Mom

     This past year has been very busy for me and consequently, I have not posted for a very long time. A year ago, my mother began to fail in her health. She lived nearby so I was able to help out. Things progressed from bad to worse until, in July of 2014, Mom passed out of this life into the next. Since Mom's passing, I have been trying to get her estate closed. My wife and sisters have been helpful, and I appreciate the lifted load. With my many hours of work for the past several months, progress has been slow, but now that the snow has flown and the cold bitten us here in Alberta, I now have more time to catch up on all the non eat/sleep/work things.
     My mother was a complex person who loved life and its adventures.

Age 19

Age 81

She fought cancer several times and won. She had both knees replaced and had bone strength problems. Six years ago, she fell in my garden and broke her neck - while no one was around. After praying for help from God, whom she knew well, she pulled herself up on my apple tree and walked out to her car. Sitting in the front seat of the car and supporting her broken neck with one hand, she flagged down a friend and he drove her to the hospital. She wore a halo for three months. The broken neck caused her to miss our family reunion that year, but once the ordeal was over, she re-certified her license and drove her car again. Ultimately, old age took her.
     In her life, she raised six children and after loosing my father to death, spent many happy years with a fine man (who even asked me for my mother's hand in marriage). Mom loved three main things: Serving others, doing family history / genealogical research and writing her life's history. When she was young, she won a singing contest (like American Idol) and got to make her own record as a prize. She enjoyed singing all of her life and inspired me to work at creating pleasant sounds too. Mom also loved to garden and when we lived on the lighthouse, she worked very hard to get our crops to grow and not drown from all our rainfall. (180 inches a year is a bit much for most plants) When I was a boy and would ride my bike in a less than 150 foot loop around our tiny island, I would snatch a sprig or two of parsley as it stuck out the open front of the greenhouse on my way by. Even now, I like to eat parsley Au-natural - and my wife still gives me the look as I munch down on my restaurant garnish to complete my meal. "What?" I always say. "Parsley is good."
     It's been about three and a half months since Mom died and I miss her. I still miss my Dad too, but I live with the knowledge that Mom's spirit body lives on and that she has now joined my father in their next adventures together. One day, hopefully not that soon, it will be my turn to pass though the veil of death and join the billions of spirits who have gone before me, but for now, I yet live and can yet hope to make a positive difference to this world that I love.