A True ‘Profile in Courage’
Born to poor potato farmers in Prince Edward Island my Mom was a teacher in a one room schoolhouse teaching all grades for more than 10 years.
Her brothers, sisters and parents had all moved to Hamilton Ontario and she was the only one still living in a very small town in PEI. My Father didn’t want to follow everyone else until one day- he did.
He came home and said: “ If you want to move to Ontario- get in the car!”
My Mom was making a cake. She ran next door with the batter because they were all far too poor to allow that to go to waste. There were many a story as we were growing up, of her begging at the local church to help with food for the family at Christmas time.
As the story goes- she packed 2 kids ( my two brothers) and 2 dresses into their old car and off they went.
At the beginning they lived- all 4 of them with one of my Mom’s sisters until my Mom was able to get a teaching job in Ontario.
My Dad worked at the local steel- mill.
At the time I was born they were renting an apartment above a store. There was little to no heat so my Mom used to sleep on a chair with me beside the oven – because I was born with pneumonia and was a sickly- little- baby.
Fast forward to when I was a teen ( I beat all the odds as apparently I was not supposed to survive this juvenile pneumonia….). Mom decided to go to McMaster University to get her degree because her education from PEI was not recognized in Ontario and her pay was reflected accordingly at the lowest end.
When we would come home in the evening- her from her teaching job ( she taught grade 3) and us from our local grade school the table would be covered in books. She majored in history and political science.
This was really a big deal at the time because no one else in our family of 20 aunts and uncles or our group of friends had this level of education.
After 8 years of night school, while teaching and raising a family she graduated.
It was such a thrill.
Here we were- the whole family at the graduation ceremony. My Mom- late 40’s and everyone else in there early 20’s. When she went on stage to collect her diploma everyone and I mean EVERYONE got to their feet to clap, yell and whistle. I thought I would simply burst with pride.
During this time of intense study she always had time for us kids.
We’d say something like:” Mom there is a cool pumpkin patch up the street…” and next thing you know we were in the car gathering pumpkins, making them into jack o lanterns – and roasting the seeds.
She would NEVER miss an opportunity to tell us we could be’ anything we wanted to be’ and we had to believe her since she always lead by example.
Always ready to offer a smile. Always game for anything. Always believing that good will triumph over bad…and… ALWAYS hungry! Part of what we loved the most about her as she would want to take us for ice cream, profess that she was just going to have a scoop and then out-eat all three of us every time.
This past summer I had the opportunity to go to their little town and meet the people that ‘got the cake batter’ the day that they left for Ontario.
That was an amazing feeling as the people that lived there asked for my brothers by name- I mean- wow…that was more than 60 years ago.
And- my Mom let me know she was there by leaving a dime for me on my seat when I got back to the car after my visit. ( If you don’t know the meaning of finding a ‘dime’- look it up. It’s quite fascinating)
She was an inspiration. I am forever grateful for all that she taught me. A true profile in courage.
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