Thomas William Broeren

Thomas William Broeren

Husband, Father, B.A., J.D.

January 11 1963 – September 22 2022

Thomas’ stated vocation was to be a good husband and a good father; he was both. All the key decisions of his life were made based on this value. He was a principled man of great integrity and kindness and was deeply loved by his wife, Margot Tubman, daughters Meara and Rose, and friends and family.

Thomas was born 59 years ago in Appleton, Wisconsin to Joyce and Tom Broeren, the children of very large German-Dutch dairy farming families. Joyce and Tom chose to build their life away from the farms and moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin where Thomas was raised and, of course, became a life-long Green Bay Packers fan.

Thomas was the 4th of 6 children for Joyce and Tom, the first boy after 3 girls; nothing more needs to be said about that. Two more boys followed, and the family was completed.

After graduating from Our Lady of Premontre High School under the watchful eye (“you’re men now, boys”) of the brothers and fathers of the Norbertine Order, Thomas studied at the University of Wisconsin, and Hamlin University, Minnesota, graduating from Hamlin with a B.A cum laude in 1985.

After briefly working in a Montessori setting, Thomas was unsure that he wanted to continue with becoming a teacher. Bartending paid the bills, but the fun wore off, so he joined friends who were on their way to Japan to teach English in the booming mid-80’s.

One year into his stay in Japan—35 years ago this month—Thomas met Margot Tubman - a Canadian from Victoria, BC who had also been teaching English in Japan for a year. Their connection was immediate, and they worked and lived together in Japan for another year before deciding to return to Canada to build a life together. After returning to Victoria in 1988 they married, and in short order their first daughter, Meara, was born in 1989.

Two years later they moved their young family to Lesotho, Africa so that Margot could begin a career in international development. They volunteered together in Lesotho for 3 years, working as secondary school teachers and then at Head Office, and spending time off exploring South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique, driving their frequently broken-down Peugeot station wagon and camping in national parks. Their second daughter, Rose, was born In South Africa in 1993.

After Rose’s birth, they decided to change career directions. They shared misgivings about continuing to work in international development and Thomas had realized that law would be an interesting career and a good fit for him. After a brief stay in the US, Thomas and Margot settled in Victoria where Thomas became a full-time stay-at-home parent as Margot was better positioned to support the family. This was almost 30 years ago and being a stay-at-home dad subjected Thomas to discriminatory comments about his assumed deficiencies as a man and provider. But he had always wanted to be a dad and during these years he was a loving and attentive father who formed deep bonds with his girls. Finally, when his youngest was almost 4, Thomas started law school at the University of Victoria. He graduated in 1999 and was called to the Bar in 2002.

While Thomas enjoyed law school and articles immensely—law suited his fine and very sharp analytical mind—he grappled with whether to practice law as a career. He wanted to practice law but he was concerned that the long hours required of a new lawyer would take away from his time with his family. He decided to step away from the traditional practice of law and joined Margot’s established consulting practice. They worked together in their home office (long before home offices were acceptable in the business world) side-by-side for all their professional lives, until Thomas became too sick to work. Thomas was an outstanding legal and public policy consultant and worked on many significant legislative and public policy initiatives. He worked with many of his clients for his entire professional life and particularly enjoyed getting to know them personally, as well as professionally.

Most importantly, Thomas’ career gave him the flexibility to spend time with his family and be there when the kids came home at the end of the school day. Over the years the Tubman-Broerens enjoyed annual camping trips to the Okanagan, including one summer spent captaining a rented houseboat, travels across Canada and the United States, including a road trip from Victoria to Green Bay and back, several trips to Disneyland, a trip to Hawaii, and 4 weeks spent volunteering at a wildlife rescue centre in Thailand. With a move to a 5-acre property in 2001, Thomas and Margot began beekeeping (a family trade, passed down from Margot’s great-aunt Babe of Babe’s Honey), and each year the extended family and neighbours would get together to harvest the honey.

Thomas continued to give of his time as he had in Lesotho, volunteering for 5 years with a Parents’ Advisory Council and then for 12 years on the Special Olympics Victoria Local Committee. As the girls grew older and left home to pursue their post secondary educations and careers, Thomas and Margot continued to travel, visiting friends in Poland and Scotland, exploring Turkey, Belize, and the Cook Islands, and of course taking many trips to visit Meara in Ontario, Rose in northern BC and Alaska, and friends and family in the States. In April 2015, after 27 years in Canada, Thomas became a Canadian citizen.

In December 2019 Thomas was diagnosed with metastatic prostate cancer; a terminal diagnosis that was shocking and entirely unexpected. He lived 33 months from diagnosis to death. Throughout this time Thomas held true to what he valued in life, refusing to compromise quality of life as he defined it for possible longevity, even when it put him at odds with his healthcare providers. He held fast to this to the very end.

Ultimately, despite every effort by his healthcare team, Thomas’ body was so destroyed by the cancer that his life had become unbearable. He knew, with complete clarity, that it was time for him to die and we are so grateful that he could choose medical assistance in dying.

Thomas leaves behind his wife, Margot, daughters Meara (Jonathan) and Rose, and delightful grandson, Thomas, affectionately known as LBT (little baby Thomas).

Thomas is predeceased by his parents Tom and Joyce and survived by his five brothers and sisters: Mari (Rick), Sue (Carl), Jayne (Rodney), Rick (Kristal) and Andy (Jen) variously in Wisconsin, Nevada and Ohio, as well as their children, and grandchildren.

In Victoria, Thomas leaves behind his father-in-law Bob Tubman (Dorothy – deceased), sisters-in-law Deborah, and Heather, brother-in-law Shaun (Christine) and their children.

Thomas is also lovingly remembered by lifelong friends in the States, his ‘new’ Canadian lifelong friends, some who live abroad, and colleagues with whom Thomas formed bonds of friendship and respect.

We are so very thankful to our friends and family whose compassion and love supported us during this terrible time. You always reached out to us with love and kindness, and we also thank you for all those meals you provided.

Over the past 33 months Thomas received care from many health care professionals and we are thankful for their kind care. Thomas and his family are especially grateful to:

Dr. Geoff Luckhurst, our Family Physician who oversaw all the pieces of Thomas’ care. Geoff was always accessible, kind, and responsive. He heard, understood, and took action to help support Thomas’ well-considered choices.

Dr. Nat Lenzo, GenesisCare-Theranostics, Australia for respecting Thomas’ focus on quality of life as defined by Thomas. Thomas’ quality of life for the first 18 months after diagnosis, and the identification and treatment of the genetic mutation driving the cancer’s aggressiveness, is a result of Dr. Lenzo’s guidance.

Beth Burton-Krahn, our BC Cancer Counsellor whose enduring and compassionate support helped us immeasurably as we grappled with Thomas’ terminal cancer diagnosis. She helped us learn how to bear it.

Finally, we offer our thanks to the unknown people who donated the blood that significantly improved the quality of Thomas’ life in his final months. The first time we saw the bag of blood on the IV stand transfusing to Thomas we felt a deep and abiding gratitude to those of you who donate to make this possible. You helped Thomas, and we are grateful.

A donation may be made in recognition of Thomas’ life to The Mustard Seed Street Church & Food Bank: https://mustardseed.ca/, or CoolAid: http://coolaid.org/

We also encourage friends and family to take an hour and donate a pint of blood in memory of Thomas; to directly help someone as Thomas himself was helped.

A funeral service for Thomas will be held on Saturday, October 22nd from 2:30 – 5:00 at McCall Gardens Funeral Home in the Sequoia Centre, 4665 Falaise Drive, Victoria.