Lost Treasure

 My heart is broken. Yesterday I lost my treasured Aunt Peggy.

Anyone that knew my aunt Peggy loved her. She was a gem. Putting others before herself, an eternal optimist and a fierce fighter. She entered the world as a preemie in 1925 and has been fighting ever since! The last decade has been full of health challenges but each time she met them face on, determined to overcome them. In fact, several stories come to mind when I think of this.

1.      After suffering a heart attack, she was flown to London in a helicopter. When I popped into her room to see how she was doing, she told me it was pretty exciting to be in the helicopter, but more importantly her attendant was a "very good looking fellow". Ha ha...so cute.

2.      Another time while visiting her in the hospital, the curtain was drawn between the patients. She did not have a view of the window but as soon as I walked in, she smiled and said “it’s a beautiful day outside, isn’t it?”

I have shared that story many times to emphasize how important your attitude and outlook are. In fact, during my last visit with Peggy three weeks ago, I felt compelled to share that with her. I explained how she had touched so many people and I often shared the windowless story with my friends. She thought nothing of it because that’s just who she is.

Her outlook and attitude, I’m certain, is why she made it to #96. I recall visiting her (in hospital) months before her 87^th birthday. Things were serious but she told me that she had been thinking and she would need to live until at least 90 to complete all the things she wanted to do. I was thrilled to celebrate that milestone with her…and six more besides!

Nearly 20 years older than my dad, Peggy was more of a grandma to me than an aunt. We lived close by and as a kid I would hop in the car any time my parents were going for a visit. Many, many evenings I spent in her living room or around her kitchen table. Instant coffee was always served (it’s where I started drinking coffee) and usually a piece of pie or slice of bread with butter and homemade raspberry jam. She shared our turkey dinners, birthday cakes, graduations and recitals.

I always called her Peggy but she also went by Kathleen or Kay. Kinda confusing, right? Well, as I mentioned, she was born a preemie and named Kathleen Irene Mills. But when one of the Irish neighbours came by for a visit, he told my grandparents that name was too big for a little thing like her and she needed a good Irish name like Peggy. Believe it or not, that name has stuck with her for 96 years! Some folks call her Kathleen, others call her Kay but to me she will never be anything but Peggy!

Peggy grew up on a farm and worked just as hard as any of her brothers, helping her dad with work in the field and her mom with work in the house. Her self-sacrificing spirit meant she was always there for anyone that needed her. When she was a bit older, she became somewhat of a midwife. There was no training involved, but she would go and help deliver neighbourhood babies and then stay for a few weeks to help out the new mom. I thought it was really cool when I discovered that she actually lived at the Petrolia Hospital for a time. We were driving by the older part of the hospital one day (which used to be a house) and she pointed at the turret and said "Oh, I used to live up there. I really liked my room."

There were many afternoons or evenings spent listening to stories from the past. I love hearing history from the people that lived it. Peggy really changed the course of our family when she became a Christian as a young woman. The change in her life prompted a change in many other lives. She loved Jesus and was passionate about living out her faith.

The past year and a half has been a challenging one for many reasons, one of which is that Peggy went into a nursing home in December 2019. So, her ability to visit with friends and family has been very limited. We did our best to stay in touch, sending fun things in the mail and calling regularly. I am so very grateful that I had a visit with her just 3 weeks ago. She loved hearing about my canning so I took her some dill pickles and peach jam. She was thrilled. I was thrilled. Hugging her that day was extra special. I didn’t know it would be my last. My heart broke when I heard she had left us. But, I know that she is rejoicing in heaven and that brings me great joy.

 

Random memories:

·        Yard sales – she loved a good bargain

·        Picking strawberries – she just loved it

·       Going to London Dairy – Peggy would order a pineapple sundae and give me her whipped cream because she didn’t like it

·        Eating out and Peggy ordering liver and onions

·        So many clocks and none said the same time!

·        The carefully folded paper creations I made and she kept in her china cabinet

·        Teaching me how to quilt

·        Her crocheted bowls

·        Salmon sandwiches

·        Learning her phone number before my own!

·        She would always ask about Cody playing the piano and commented that she “loved a man that plays the piano”.

·        She would also always ask about Devin and ask if he was “working hard” (important character quality)

Our grins were the result of her whipping her cane over on the grass and declaring she did not want that in the photo!

She Found Her Lobster!

My cousin Carol Ann is one amazing person. We didn't spend a lot of time together when we were kids, but discovered each other as young adults and a beautiful friendship grew from that.

I've always admired Carol Ann's ability to take on challenges with great determination. She headed back to school in her mid 20's to get a degree and become a teacher. After graduating, she headed off to South Korea for her first teaching adventure. I always loved hearing about her new life and thought it sounded pretty exotic and she was pretty brave to venture out on her own like that.

After South Korea, she moved to Kuwait. It was during her time here that we started talking about traveling together. She was going to Egypt on her spring break and it had always been on my travel bucket list. I seriously considered joining her, but in the end, I decided to go back to school myself and needed that money for tuition, books, etc.

We didn't give up on the idea of traveling together and did a few small trips when she was home in Canada. We did a weekend jaunt to Cleveland to do Cedar Point, shopping and take in The Beach Boys concert. When there was a Titanic exhibit at the Henry Ford Museum, we took off for the weekend to check it out (and do some shopping). We traveled well together and fun getting to know each other as cousins and as friends.

In 2012 she invited me to join her in Paris for Christmas. Wow, what an invitation! And when would I ever have that opportunity again!?! It took some thoughtful consideration on my part as it would be my very first Christmas away from home. In the end, I did it and I'm so glad I did. We met in Paris and spent about a week casually wandering the Christmas markets and sampling the amazing French cuisine. We squeezed in the essentials like The Eiffel Tower, The Louvre and Notre Dame on Christmas Eve but it was a very relaxed and comfortable trip that we both enjoyed immensely. We didn't have an agenda so everything we did was perfect!

For a long time, Carol Ann and I were perpetually single at all the Murray family functions. Grammie would joke that there needed to be a war so we could meet a soldier like her. LOL. She was very happy for me when I met Devin and Cody and enjoyed getting to know them on visits here and when we visited her parents in Nova Scotia. And one day, about 2 years ago, I got a message "I met someone". I had questions and her answers were pretty exciting. I thought "I think she's going to marry this guy". Today, she did. 

My adventurous "fruzzin" as I like to call her (friend/cousin) lives in Qatar and married a British man, so, in the middle of a pandemic they had a ZOOM wedding. They will have celebrations in England and Canada in time but today we celebrated online.

I'm so thrilled that this wonderful woman has met her match. Someone that appreciates her humour, enjoys reading & photography as much as her and is also a globe-trotting adventure-seeker! For all the Friends lovers out there, Phoebe put it so well when she explained that lobsters mate for life and Carol Ann has found her "lobster".

Celebrating Cody

It's hard to believe another year has come and gone and this kid is now TWELVE! In fact, while enjoying a lazy Saturday morning recently, he pointed out that I've now known him half his life.

The past year has been interesting to say the least. Just 8 weeks after Cody's birthday life changed when the pandemic entered our lives. In many ways it was a huge disruption that caused many problems and devastation. In other ways, it was a blessing. I treasured the time I could spend with Cody as we were both home together for months on end. I worked reduced hours so we both finished our work around lunch time and could spend our afternoons going for walks or bike rides. We played board games and worked on a project called "The Grandparent Diaries". Each day Cody would record a video question and send to his grandparents and they would record their answer and send it back. It was a fun way to discover some neat things about some special people.

Over the past year I have watched Cody grow and mature into a very thoughtful and kind young man. He has befriended some elderly neighbours and checks in on them regularly. He is quick to point out when someone is not being kind and shares his thoughts with me on how the situation should be handled. He can see when someone is upset or down and is quick to offer a hug or some encouragement.

I am particularly proud of how Cody has learned to choose his reaction to situations and use more appropriate solutions to problems. Academically he is taking much more care in his lessons and his progress has accelerated! 

Most of all, I treasure the bond we share. I will never take for granted the joy and gift this relationship is and I am forever grateful to God for stitching my family together. Now, we will enjoy this last year before.... the TEEN years! Am I ready?