Mom Photos

I want people to remember the old mom, before her devasting stroke, in 1999. These are a few photos I pulled last night from 1998 and sooner. She loved her sons,John, Emil, and Lawrence, and loved her grandkids, and of course, was delighted when Sonia had two daughters. This one picture shows mom, myself and Sonia and the two great grandaughters, Kaleigh and Maddie,(as an infant). I took mom and dad down to Victoria to see Madeline, her new great grandaughter. It was a nice trip, just a month or so after Maddie was born,( her birthday is on March 31st). As you can see, all the beautiful Rhotodendrons were in bloom when we toured around the grounds at U.Vic and Beacon Hill Park. Mom loved flowers and loved to see them, plant them, and have them around her. Remember at her house in Rossland? She made a special purchase every year of the prettiest coloured giant pansies to decorate the little patch of ground in the front yard. I was always impressed, as I never even knew where you could buy such beauties.
In Christina Lake she had her border of double begonias, pom-pom-mums, and any other flower that could fill in the border. The front and back yard were an abundance of flowering shrubs, including beautiful azalias in shades of orange. We brought her a Smoke bush and she pruned it into a giant pom-pom of fluff that the neighbours oohed and awed over. Her vegetable garden was at first ,a feast for the deer, but once the fence went up, she was picking a bounty of everything from carrots to bushels of tomatoes and raspberries and cukes.
No-one could forget the sourcrout brewing behind the basement door, and the delicious resulting crouted cabbage rolls...half with tomato sauce for John, and half plain,for Emil!
At her house, it was all about food and that special tiered plate of candy,always full, on the counter. It was always about family and fun, and a card game to round off the evening...maybe with a bowl of chips or popcorn to satisfy our snacks, and later a coffee with some of her fresh baked gingersnap cookies and maybe that yummy coffeecake. She could cook,and bake,and just because she did it at work every day for years, it didn't stop her from baking and cooking the best foods in the world, right at home. Emil could always count on finding a nice little bowl of leftover cabbage rolls or creamed chicken in the fridge...before we even began to eat dinner!
The other photo, a little dark, shows Emil toasting his mom for her birthday! Yep, that was her favourite place...sitting on that lounge chair in the carport at their Christina Lake house. Here,we brought Kaleigh, who looks to be about four,so mom may have been turning 68...and looking all happy and healthy looking.
You can't think of mom without thinking of how happy and productive she was,and what a hard worker she was also. She always had time for everyone,and loved to see her grandaughters,as the photo showed when we visited Annette on our way back from Victoria. It is these memories that I want to portray her, being her everyday wonderful, giving self.... She was a beautiful person that didn't deserve to be stricken with a stroke that left her without a words to speak. Maybe she will have them all back now.I hope so. She was a mom to me and I will never forget all the good things she did for me, Emil, and our family.

"The Creator"