than I was, although that sometimes mushroomed into wild ideas, as you know very well.  I always admired her resourcefulness.  Sometime in the early 1970's, she told me how her marriage was suffering from the overseas career of her husband.  After thinking about her predicament for a while, I suggested that she considered immigrating to Canada, where the family could experience new opportunities and new directions.  It was a shot in the dark, but Carmen had always been good catching shots in the dark and turning them into opportunities. With three young children, she knew it would be difficult, if not impossible to bring all three at once.  So she left Candy with Nanay and Tatay and off she went to Canada.  In spite of income and other shortfalls, Carmen imbued her children with the desire for higher education.   Nothing, no one could get her down for good.  When her marriage broke up, she managed to continue working while raising her kids alternatively with their father. When she met Jim, we were curious what this guy we renamed, "Jim Huwag-na" would be like.  Well resourceful Carmen landed a perfect gentlman, a hard worker, a loyal GM worker and a hobby farmer.  What a team they have made over years. When our first daughter married and moved away, Carmen became like surrogate mother to Angelique, even to Angelique's wild dog.  I thought intellectual Angelique would not hit it off with Carmen, but Carmen made short work of that by taking in both Angelique and Bart whenever they were driving north to Canada.   Thank you, Carmen, for being family for Angelique in America. When Carmen and Jim visited Portugal earlier this year, I got a frantic email from Jolene, our second daughter:  "Tita Carmen is missing.  Do you know where she is?"   Carmen could not locate Jolene over the weekend as the latter had gone with her husband to his hometown.  So Carmen took Jim to Fatima and   without knowing it, prepared herself for the trip to heaven in a few months.   Jolene thought Carmen and Jim were such lovely relatives to show their new apartment.   Carmen was the first of us to see their place. No wonder Jolene sobbed uncontrollably over the phone when we told her C armen might have to leave us. We have always thought that the good die young, and that Carmen would be the family centenarian.    As it turned out, Carmen WAS the good one in the family. We will miss her nonstop prattle, her offbeat humor, her sprituality, her strange ways of dressing.   But most of all, we shall miss the love she had given us and our daughters.
We love you, dearest Carmen. We shall all be together.

JERRY & LINA FAUSTINO and Family (Carmen's Brother)

The demise of a loved one has always left us in sorrow. The same way our parents have moved on to the next life, Carmen's was not an exception. Painful as it is for all of us, we have to learn and accept that we will all eventually be joining our Creator in Heaven. The untimely passing away of my beloved sister, Carmen, no doubt has greatly affected not only her relatives but also a host of friends she had developed in Canada, the United States and in her native Philippines.

Life has taught us many lessons. Lessons that have been difficult to surpass but was learned to be endured. We have seen the close bond that binds the family together, the sincere compassion that have made it heartfelt and the acceptance that will always surface in the eventuality of a crisis.

What I remember most about my kid sister Carmen who is third in our family of five is that she is a breech baby as she was the only one who was delivered through caesarian section. It is a quaint and traditional Filipino custom that a breech baby possesses a special prowess like giving relief to a person who has a fishbone stuck in his throat and by placing a fish skeleton atop the person within a matter of seconds that person will no longer feel any pain in his throat as the fishbone would have disappeared. In many occasions, Carmen was able to extend much needed relief whenever a fishbone got stuck quite often in our father's throat as well as mine since both of us love to eat seafoods.

As the eldest in the family, I was called upon by our beloved parents especially during our teenage years to help ensure that our siblings will grow up to be honest, hardworking and, most of all, to love and help each other in times of need. Carmen was exemplary to all this as not only was she a very kindhearted person and always ready to be of help to anybody; but she could also be equally fearless, as she would lash out at anybody in order to protect hers and other people's rights against those she believes that need to be taught a lesson. Carmen will always have kind words and tenderness for people she loves and cares for including her friends that rest assured with her wisdom she could put people whom she loves or has wronged her in their proper place.

Nonetheless, I am consoled by the fact that I shall always remember Carmen not her lying in a coffin; but the last time I saw her almost two years ago when last visited us in the Philippines looking quite serene, happy and in her usual outspoken self.

May I take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks to both relatives and friends of my dear sister Carmen who have offered masses and prayers during her recovery. And now for their expression of condolences and prayers for the eternal repose of her soul.