September 6, 1980 – April 23, 2020
Adia fully recognized that there would be no funeral service in reverence to her passing due to COVID-19 limiting, and let her Dad know how much a published memoir he proposed instead, would mean to her.
Having that in mind this remembrance is written with heavy sorrow and broken heart.
Adia Natane Huss, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota thirty nine years ago, came to Fort Frances with her mom and added her adopted dad’s name to hers. Both Adia and her mom, retained their USA citizenship, becoming dual citizens, in Canada and the United States. Adia wore the Huss-Solomon name she lived with from then on. Adia was proud of her given names and would express high esteem when opportunity arose to tell what they meant. Adia is a Swahili word which means “Gift from God”. Natane is an Arapahoe word meaning “Daughter”. The name Adia, brought her all sorts of comments and, at times frustration, on account of the many mispronunciations she encountered. She would nevertheless always display considerable elation whilst correcting the misuse of her name. A man once asked Adia what her name was. When she told him he said, “Well, you don’t hear that every day!” She said “Actually I do!” Adia said she never could find objects with her name on them. She was thrilled the year Mary Melroe gave her a piano tote with her name on it.
She grew to school age at the family home 1027 Second Street East in Fort Frances. Her basement bedroom where Mom and Dad were domiciled while house renovations were occurring, left her little room to manage sleepy time, let alone act the rascal as likely all kids seem to love to do.
Adia attended Huffman and Robert Moore public schools, WestFort and Fort Frances high schools. She loved piano lessons and completed Grade 8. She also played in the school band. She experienced great pleasure taking part in musicals and musical revues. As time moved on, Adia’s mom and dad’s seasonal employment required them to leave home for a couple of weeks before the beginning of the school year and at school year’s end. To free Mom and Dad from this annual dilemma, Iris Mihichuk, Myra Hupet, and Adia’s Aunt, Michele Lauzon of Fort Frances came forward and acted as substitute parents for Adia’s absent mom and dad. Adia forever expressed her gratitude for all of them for taking her in and caring for her. She loved that her Aunt Michele and Uncle Albert provided guidance and parental love.
Exceptional affection by Adia for animals was evident from early childhood. Her dogs, “Julie” in Minneapolis and “Boston” in Cass Lake, Minnesota were precious to her and never forgotten throughout her lifetime. She babied kitten “Elizabeth” in Moorhead, Minnesota and romped affectionately with “Spangle”, the family beagle at Ontario’s Quetico Park Prairie Portage Ranger station. As a very young girl, every opportunity anywhere would find her petting goats or sheep and she just loved going to petting zoos. The last time she had that pleasure was when she took her grown-up nephew Sean Peters to the Toronto Island Petting Zoo. Feeding wild deer also made her ecstatic and visiting a park where wild birds would eat from her hand was a glorious experience. Her love for animals can be no finer illustrated than to recognize how she thought more of her cat Sookie’s coming loneliness than she did of her own miseries and impending death.
During Adia’s years growing up in Fort Frances, French Camp, one of Concordia’s Language Villages, near Hackensack, Minnesota, was something she always loved and looked forward to each summer. Mom was along as her companion to and from those stays. During their french camp stays the country of France became a fascination for them both, actually to the extent they pledged to one another that they would visit France once Adia had completed college schooling.
Adia worked at Safeway in Fort Frances for several years as a courtesy clerk, leaving in 1999 with a very complimentary letter of recommendation from Safeway management. In 1999 Adia enrolled in Windsor University (Ontario) in pursuit of a double major in Psychology and in Drama. She achieved a Bachelor of Arts degree in October 2003 and her Honours Drama in Education B.A. in June 2004. She then studied from 2005 to June 2007 and achieved a diploma in Massage Therapy and Hydrotherapy (RMT) from Windsor’s Canadian College of Health Science Technology.
To support herself, she worked during off school times as a dining room server at Piccolo’s Italian Restaurant in Windsor, and later, Bodega Restaurant in Toronto, achieving a reputation as a critical judge in the delicacies of the table and receiving very complimentary letters from her employers when she left.
Adia was accepted at the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College, Toronto, November 2007 to January 2010, as RMT.
Adia practiced as an RMT at Westney Heights Chiropractic Centre from November 2008 to present.
Adia worked at Whitby Massage Therapy Clinic, 519 Dundas Street as an RMT.
She worked at Sutherland Chan Professional Clinics, Toronto, as an RMT (July 2008 to July 2009).
Adia attended Toronto Pan-Am Games for athletes under 20, as a Host Medical Volunteer Sports Massage Therapist, July and August 2015.
She worked at the North American Indigenous Games (NAIG217), at York University’s Aviva Centre in Toronto, involving 5000 athletes aged 13 to 19.
Other Certifications are: Master Series in Myofascial Release – 2012; Trimesters RMT as Doula program – 2012.
She trained and carried out the function of Volunteer Massage Therapist at the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, USA from May 14 to May 28th, 2017.
She attended the Pan Am Under 20 Games in Costa Rica as a Massage Therapist, July 19 to 21, 2019.
From January 2017 to the present she was the Ontario Representative of the Canadian Sports Massage Therapists Association. In 2018, up until her diagnosis, Adia worked at the Whitby Massage Therapy
Clinic part-time.
Adia was very proud and excited to work with the Oshawa Legionaires 17U Elite team. These young men held the best record in the Elite Baseball League of Ontario last season. Many of them are on US college radars and are ranked among the best in Ontario. They play out of Kinsmen Stadium in Oshawa, ON and travel extensively in the US (Florida, Tennessee, Michigan, Ohio, and Maine). Adia was loved by them all. She kept the boys healthy and loose and in the best shape their coach could imagine. They miss her but know she will be with them again on that field when they take it.
Adia was diagnosed with the first, or at least, incipient indication of malignant tumours in April 2018 at North York General Hospital. Standard and well established cancer treatments were started. Very close friends volunteered to help in any and every way they could. Courtney Summers, Pamela Serre Doukogiannis, Stacey Townsend-DesLauriers, Myra Collins Cooper, Stacey Angus and Ceinwen Gobert and their families, were committed and there for Adia up until the day she passed away. Mom went to Adia’s Whitby, Ontario home to help her endure the cancer threat. They decided to take the trip through France to fulfil the dream agreed to years before in Hackensack, Minnesota French Camp. They did so and in September 2018 they vacationed two weeks in France and spent some time in Italy as well.
Constant scrutiny of Adia’s health situation by the best medical teams in and near North York revealed that treatments applied were not working and by November 2019 Adia learned the cancer had progressed into her liver, her spine, and her lungs. Upon learning this Adia discussed and explored with her doctors the possibility of reaching a way of defeating the cancers through Immunotherapy, the artificial stimulation of the immune system to treat late stage and complex cancers by improving on the immune system’s natural ability to fight the disease. The possibility of this being successful was promising. Adia agreed to the treatment and continued receiving it until mid-March of 2020 when doctors confirmed that her immunotherapy treatment wasn’t working. Adia knew she would soon die.
READERS WILL REMEMBER THAT CORONOVIRUS FELL ON ONTARIO IN THE WINTER OF 2019.
This plague brought a further punishing burden to Adia as she faithfully travelled back and forth to hospitals for radiation treatments and chemotherapy or follow-up assessment. Adia remarked many times how grateful she was to her friend Pat Connolly, who gave Adia rides throughout the back and forth March sessions, to SunnyBrook hospital for treatment.
With only a shred of hope left, Adia and Mom decided to downsize and get Adia packed to move home to Fort Frances while there was still time to do so before COVID-19 travel bans would not allow the trip. They began disposing of Adia’s belongings. Mom telephoned Fort Frances and arranged a renovation preparation of Adia’s bedroom.
Adia had expressed to some of those attending, her great sorrow that she would not get to see her dad again before she died. On hearing that heartbreaking news, and especially how Adia had expressed her sadness, Dad decided to go to her at once. He did so accompanied by Val Peters, Adia’s stepsister. Val had been staying with Dad in Fort Frances since November while Darla was away to be with Adia and her suffering. Dad and Val drove through nightmare weather but reached Adia’s home in Whitby on New Year’s Day. They stayed to offer love and moral encouragement, then drove back to Fort Frances, bringing some of Adia’s belongings too.
COVID-19 was rapidly paralyzing Ontario travel. Travel by air especially had diminished to where only a couple of flights by West Jet airlines from Toronto to Thunder Bay daily were happening. Nevertheless, Mom and Dad schemed to bring Adia home where she longed to spend her final days. March 25th they drove to Thunder Bay. Dad stayed in an isolated motel room (virus). On the 26th Mom got an early West Jet seat to Toronto, taxied to Whitby and on the 27th secured Adia medically and grabbed another rare West Jet flight back to Thunder Bay. Dad was waiting when they arrived bringing “Sookie”, Adia’s cat, as well. Adia bundled into Mom and Dad’s van with her cat and headed for home. The four-plus hour trip thoroughly exhausted Adia but her smile and vocal expression on arriving home were pure jewels.
Soon upon her arrival, previously made arrangements for medical home care were put in order, with a medical doctor, nurses and home care folk visiting to assess and provide for Adia as needed. A regimen of attention and treatment occurred in various forms with everyone’s main focus being on Adia’s comfort. Nurses were in daily, more often twice, and the nurse practitioner phoned daily to ask if there were any changes needed in Adia’s care. We are most grateful for their professionalism and compassion. Notwithstanding the efforts made by everyone involved, Adia’s health continued failing. By early evening April 22nd her agonized breathing brought the need for ambulance transportation to the hospital.
Because of the COVID crisis, after Adia left home, she was without family. It was a totally heartbreaking and senseless situation. Adia continued to worsen throughout the night. When mom was finally allowed in, about 17 hours later, Adia was fading fast. Dad wasn’t allowed in until three hours after that. We held her hands, told her how much we loved her, until she passed away around 4:20 p.m. on the 23rd.
Adia has had many treasured friends in her life. From all over Canada, the U.S. and overseas. During the entire time of her health crisis, her friends had her back. Close friends would be at her door with meals and offers of help with any and everything she could possibly imagine. They gave her rides and kept in touch on a daily basis. Adia’s friends made videos for her, slide shows, shared uplifting stories, recalling shared moments in their lives to bring her joy. There was such an outpouring of love by people who selflessly gave of themselves and their time. Early on after her diagnosis, Adia shared with her Mom and Dad on separate occasions that she wasn’t afraid to die. She just felt sad about leaving this wonderful life she shared with all of the most incredible people she loves.
Memorial Tribute by Mike Solomon
ADIA NATANE HUSS-SOLOMON
