My trip home to Canada has been very different from what I expected and even now I find it hard to take it all in. My beautiful mother passed away unexpectedly 2 days after I arrived home.
She had been perfectly fine all day - her usual smiling happy self. We spent the day shopping and enjoying a lobster supper (a bit of a tradition to celebrate my birthday when I get home in December with some lobster). An aunt and uncle dropped by for a visit and then Mom and Dad went to bed at 10 - Mom very excited about watching the Survivor final. 20 minutes later my father called out to me and within 2 hours she was gone.It's been a difficult time - but my family has been amazing. Not just my brothers and sisters, but my very large extended family who have helped us all in too many ways to mention.
My mother was the strongest woman I know. She was funny and generous and loving and (as anyone who ever played cards with her knows) very competitive.
She taught me to knit when I was very young. I still remember the excitement (really - I was excited) of getting those plastic needles and acrylic yarn and knitting those first stitches. I was enchanted and have knit pretty much constantly since.
Ma was definitely a 'jag' knitter. She found a pattern she liked and made LOTS of them. Her most prolific jag was about 30 years ago when we moved into this house and she made what seemed like thousands of paris of Phentex checkerboard slippers. We had drawers full of them and they were handed out like party favours when people dropped by.
She was the most knitworthy person in the world and I loved knitting for her. She oohed and aahed appreciatively and then wrapped them up carefully to admire every now and then as they were clearly too nice to be worn/used. No amount of coaxing from me or anyone else convinced her to risk it.
She was always showing off my work to people who dropped by - and although she had never actually seen this blog she was forever passing on the address to others. In short - she was my biggest fan.
We all miss her so much every day. Some days are harder than others but we comfort ourselves with the knowledge that she's always with us -- in the family and love that we share.
