Skip to main content

Year Two


It's been two years since Mom left us so suddenly.

I got more time with her than a lot of people do with theirs. She wasn't perfect, but she loved us.

I still wish I never had to join this "club" that no one wants to be a member of. And there's not much to say that I haven't already about the loss. It still hurts and it probably always will.

This year, I decided to search out some of my past Facebook posts related to my mom. They reminded me that Mom could be quite funny at times. Here are some of the gems:


I have no idea what that one related to. I only know that I was living in Ottawa by then.

I don't know if it was mom who came up with us hiding chocolate bunnies at easter time. I suspect so since Dad was often busy between shift work and helping people out.

She knew nothing about computers and didn't want to, but she'd still check that I had what I needed.


OK, I was still pretty into DVDs back in 2013. And I was in roller derby, so getting a copy of Whip It was awesome!


Mom's pronunciation of words could be really sus at times.


She often used the wrong words for things.


Mom also loved to help others. She was a social worker in Toronto before my eldest brother was born. She told me that when I was studying social work. Later, she told me that she knew I wouldn't enjoy that line of work.

I don't know if she ever told my brothers that. Being from the silent generation, mom would often let little things out like that, but only to one of us and only when it was relevant. As a result, there's so much we probably don't know about her.

She fostered some children before I was born, so I have these pseudo siblings I see very rarely, but they kept in touch with her after returning to their families.

And she'd help out other teens when she could. Sometimes all it amounted to was a hot meal and a place to sleep while they figured out what to do about a situation they were in, but it helped.

She was great at finding things while thrifting or yard saling. Somehow, she'd  always remember one of us needed something like a lid for a pot.

She hated having her picture taken, so there aren't a lot with her in them. I guess that makes the ones we do have all the more special.

Anyway, I just wanted to share a little more about the woman who raised me.

The Void

On Losing a Parent

Mother's Day 2022

More on Losing a Parent

One Year

Popular posts from this blog

2020 Vision

Mostly, I’ve been planning for the new year, but I discovered I know Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. It was a recollection under the influence that brought this to light. I also discovered I still suck at drawing, but I’m okay with that. I used to think I had to be good at everything, and I’ve realized that’s just not so. Some friends and I recently hit up a local board game pub. It was a pretty fun night. The first game was Balderdash and I was terrible at it. Because I was the writer in the group, some of my friends thought I should be more embarrassed about it and hide the fact that I don’t spend all my free time learning advanced vocabulary. But I’m not upset about it. Why? Two reasons: 1. I now know what I don’t know. 2. If one takes a close look at the top selling novels on the market, the level of the language used is not the level of many of the words in Balderdash. Not that I’m comparing my own work to those, but audience is what matters in writing. To me, it is far better to e...

Merry Monday - A beautiful day for taxes

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] With French done, I have a lot of other things to catch up on. It seems like I have Mount Everest ahead of me, but I'm just going through the list one at a time. I've gotten a couple of things done and some started. Renovations Before the weekend, my new kitchen floor was installed. After the credits that Jiffy gave me, install cost less than $40. The old floor was light grey peel and stick tile, which was peeling itself up on the edges. Because I couldn't get all the glue up from the floor underneath the peel and stick, I needed to put new floor in. Oh, I started peeling it up with a hair dryer. I really don't recommend that. It doesn't get hot enough to work well. It was taking around 20 minutes each tile with the hair dryer. With a proper heat gun, a couple hours for the whole floor. Old floors: [gallery ids="9630,9631" ...

Fortifying Friday - Rejection

Yesterday, I received my first rejection from an agent. It stung. It wasn't that it was bad. It was worded in a way that it may have even been personally written. Regardless, rejection never feels good unless you were secretly hoping to stay home and do nothing when a friend made plans with you. Then it feels great! I might be an introvert ;) Anyway, it hurts a bit extra when you have other things going on. Between the worries of the state of the world and being unemployed, it felt much like being kicked while I was already down. The agent said she couldn't connect with my book though she really wanted to. She also said not to take her rejection as any kind of sign that I should give up. It was nice as far as rejections go. So, I lay there for a bit. Then I let my friends know via social media. Several said that I had hit a milestone and I should try to collect as many as possible this year. Rejections, they said, were a badge of honour awarded for putting myself out there. See...