Marilyn Violet Himphen Forrest Arial <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n Marilyn Violet Himphen Forrest Arial demonstrated a philosophy of friendship, loyalty and care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was born in Weston Ontario on April 22 1943 during World War II, to a soldier serving in Italy and his bride. Spent her first two years in a multi-generational household with her mom and grandparents before her mom married the man who became dad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Married the love of her life at 19 years old, raised three children, played a mean game of bridge and inspired her friends during book club meetings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Died twelve years ago–on June 19, 2010–after a valiant battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love you forever mom. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
My mom’s support<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Although my mom cycled as a youngster and as a senior, I don’t remember her bicycling at all as I was growing up. She was super supportive about me bicycling, but she didn’t do much herself, at least during those years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, cycling formed a big part of her life and an even bigger part of mine. I just love the wonderful shot of my mom as a teen cycling with her little brother that forms the featured image of this post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Making a new Tour de L’ile Memory<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
During the first challenge, I spent a lot of time remembering the last month of my mom’s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately, her death and cycling link closely in my mind because I heard about her final hospitalization as I participated in the Tour de L’Ile. Had to cut the day short in order to ride home and drive to the hospital in Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She remained in the hospital for another few weeks and the entire family spent a lot of time there. I brought a bike with me while visiting her so that I could check out trails near the hospital to update the Ulysses Cycling in Ontario guidebook. The cycling helped me cope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My sisters, dad and I stayed with her the final week of her life. I was holding her hand when she took her last breath. It’s still a comfort that she didn’t die alone. She was so loved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last year, my daughter, one of my teammates and her son and mother participated together in the Tour de L’ile, which unusually took place in August. The wonderful memories of that day don’t erase the first memory, but they definitely put it in its place in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This year is the third year that I’m riding in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada to honour my mom, Marilyn Violet Arial. By raising money for the SickKids Foundation, I’ll be contributing to the search for safer treatments and finding a cure for cancer. If you’d like to find out more or donate to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21871,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0"},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Participating in the Great Cycle Challenge Canada","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30,29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canada","category-quebec","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2buQs-5lU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21864,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/great-cycle-challenge_2025\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":0},"title":"Great Cycle Challenge Began Friday","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"August 6, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Last Friday was the beginning of the Great Cycle Challenge in Canada. For the next month, thousands of us will be riding our bikes more than we usually do to raise money for cancer research. This is the sixth summer that I'm taking part in the memory of my mom,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Canada"","block_context":{"text":"Canada","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/canada\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025GreatCycleChallenge.jpg?fit=935%2C474&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025GreatCycleChallenge.jpg?fit=935%2C474&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025GreatCycleChallenge.jpg?fit=935%2C474&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025GreatCycleChallenge.jpg?fit=935%2C474&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":404,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/if-i-die-tomorrow\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":1},"title":"If I die tomorrow","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"May 13, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this poem after my mom, Marilyn Violet Himphen Arial died two years ago. I miss you mom. \u00a0 If I die tomorrow Remember I had a good life And I loved you \u00a0 I had time to play And time to rebel And time for friends And I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21873,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/ian-parker-gcc-fundraiser\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":2},"title":"Ian Parker’s Gratitude for Giving Canadians","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"August 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.mixcloud.com\/TraceyArial\/60-ian-parker-the-great-cycle-challenge-fundraiser\/ We are now in the second week of the Great Cycle Challenge in Canada. I thought this would be a good time to meet Ian Parker, who directs fundraising for the Sick Kids Foundation. We spoke about inspiring Canadians who cycle to raise money every August, the community created\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Profile-Pic.jpg?fit=1039%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Profile-Pic.jpg?fit=1039%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Profile-Pic.jpg?fit=1039%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Profile-Pic.jpg?fit=1039%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15500,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/farewell-sergeant-himphen\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":3},"title":"Farewell Sergeant Himphen","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I have been searching for any information about my dad Sergeant Richard Charles Himphen since I was a very little girl. My mother has now passed away and did not ever want to share information about him and I suppose always found it to be such a sad time in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family History Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Family History Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/family-history-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/RichardCharlesHimphen.jpg?fit=500%2C628&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8923,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/family-history-writing-2014\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":4},"title":"Family History Writing 2014 Begins!","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"February 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Today is the beginning of Family History Writing 2014. Lynne Palermo, from http:\/\/www.thearmchairgenealogist.com\/ challenges all of us to place a family history story on our blogs every day this month. She\u2019s also created an online forum so that those of us participating can ask questions and share our work with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Family History Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Family History Writing","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/family-history-writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"AnneMargueriteMarieHurtubiseArial","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/AnneMargueriteMarieHurtubiseArial.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19746,"url":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/original-arials-of-western-canada\/","url_meta":{"origin":20578,"position":5},"title":"Original Arial Family of Western Canada","author":"Tracey Arial","date":"July 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"They sat and stood calmly for the formal portrait. No one smiled. An accompanying photocopy with names scrawled on each person identifies the people. Four chairs in the middle hold Remi, Sophie, Joseph Gabriel and Pete. Billy, Augusta, Joe, Sophie, Aldous, Lucy and Eddy stand behind the chairs. Jean-Baptiste sits\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Genealogy Ensemble"","block_context":{"text":"Genealogy Ensemble","link":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/en\/category\/history-worth-remembering\/genealogy-ensemble-history-worth-remembering\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArialsWesternsmall.jpg?fit=600%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArialsWesternsmall.jpg?fit=600%2C436&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/ArialsWesternsmall.jpg?fit=600%2C436&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/m-and-j-bike-ride-1956-600x336-1.jpg?fit=600%2C336&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20578"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21872,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20578\/revisions\/21872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/traceyarial.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mar-1998-Headshot.jpg?resize=229%2C300&ssl=1\")
<\/a>