Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today is a day to celebrate the people we love in our life. Life is complicated! It’s not always easy to make our partners feel valued in the tangles of life.

In our life it is sometimes the little things that mean so much. I appreciate the coffee made for me when I get up in the morning, when the gas tank is refilled for me when I have to go out, help with household tasks. Sometimes it is comfort in words said in a time of distress.

One of these times come to mind that has stayed with me over many years.

Our Wedding- July 1st 1978

It was around 25 years ago that my husband came home and stated he wanted a sports car of all things. He had worked hard, He was 40, and we could afford it.  I responded “It’snot practical” .  We had 3 children who  were in elementary school or junior high at the time needing transportation. The second car was needed when I was working, and my husband was in charge of ferrying the kids to their various activities. After a few discussions. I finally thought… fine time for a mid- life crisis. “New car”…”New Wife” … “NEW CAR”. I was on board.

After a few hiccups, the car was ordered. A copper-colored Mercedes SLK convertible sports car arrived. I must admit it was quite the eye catcher. Nick encouraged me to drive it too.

One day when I was driving to a city an hour and a half away to meet a friend, Nick told me it would be fun for me to drive the SLK. I initially resisted, but then gave in.

I left early and drove there and had Continue reading →

Rainbows have always been a sign of Promise to me. The song “I Wish You a Rainbow” had its own wish and a Promise. I have been meaning to share this story for a while but just couldn’t seem to find the words. Last night while I was thinking of the story behind the song I saw a beautiful rainbow. It seems the rainbow is a sign it is time.

It was in May of 2000. I had just made a new friend Holly who came into my life at a time I had needed a friend. I met Holly previously at church. It turned out Holly lived close to me and had just moved to our neighborhood. That particular day, I was going for a walk in the morning and decided to knock on her door. I needed a walking partner and Holly’s house was on my route. I thought, “She’s probably not home anyway”. To my surprise Holly answered the door and said “Just a minute while I get my runners on” and off we went. In our conversation Holly told me that her sister Wanda had previously died unexpectedly of a heart attack. Just that morning she had prayed for a friend and then shortly after I had knocked on the door. A complete “GodIncidence.” Some refer to this as a coinincidence. I call these GodIncidneces as they seem too meaningful to be by Chance.

In the following weeks we walked regularly. We often ended our walk with coffee with my mother and father who in April of 2000 had moved next door to me. In our conversation one morning, as we got to know each other, Holly mentioned that when she lived in British Columbia she had been a foster parent looking after young babies. Continue reading →

It’s Mother’s day. And for me, it is the first Mother’s day without my mother. Some of you may know, and some of you may not know that during this year of Covid my mother passed on or over. So many years,, …so many memories…so many tears. There are many of us who lost our mothers this year. I am fortunate to have had mom for 96 years, however it has been hard to let go.

Mom didn’t die of Covid but she died because of Covid. During the 9 months of, isolation she began to fall and ended up in the hospital. In her final days I was able to spend some time with her. She shared with me how blessed she felt to have been able to have my sister and I. You see, my mother and father had married when they were considered to be “Older”. Mom was 29 and Dad was 39 when they married on April 8^th 1953. They were told they would never be able to have children. However, in February, 1956 my sister was born. After a difficult pregnancy, I was born 6 weeks early, in November of1957.

My mother was a very strong and independent woman. She was a teacher 10 years before she married and went back to teaching when I was 5, out of necessity. My Dad was a farmer and in order for the farm to survive we needed the income. I don’t know how she did it. Mom worked all week at school and still made time to help on the farm, make balanced meals, maintain a large garden from which she would can and freeze vegetables, sewed our clothes, and was an active church and community member. Mom is a hard act to follow.

Mom faced Continue reading →

Back to Basics- It’s a Spudnut Day!

(March 14^th, 2020 -Actually known as Pi day)

What do I do on a full day at home? That is a dilemma for me. I admit it. I am an adrenalin junkie. Having had my personal battles with anxiety and depression I have developed a habit of getting out of the house every morning to kick start my day. As I heed the warnings about Covid 19 and the pandemic, I decided that it must be a “spudnut” day. “Spudnut” you say? “What in the world is a spudnut?” Spudnuts are a favorite family recipe from my childhood made on occasion by my mother. It is soft dough made into a donut with potatoes in the batter. My mother said she clipped the recipe out of the Lethbridge paper and since I was a child spudnut day became a magic day. Maybe they are a comfort food for me. Though I now live in the city, spudnuts bring me back to life on the farm as a child. 

Making spudnuts was a daylong process for my mother. It began with the cooking of the potatoes to the making of the dough, then the long wait for the dough to rise. The kitchen counters were then covered with wax paper as my mom used her special donut cutter to lay the donuts out to wait for the second rise of the dough.

As we grew older we were allowed to participate in the cutting and we made sure Continue reading →

Meet Sarah

Sarah has lived in my drawer for over 20 years. In life there are moments that stick with you forever. Sarah is a reminder of one of them.
It was a warm spring day when my 4 year old daughter, Heather, came bursting in the Kitchen door in tears holding Sarah. I gathered her little body in my arms wondering what on earth could be the matter. Between sobs, Heather held Sarah up to me and explained. “Look mom. Flare chewed off Sarah’s arms and legs”. This was devastating to Heather as this little, blonde, plastic doll had accompanied her everywhere.

Flare was our family dog, a cute brown Pomeranian. As the youngest of our three children, Heather was alone with me while her siblings were in school. Initially she talked to her imaginary friends and then there was Sarah. Sarah was small enough to fit in little fingers and pockets and came along with us wherever we went. . There was a constant dialogue with her little friend. I explained to Heather, “Flare, didn’t mean to hurt Sarah. She was just being a dog and dogs like to chew.” Heather was quiet for a minute, then looked up at me with those big brown eyes and resolved, “It’s okay. You would love me even if I had no arms and legs. I replied,“Of course. Then I can still love Sarah too!” said Heather jumping off my lap and heading off once again to play. Unconditional love. As a parent this is what you want your child to know: Above all, in any circumstances, you are loved. As you would suspect, then it was me who was crying.
Sarah continued to accompany us on many other adventures.

It was years later when Heather was grown and I was Continue reading →

Remembering 911

September 11, 2001….The world changed that day for me as for many of you. I had never experienced the feeling of being threatened by terrorist activity on North American soil.  I still recall where we were and what we were doing the moment the world changed. For me, it was a regular work day. CBC was on the radio while I was getting dressed for work. I remember the newscaster with a news-breaking announcement. “The twin towers have been hit!”. I immediately shouted down to Nick and turned on the TV just in time to see a jet exploding into the second of the twin towers. We were in a state of shock. I can’t imagine the panic the people in New York must have felt. I was safe in my home with my children and trying to continue a sense of normalcy. My children had breakfast and got on the school bus and I left for work. The people in New York were fighting for their lives and the lives of others, living in a nightmare

The following weeks it all sank in. My children were fearful of the news of possible war. As a mom I needed to respond and offer reassurance in the future to my family. I remembered a time when I had felt that same fear and uncertainty.

Thanksgiving Day came. It was then I found it. An article I had written years ago. It was based on my great-grandmother’s memoirs.  It was ironic that my great-grandmother was speaking to me again as she had so many years before.

O Canada
GENERATIONS
A Great-Grandmothers’ gift inspires hope for the future

Sharon Smith-Woronuk

I never knew my great-grandmother… but she gave me a gift beyond compare. In  the early 1980’s,my husband Continue reading →

It’s been awhile since I added to the blog. What a month. It started out with a nasty viral cough that lasted over 3 weeks. Mid- April my heart was broken with the horrendous crash in Saskatchewan of the Humboldt Broncos hockey players. Then the month ended with my poor mother breaking her hip again last week and ending up with a hip replacement. Needless to say any plans that I had made went out the window with the blog included. April is now over… and life goes on.
It reminds me of a wonderful surprise in April of 1999 that threw us for a loop.
It was Easter time and we were all excited. My sister Laureen and her family, and Nick and I and our family were heading to Vauxhall to mom and dad’s place. As Laureen was from Regina and we were from Calgary, this meeting of family was always a celebration. However, when we arrived this time my mother was quite serious. She looked at us and said, “I have something to talk to you about when we have a chance.” This left my sister and I with a bit of an uneasy feeling. What was the big discussion about? Many thoughts passed through our mind… was Mom or Dad unwell?
Finally on Easter Sunday night after supper with the kids all in bed, my mother said, “ I have something to tell you.” Trying to lighten the conversation I piped up, “You’re pregnant!” as this had been a common announcement over the past few years. To our surprise my mother said, “ Well, sort of.” We all looked at her quizzically as she looked down placing her hands folded on the table. A brief silence followed.

My mother began to tell the story she had Continue reading →

Angels from a Pot Party???

It started out innocently enough. A friend of mine was helping a university student out. John was working his way through university by giving pot parties and we were asked to host a party for him. No… not the drug kind. Real cooking pots! As per usual I got into a deep conversation with this amazing young man and found that though he was now a University Business student andbody builder who had been bullied in high school. His way of giving back was to host a youth support group in a church across from his high school. He felt it might have helped to have someone to mentor him during this difficult time and so was mentoring these young people in the afternoon after highschool classes were over.John felt by listening to them and sharing wisdom and his Christian faith he might be able to give them a safe place to share their struggles,and courage to deal with their daily problems. I shared that I had a similar experience in my junior and high school years. I never felt like I really fit in and at times I had felt depressed. I too had found love and safety in my church as a teenager. I expressed my concern that there were many teenage students who experience depression and that the rates of suicide in that age group are really high. I wondered if he might be interested in sharing my story of coping with depression using the music from my CD’s.

This was really stepping out of my comfort zone, but I was listening to my inner voice that told me this was a worthwhile endeavor. I really was searching for a purpose for the music and had attended a conference in Continue reading →

Continued…. April came and went with exams and a few dates. I had a May practicum for nursing so that allowed us to get to know each other a little better before I had to leave and find work for the summer. I worked at the “Do Drop Inn” truck stop as a waitress. There was a summer trip from Nick down to Vauxhall to see me. Then back to University for my 3rd year. I no sooner got in the door than my roommates were reporting, “Nick called!”. Fall semester was a busy one between courses and assignments, but we still seemed to look forward to squeezing in time together on weekends and we even splurged on Big Mac’s for dinners now and then. By November our relationship was getting pretty serious.
It was around that time that Nick heard on the radio about a contest by Ben Moss Jewelers for a 750 dollar diamond ring through 630 CHED radio. All you had to do was list the top songs of the last 20 years of Rock and Roll. I’m not quite sure why Nick was so intent on winning this ring at the time, but as I was now learning, If Nick set his mind to something; he was determined and made it happen. Maybe that was why he was so persistent with me. He liked challenges.
He thought by listening to the radio while studying he would manage to hear all the top songs and enter the contest. However, University got in the way and Nick was giving up on the contest, as he wasn’t able to get a song for every year. To his surprise “Lady Luck “would assist him. As he was walking by Woodwards department store in downtown Edmonton, he spied a Music Book Continue reading →

How I Met My Valentine

I always enjoy hearing stories of how people find love. Most seem to be by chance. My story is no different. We were only 19 at the time. It seems very young by today’s standards. Nick and I had both lived in the University of Alberta residences the first year but we never managed to meet at any of the functions we attended. Nick was too busy studying and I was studying nursing but really enjoying life. I had come from a small town and coming to residence gave me a chance to have fun. Still, there was that desire to meet that special someone. I hadn’t dated much and really wanted to meet that person that I could spend a lifetime with.

By the end of the second year I had become disillusioned by the party life. I wanted to meet someone that was serious about a relationship. With this in mind I noticed a sign on the residence elevator doors. Engineering Dance. The dance would be off site and there would be some “Real Men“ there. I convinced two of my friends on 4^th Kelsey that we should go. The sign said someone would pick us up to take us that night. It was a different time. We didn’t worry about going in a car with a complete stranger. After all, there were 3 of us.

The night came and it was pretty miserable out. It was an April snowstorm near the end of the University semester. We arrived to find out at the door that the entry fee seemed a little high for our budget. It wasn’t like me to be cheeky but I was on a budget. I said to the handsome guy selling tickets “Really?” I told him Continue reading →