If I may, I would like to share with you a bit of Mom's life story which I think was in some ways pretty colourful and in many ways serves to show how much of a 'glass half full' girl she really was.
Her life started in Richmond Quebec in the Eastern Townships where she was born in the summer of 1927. Her Dad worked for the railroad when he had to, but much preferred painting, competitive shooting and hunting. When the family's house burned down and with the onset of the Great Depression, Mom and her parents travelled to Lachute and moved in with her oldest sister Minnie and her family at the Bradford farm on the North River.
Mom was the youngest in one of what you might call a 'telescope' families. Her sister Minnie was having babies at the same time as her own mother. Mom used to say that she was an aunt two years before she was born! During the Depression, people had to what they had to do to make ends meet so there were family members coming and going to find work, there was hard work to do when they found it and Mom really was raised in those early years by her sister, our Aunt Minnie.
Her stories of life on the farm during the Depression were really like listening to episodes of the Waltons. Who knew the Depression could be so much fun! Boarders were brought in to stay on the farm during summers to supplement the income and Mom loved to tell stories of her older brothers and sisters making music on the front lawn to entertain them, Grandpa making boats to take them fishing on the river as well as lawn furniture and band pavilions and of Grandma working all day in the kitchen making meals for the guests, the farm workers and the family. Mom remembered that whole time with great joy.
In the mid-thirties, she and her parents moved to Val d'Or where Grandpa worked for the gold mines in the assay office. He took her hunting and fishing and, in spite of the blackflies and cold winters, she remembered those years so fondly. She absolutely adored her father. He was becoming quite proficient as an artist by this time and for her whole life Mom had a number of his paintings proudly displayed in our home.
During the War, Mom and her folks moved back to the Lachute area and, after finishing high school, Mom got a job with DIL in Brownsburg in the munitions plant doing clerical and specification work with her Dad. She roomed in Brownsburg with Mr and Mrs Hammond and she loved them.
After the War, she met and fell in love with her future soul mate, former pilot officer Clifton Morrison from Dunany and they married in Lachute in 1949. Both moved to St Laurent where Mom continued to work for DIL and Dad started his career with Johnson Controls Ltd. They moved to Dorval about 4 years later just as I came along, followed by my sister and brother. We lived in Dorval for 16 years. While there, Mom was not only involved with running the household but also building the cottage at Lake McDonald, was active with the Kinette Club and being a Girl Guide leader, entertaining Dad's various business associates with dinners at home and putting together family vacations to P.E.I., Cape Cod and Florida. During Expo 67 she opened up our home as a 'bed and breakfast' to out-of-town visitors to Montreal for the World's Fair. We kids even got in on the action, earning $1 for each night that we gave up our beds and slept on the basement couch. She thoroughly enjoyed the experience and it was the trademark of her hospitality and warmth.
While in Dorval, Mom and Dad became avid curlers which became a big part of their lives over the next couple of decades.
After moving to London Ontario Mom opened and ran the Curler's Pro Shoppe while continuing to play the game. She was pretty good and her teams won several tournaments with her as skip. In fact she even pulled off an 8-Ender which is like getting a Hole-in-One in golf. The night she accomplished that I think was the only time I ever saw her truly tipsy! Quite funny! Apart from the business and the sport, what she and Dad really got the most satisfaction from was all the friendships that they had developed among the other curlers and many eventually made their way 'to the cottage' for years to follow. Mom always had a bed and a meal and a great big smile to greet people when they arrived at her doorstep.
Dad's work (and the curling scene) took him all around North America and parts of Europe and Mom always accompanied him. She saw the sites.
As well as generous in deed and spirit, Mom loved animals, loved babies, her family and her friends and they loved her. I have always been grateful for the way she immediately took my wife Maureen under her wing as a daughter. We all have fond memories of her coming right out to see us as soon as our boys were born, riding behind me on a skidoo at Whistler on my 50th, picking blackberries on Pender Island and teaching us how to make jam and Neil how to make her famous scalloped potatoes. And taking Ryan to the Three Little Pigs play at the Highland Curling Club.
Mom, if you can hear me - you are a good and loving soul and I thought you might want to hear again this poem that your Dad wrote to your Mom many years ago and that I think is so fitting today.
"May you have dreams of loveliness and peace
This night, Dear Heart. While stars themselves array
To guide you through a fair enchanted land.
Where soft winds blow. Where moonbeams play.
Where quiet puts her finger on the lips
Of everything that would disturb your sleep
So that you may pursue your joyous way
Along the mystic path until you meet
Two outstretched arms that ever wait you there."
