When Did This Happen?!

My mother was an avid cook, knitter, quilter and weaver. She was adept at many things. As a teacher, she was proud of her penmanship and wowed her students with her ability to draw a perfect circle on the blackboard... But I have never known her to take an interest in drawing pictures...

Yet, as I sort through her things, I come across three drawings with her name on them...














 ... a black and white drawing of a swan...














 ... another (of a bridge) in pastel, chalk or pencil crayons...














 A third is painted in watercolor.

When did she take an interest in drawing? Did she take a course at the Kelowna Seniors' Center in her early retirement years? (I remember she took courses then...) If so, why did she quit?

(Strange what you discover about your parents by going through their things!)

Moving Mountains

My thought for today:

"Sometimes the miracle of moving mountains ...

... is God granting you the strength to keep shoveling."

(Shane Littlefield, quoted in 100 Ways to Simplify Your Life, p. 166)

Winter Work

Terry always finds things to do outdoors in winter...

Like raking the snow off the roof!


















Personally, I'd rather be indoors and watch!

E-Reader

One of my sons decided that the time had come for me to join the 21st century: So he bought me an e-reader for Christmas. (But I LIKE paper books!)

I haven't read a book on it yet...

I have been scouring the available FREE e-book collections, and even downloaded a few, including War and Peace, which is probably one of the world's longest novels! But I haven't started reading them yet. I have been too busy playing solitaire and Freecell...














... checking emails and surfing the net. (Did I mention it comes with Wi-Fi and also plays music videos and movies?!)


















With so much diversion to offer me... when would I find time to read a book?!

Strange But True

A few days after my mother's older brother died in November, I was talking to his daughter on the phone.

I got a phone call yesterday concerning your mother, she told me. A woman who read the obituary called. She had noticed the last name and saw that Dad had a sister Margaret. She wanted to know if this Margaret had taught at Preston Lake School in Lymburn in 1939. She'd had a teacher there by that name.

Well, Mom began to teach in 1939 and I know she taught in a one-room country school up north in the Peace River Country, I replied. But I really don't know the name of the school.

I have the woman's telephone number and I'll email it to you after the funeral, my cousin said. She's in her 80s and lives in a nursing home. But she's very hard of hearing, so I'm not sure your mother could have much of a conversation with her.














I immediately pulled out my mother's oldest photo album to see if I could discover the name of the school she had taught in up north... and there it was Preston School.














I also found a picture of my mother standing at the Lymburn train station. She was only 20 at the time! It was her first year of teaching!














My mother must have visited families from time to time. I found pictures of home visits. Here is a picture taken at the Dashevsky home. Later I found a class list. The student who had contacted my cousin had been in grade 7 that year. She would have been about 13... Her name isn't mentioned in the photo (above) of her siblings. Had she perhaps taken the picture?

Here is my mother with a younger sibling, a girl in grade 6...

Should I try to contact her? After all, she had remembered my mother's name after more than 70 years?! Would it be a big disappointment to them both if they couldn't communicate on the phone because both now had hearing problems?

I was still wondering what to do when, a few days later, another email arrived from my cousin: I was reading the obituaries in today's paper, she wrote, and this woman has the same name as the woman I talked to. [Link to an online obituary.] I think your mother's former student has died.

"Go Play Outdoors!"

I always enjoyed seeing my children play outdoors...

... even in winter.

And I still do!














I'm glad there was a little time for outdoor play during their brief visit at home for Christmas last week.














Lots has changed since 1991, when the top picture was taken - but the road in front of the house and the field next door still make a wonderful "playground"!

It's a New Day... A New Year... Let's Move On!

At the beginning of a new year, it is good to remember this practical advice by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense."

(I love his expression: "old nonsense"! Sometimes I find myself taking life too seriously - and that puts it all in good perspective!)

Along that vein, for those (like me) who tend to be a little too introspective, I will add the admonition of Cardinal Basil Hume: "Take God seriously; take other people seriously; but never, never take yourself seriously." (The Path of Life, p. 166)