About 250 mourners gathered Saturday to pay their last respects to Heather Crowe, the waitress who developed lung cancer after 40 years of breathing second-hand smoke.
Heather Crowe, who never smoked herself, died of lung cancer caused by second-hand smoke in her workplaces. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
FROM MAY 23, 2006: Anti-smoking crusader Heather Crowe dies at 61
Crowe had never smoked a cigarette in her life, but she died last weekend at the age of 61 after a long fight with cancer.
A grandmother, Crowe spent the last years of her life campaigning against smoking, a fight that made her famous across Canada and abroad.
Condolence notes came from around the world, including one from the World Health Organization. And health advocates and politicians came from across Canada to attend her funeral at Ottawa's Our Lady of Fatima Parish Church.
She was "a great hero in the tradition of Terry Fox," said Ontario MPP Jim Watson, a regular at the Newport Restaurant where Crowe worked for 12 years. "Little did I know she would become so integral to the smoke-free Ontario legislation."
Crowe's campaign against smoking in the workplace inspired the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, a new law that bans smoking in an enclosed public space in Ontario. But she died just four days before the law took effect.
"Heather said that waitresses were often invisible workers," said Carol McDonald, a friend and public health nurse. "Invisible too was the damage that was being done to the cells of her lungs by the smoke-filled air she breathed."
McDonald went on to say that though Crowe thought waitresses were invisible workers, she would not be "an invisible victim."
"She'll carry on her good from above," said Crowe's daughter Patricia. "I'm very sad, but I'm relieved she's not in pain [anymore]. When you see your mother melting away, day after day, and you can't really do anything, this is a relief. She's in no more pain."