Posted on February 19, 2018 under Monday Morning Musings with 6 comments

My daughter Margaret and mom

The signs are all there. We know it’s coming. We can see it, feel it, taste it and smell it. We can feel it in our bones. The days on the calendar are being checked off. It can’t be long now.

We’re getting older and all along you thought I was talking about the arrival of spring. Gotcha!

Facebook, that glorious repository of truth and knowledge, serves up a gem every once in a while. I noticed this post a few days ago: “It’s official. I’m losing it. Just entered my iPhone passcode into the microwave to make a cup of tea.” Yes, folks, for those of you haven’t yet received your first Old Age Security cheque, this is what you have coming straight at you.

I am starting to see the telltale signs of aging. None of them are really egregious (yet!) but make no mistake; the aging process is well underway. All of the senses listed in the first paragraph are not as refined as they once were.

Ok. So I showed up for a big pot luck dinner in late October. It wasn’t only October that was late. I strutted up the sidewalk on Church Street to St. James United Church planning on a scrumptious meal to mark the end of the Antigonish International Film festival. I went all out and dressed up in one of my colorful outfits acquired in India. Yes, it did seem a bit odd at first that there were no cars parked along the way, but the locked door to the church hall was a dead giveaway. After a few knocks on the door, the custodian gave me entrance but it was all for naught. The dinner had been held the previous day.

Other signs of aging. You’re heading to another room in the house to get something and upon arrival, you don’t have a clue what you’re looking for, requiring you to backtrack and start the process all over again. I know. You’ve done it too. We just can’t see that embarrassed look on your face.

You’re walking down the Main Street of your home town and you see someone coming that you’ve known for maybe 150 years. When they pass, you either (1) call them by their incorrect name or (2) grunt a generic “How’s it going” because you can’t remember their name.

You know you’re getting old when your joints are more accurate meteorologists than Environment Canada.

Your secrets are safe with your friends because they won’t remember them either.

You make a list of things to pack for a big trip so you won’t forget anything and then can’t find the list.

Care to add your own favourites to the list?

Because the local restaurants were packed on Valentine’s Day, I decided to celebrate by hanging out with the folks at the R.K. MacDonald Nursing Home. I was pressed into service on short notice and spent part of the afternoon singing with the residents. The pay was excellent: Valentine’s cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Being the first day of Lent as well, I swallowed hard having hours earlier committed to refraining from sweets for forty days and forty nights. Hell, I barely made it to 40 minutes!

You know those newfangled curly lightbulbs that take a few minutes to light up? This is more or less how I would describe singing with the elderly. Amongst the 40 or so people who endured my singing, a handful was engaged from the first bar of “I’ve been working on the Railroad.” Over the next hour, you could see faces coming alive as they mouthed the words of all those familiar tunes from a bygone era. Nearing the end of the session, I stopped playing the guitar on the chorus and just listened. The room was filled with the joyous voices from the present and the past. All the lightbulbs were fully illuminated.

I can’t think of a better way to have spent Valentine’s Day.

Oh, and yes, spring is coming too!

Have a great week.

Posted on February 15, 2018 under Thursday Tidbits with no comments yet

 

SAFE is having its Annual General Meeting on February 27, 2108… and you’re invited to come.

Our Syrian families have settled in quite nicely in our community but this doesn’t mean the crisis is over in Syria. Not even close. If it is humanly possible, things are worse and there are millions of families desperately seeking refuge.

The work of SAFE, CARE and Tri- Heart, the three sponsorship groups in Antigonish continues. It is not likely to end any time soon.

We need your help. There are two new Syrian families arriving in the very near future. One of the families, we were expecting and we have housing lined up for them. The second family was not supposed to come until late 2018 but SAFE has now been informed that their arrival is imminent.

We need your help… specifically housing.

SAFE needs a three bedroom house, preferably near the town of Antigonish. We all know how hard housing is to find and how expensive it is. The people of Antigonish Town and County have been extremely generous in assisting with housing for the Syrians who have already arrived. They have provided inexpensive rents, in some cases for a two year period to help new families get on their feet.

So. if you know of anyone who might have an unoccupied house and might want to partner with SAFE in providing a home for one of the families coming soon, please get in touch with me or any member of SAFE.

Our new Syrian neighbors and friends have proven that they belong in our midst. They are friendly and incredibly industrious.

Please help our new families make Antigonish their home.

Thanks and hope to see some of you at the AGM.

P.S. It would be appreciated if you would ” share” this with your Facebook contacts. Thanks.

Posted on February 14, 2018 under Storytelling with 4 comments

Happy Valentine’s Day, mom

 

M is for the many things she gave me,

O means that she’s only growing old,

T is for the tears she shed to save me,

H is for her heart of purest gold,

E is for her eyes, with love light shining,

R means right and right she’ll always be,

 Put them all together they spell mother,

A word that means the world to me.

I know. I checked the calendar. It’s Valentine’s Day and not Mother’s Day.

Valentine’s Day is for lovers. But it is so much more. It is a time to applaud the notion of love and nowhere is this more recognizable than the love of a mother.

Many of us are getting up there in years. And many of us have lost one or both parents. I don’t think I would get much argument from my peers that we will never again see a generation of women such as those who raised the baby boomers.

How did they do it?

How did they raise 6, 8, 10, 12 children… and in some cases more? Without the benefit of modern appliances, they toiled from early morning until late at night. They prepared meals, baked their own bread, washed countless loads of wash (including cloth diapers!)by hand before the advent of the ringer washer. They read bedtime stories, helped with homework and bandaged many a bloody knee.

They mended clothing and broken hearts and wiped a lot of bums.

They found time to worship, very often praying the rosary daily and attending mass on Sundays.

And when their children left the nest, many of them spread their wings and went out into the public work force where they demonstrated their remarkable work ethic and prowess as managers. After all, can there be anything more daunting than managing a house filled with enough children to field a baseball team?

Some of our moms have died. Others are still living but have been robbed of their memories and a handful is still carrying on well into their 90’s acting as if they are still teenagers.

Being a mother of young children in 2018 is no less challenging. In many ways, it is more difficult. We honor these women too.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all mothers.