First of all this morning I wanted to thank you all for the prayers you are carrying me in. I can feel them surrrounding me and I know that I have people on the other side of the veil attending to me as well. I can feel my mother very close and she is helping to give me the strength to just keep putting one foot in front of the other.
I come from a line of very strong women.
I started off trying to tell you about some of the very strong women in my family tree this morning, but an hour later I had only talked about two and had only just gotten started, so I have put that aside for another time.
My family tree is filled with strong and capable women. One of the strongest has to have been my mother, and this I can tell you from first hand because I knew her all of my life.
My mother did not come from a wealthy family. They were largely uneducated people. My grandmother was brought up on a farm and never got more than a grade school education. My grandfather left home at the age of 12 and managed on his wits the remainder of his life. He worked whenever and wherever he could get work. My mom determined at a young age that she would work hard, get an education and then do what she could to help her family. She did just that.
She was the only one of her immediate family to graduate from high school and go on to further education. She was the Class Valedictorian of her graduating class, and went on to graduate top of her class as Mac Business College, afterwhich she took a job working as a secretary for the President of the Agricultural College in Truro, Nova Scotia.
For the remainder of their lives she would send home money to her parents to help them.
She married my father and was taken on another adventure. He was in the airforce. She flew over to Germany on her own with me on Christmas Eve in 1955, arriving with only what she could carry, which included me. They had lost her luggage. In a foreign country where she could not speak the language, with a very young baby, and no clothing etc. This was very daunting to her I am sure. But she go through it, as she did all of the changes and upheavals in her life.
A double cancer survivor, having beaten both breast and lung cancers, and both cancer battles on her own as a single woman, having had my father leave her when she was 53. His leaving her was another great challenge she had to face.
My mother loved my father with everything she had. I know he loved her probably more than he could love anyone, but he was just not the kind of man who should ever have been married. Her loyalty to him never wavered throughout her life, and they remained good friends right up to her passing. He still calls the house to hear her voice on the answering machine. She was always more than kind to him, and she taught us children that even though they were divorced it was okay for us to love both of our parents equally and without judgement.
Always fiercely independant, she faced the final years of her life with courage and with strength. As she slowly lost her independance due to vascular dementia she maintained her sense of humour and was couragous even as she fought the last battle of having her leg amputated. She faced all of the challenges in her life with courage and determination. I have always been and am so very proud of her.
It would be remiss of me not to mention the other strong woman in my life. My dear sister Cindy. She has always been a wonderful example of strength to me, and I love her deary, although I am not sure she knows that. I won't say too much about her as I don't want to embarass her or expose her too much, but she has been through more than almost any person I know and she keeps on ticking ahead like the EverReady Bunny. She and my mother are so very much alike.
These past two years have been especially challenging for her, and continue to be. She has been my best friend all of her life. She is there for me always. When my last marriage broke up and nobody in my family would speak to me, she never wavered in her support for me. She has been a rock in my life in many, manys ways for always. We do not see eye to eye on all things, but it doesn't matter, because we see eye to eye on the things that matter most. We love and support each other completely and without judgement.
I can't believe that yet again she is having to be there for me as another of my marriages breaks down, giving me a place to rest my head until I can get myself sorted and begin again. I hopethat she knows how very grateful I am for that, and for everything she has always done for me throughout the years. I hope so much that once I return to Canada I can be there for her in every way for whatever challenges she may face for the remainder of my life.
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˚ ˛ •˛• ˚ ｜ 田田 ｜門 ★
*.˛. What is the greatest lesson
