Obituary of Evaristo de Medeiros Arruda

Evaristo de Medeiros Arruda Obituary

(March 28, 1928 – June 26, 2025)

We sadly announce the passing of Evaristo Arruda at Bradford Valley Care Community in Bradford, Ontario. Evaristo was 97.

Evaristo was born March 28, 1928, in Ribeirinha, island of São Miguel, Azores, Portugal. The boy who ran away from school in the first grade (with his parent’s full blessing), grew up working in the fields and driving a horse and cart to market to sell vegetables. He continued to contribute to the family economy even as he purchased his own land as well as a matrimonial house during his 7-year courtship with Dialina. The two married in 1955.

In 1959, Evaristo emigrated to Canada to join brother and sponsor, Bernardinho, in the mining town of Manitouwadge, north of Lake Superior. He worked at Wilroy Mines, first in the camp kitchen and then in the mill while living in the company bunkhouse. In 1962, he was joined in Manitouwadge by wife, Dialina, and son, Antonio. The reunited family survived their first mosquito-infested summer and minus-forty below winter in a tiny 18-foot-long travel trailer. The family grew to include daughters, Maria and Conceição.

Evaristo was shift leader in the Wilroy Mines mill when the mine closed in 1979. The family moved to Sarnia where Evaristo would become the affable and much beloved “Rudy,” head of janitorial services at Sarnia City Hall.

Evaristo had a reputation as an honest, energetic, and very hard-working man with simple needs and tastes, and a big smile for everyone. He was a fiercely independent individual. Family and church came first for Evaristo. He was a devout Catholic, attending mass daily after retirement until he was unable to do so. He received a Solemn Benediction “for his years of faithful service to the church community” of St. Joseph in Sarnia.

He instilled in his children a love for hard work, respect for others, and the rule of never speaking ill of anyone. Evaristo immersed himself in his gardens, the last of which he maintained until he was 84, at which point he moved to Newmarket, Ontario, to live at Chartwell Barton Retirement Residence, only steps from daughter, Maria.

Evaristo was predeceased by his loving wife, Dialina de São José Moreira Furtado Arruda, parents Hermano Tavares Arruda and Leonilde Moniz de Medeiros, brothers Hermano, Bernardinho, José, sister Maria de Conceição, and daughter Conceição (Tina). He is survived by brother, Carlos, son Antonio (Tony) Filomeno (Dr. Wilma Arruda), Maria de Fatima (Terrance Corry), and grandchildren, Christopher, Brittany, Ivan, and William. The family wishes to thank the kind and attentive staff of Simcoe House at Bradford Valley Care Community, Bradford, Ontario where he lived the last one and a half years of life.

Friends will be received at the McKenzie & Blundy Funeral Home & Cremation Centre, 431 Christina St. N. on Friday, July 4 from 10-10:45 a.m. The funeral service will follow immediately in the chapel at 11 am. The visitation and funeral will be livestreamed, please copy the link into your browser and register,https://event.forgetmenotceremonies.com/ceremony?c=9907d6a8-5b34-4d59-adf0-486a34bbc40c.. Interment Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery. Messages of condolence & memories may be left at www.mckenzieblundy.com.  In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Canadian Diabetes Association.