from The Red Duo-Tang ~Friday June 27th, 1975: *Really enjoyed the trip to Midland, she was really good. L (lil sis) bothered her a lot. Very interested in Huron Village. Enjoyed staying in the Motel. – got a lot out of Nancy Island. Asked a lot of questions. *Little nervous at the Scenic Caves. Can’t say as I blame her…I was too. Got a beaded … Continue reading Weekly Writing Challenge | Student, Teacher
Hockey in Canada is BIG (case ya didn’t know). This week THE HOMESTEAD was all abuzz as my oldest niece on Sunday won Gold at the Women’s Hockey Association Provincials’. Dang, it’s for me beyond words and I’m so incredibly proud. With stick in hand, this young girl defends the line for her team. Watchful, patient and determined, she is a true team player. For … Continue reading Growing Up With A Stick In Her Hand
A year ago today, I wrote this – One by One [published: Oct. 31, 2012] I had been blogging 5 days. It was just me and Irish, alone at the Lake, in our little cottage. I was experiencing a profound grief. Tim’s death had been so much different than hers. So many different emotions, experiences, thoughts, and the circumstances. The grief was even different. Tim … Continue reading One by One: a year later
I’d come home from high school, and I’d often walk in to Motown blaring in the basement, and there she’d be, dancing away. Often doing the Mash Potatoe, or some other complicated thing I could never really master. My gawd, could that woman kick it. Tomorrow is the anniversary of her death. All Hallows Eve, when the veil thins, is a time of year that … Continue reading My Momma Liked To Dance
Those boards have heard many a tale. I have sat here, cried here, said goodbye here. On that porch we all stood looking up at that gigantic full moon, ringed with a golden halo, the night Mom died. All silently lost in thought, gazing up at that moon. Remembering, and feeling like she was almost standing there with us. For this was her porch. It … Continue reading This Old Porch
This year I feel my GrandmaD’s presence. I see her subtle influence so often of late. After Grandpa died, and she became a widow, she changed. She would only wear the colours black, white and red. Sometimes maybe a beige top every once in a while in the summer … but normally just the basic black, white and red. Shoes, tops, pants, socks, the whole … Continue reading About A Woman Named Millie
on bended knee I beg the dark for what is yet to be when loss robs me of my heart with lies to block my eyes a truth in serenity awaits that embrace of shadows of the past and longings not yet seen of earthly delights; it hides within the quiet corners with dreams shot thru in the morning light magnolia memories embrace me within … Continue reading Magnolia Blooms
I first heard this story after the wake for Grandma, back at the farm. It is one of my favourite memories because it was the first story I remembered hearing of Grandma as a young girl – to me she was an old woman. That storytelling at wakes is a family tradition. I’ve found out so much, such different things, at those family gatherings. Continue reading Sisters, And The Stories They Tell
It is a simple duo-tang that Mom had created for me and I thought it had been lost in my storage. She began it sometime after I was born, and wrote down every little thing. She wrote down things like: “Rolled over from front to back – August 30, 1967”. “Daddy holds Paula a lot”. “Fussy during day”. “October 2, 1967 – When you speak … Continue reading The Red Duo-Tang
You see, any talent I have I owe to her. Not just genetically, but by her encouragement and her passion that I pursue what she was unable to. It was her that insisted I go to BealArt rather than go back for Grade 13 and maybe University. She saw in me a talent she said. Even from the time I first held a pencil in my chubby little baby hands, she said I held it the proper way; never just grabbed on like you would a club or a bat. Continue reading A woman on her own
We knew, we all knew. We had a campfire, the girls fished and swam every day, all day. Our neighbor had guests up that weekend too; with 2 little boys who thought my nieces where “taking all the fish”. So my brother-in-law went over and shared some of the bait they were using, worms from my compost pile. Continue reading We need more children’s around here | August 21, 2012
My earliest memory is (Mom told me my age) when I was 2 1/2 years old. I can picture looking down on a road, with really tiny houses. It looked like a miniature, make-believe place. Mom said she found it difficult to remember me sitting at all for that final time back to Canada. At some point on the trip I guess I had been … Continue reading Daily Prompt: Childhood Revisited
Tonight will be the 11th anniversary of my Moms death. At only 54 years old, and a new Grandma only 2 months, at 5:45 pm my Mom passed away at home with all of us around her. I remember the old Maple out front was still golden. Enya was playing on the CD player, and Dad had just told Mom, finally, that he was ready to … Continue reading One by One
by PaulaB 