TORONTO -- Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the Toronto neighbourhood his family calls home is remembering his mother as a passionate community leader following her death earlier this month.

“Everyone loved her,” Ford said in a sit-down interview with CP24 on Thursday morning. “Everyone that came to the house built a relationship with her and we always say we have an extended family.”

Diane Ford died of cancer on Jan. 5 surrounded by family and loved ones. She was 85 years old.

For years Diane Ford opened up her Etobicoke home to supporters of her sons, Doug Ford and the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford. The family hosted “Ford Fest” in their family home’s backyard annually.

“We were figuring out the other day that my parents came to Etobicoke 64 years ago and they got married in 1956 and put down their roots there and then the last 30 years, we’re figuring 6,000 to 7,000 people would be coming through their backyard and she would be there greeting everyone and over 30 years that’s a couple hundred thousand people,” Doug Ford said.

“She loved it, she loved the community.”

In the days following his mother’s death, Doug Ford said he has been “grateful for all the support the community has given the family.”

“I’m hearing now how many stories touched peoples’ lives,” he said of his late mother.

The premier added that members of the community his mother loved are encouraged to attend a celebration of life for her at the Toronto Congress Centre at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

“We’re going to give mom a real send off,” he said. “Nothing more than my mom would like to see the community that she loved for so many years come by.”

“It’s a celebration to a person who gave so much back to the community in so many different ways and we’re grateful for all the years she spent on earth with us.”

The celebration of life, which will include a choir and bagpipes to honour Diane Ford’s Scottish heritage, will be followed by a private burial.

The Ford family described Diane Ford as “the rock for her family and especially her 10 grandchildren.”

She helped run Deco Labels and Tags with her late husband Doug Ford Sr. before he entered provincial politics as a Member of Provincial Parliament in 1995.

The matriarch of the Ford family is survived by her three children and grandchildren.