Florence Dalbec BARIL

1922 - 2017

BARIL, Florence Dalbec 1922 - 2017 On November 2nd 2017, Florence passed away after 95 years of a most remarkable life. She is survived by her sister Helen Demers, six children (Jeffrey, Richard, Elise, Annette, Roger and Roland) ten grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews and cousins. She was born and raised in Worcester MA, the daughter of French Canadian immigrants, where she attended Catholic schools, and later the Boston Conservatory of music as a Pianist. At 19 she married Maurice Baril and left behind her parochial childhood, embracing life as the wife of an Army officer in Counter-Intelligence. She traveled overseas to post-war Europe and back to America, moving at least once a year for nearly 20 years with an ever-growing family in tow before settling in Santa Rosa in 1960. She immediately joined the Causerie Francais, where she met her dearest friend Adrienne Nassan. She also was a long-standing member of the Organic Gardening Club (President for many years) and the Santa Rosa Community Concert series as well. Florence had a life-long love of music and was an accomplished pianist and singer. Her children were all given the gift of music, through lessons and singing around the piano at every holiday and celebration. We all share memories of her singing as she cooked and cleaned and gardened. She was a woman of considerable etiquette, respect, formality, and orderliness who also embraced the free-spirited, nature-loving, swimming in ice-cold-streams passions that her husband and children so loved. She was fiercely devoted to her family through all the generations. Her joie de vivre was contagious and her greatest gift to all who knew her.