Sunday, July 21, 2013

A TRIBUTE TO MOM


My ninety-one-year-old mother had nine children and those children had twenty-four children and their children have had thirty-three children and a few of those children had five more giving us a total of seventy-one, that’s 71, direct descendants of Rose Christine Hubbard. That’s quite a legacy.

            Mind you, she didn’t do it all alone because Dad factored into the equation, too. For a couple who were only going to have two children they kind of overshot their target a bit. I was number eight out of the nine so I am extremely glad that they did!

            On top of her own immediate family members Mom was always very close to her large extended family. Her sisters and brothers and their children and their children and their children…

Mom and Dad were also Foster Parents having had three foster children as well as her own until Mom found it too hard when the little ones were adopted out and had to leave her nest. My parents’ home was always open to anyone and it was not unusual to find one, two or three friends of their children sleeping somewhere in the house when they were having trouble in their own homes or just needed sanctuary until they could safely get home. Or sometimes they’d only come over to the house for one of Mom’s famous cinnamon buns and end up staying for days. Mom and Dad also mentored children through the church in youth groups, summer camps and Confirmation classes.

            Many of the regular readers of this column will be very familiar with my Mom as she has many relatives in the area and had lived in the Kipling/ Bender/ Inchkeith area as a little girl and returned to those Hungarian roots in 1970 after Dad accepted the job as the United Church Minister for the Kipling/Windthorst Pastoral Charge. They lived in Kipling for the entire decade of the 1970’s before moving back to Alberta in 1980 and they formed lasting relationships with many area residents that continue to this day.

            Mom has always been a fantastic cook and put those skills to work as her talent and passion for cooking became her vocation, as well, while she was a member of the kitchen staff at the Kipling Memorial Union Hospital during her time here in Kipling. Mom also cooked for several summers at Camp McKay at Round Lake while Dad was the Camp Director.

            Her recipes and cooking abilities have been passed on to her children and their children and while they might not be quite able to meet her lofty standards it is another legacy that Mom can be so very proud of.

            Our entire large family has been fortunate and blessed to have had Mom around into her nineties. Her mind is still as sharp as a tack and her sense of humour still keen but her outstanding memory is the thing that sets her apart from all others her age. She is the family historian and has written several stories about her long life and the many lives she’s affected along the way. Whenever we need to remember an event or a date or who was even in attendance at something way back when we can just phone up Mom and get all the details that we need.

            Mom’s health has always been very good for “a woman her age” but recently she’s been showing her years. I had a conversation with our youngest daughter Emily about Mom’s deteriorating health and Em said, “I know she can’t live forever but I really thought that she’d be the one to beat the system.” I wish.  

            I know this is a very public forum for such an intimately private matter but it is also a convenient way for me to let so many people who care about Mom know that she is comfortable and surrounded by loved ones but time marches on and as much as we wish it to be she will be not be able to “beat the system.”

 

“A Mother’s heart is always with her children.”-Proverb.

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