Ma Grandmere

My mother's mother lived a short and difficult life. A devout Catholic in the old school, she went to mass early in the morning, perhaps to hide her tattered clothes. She was the mother of Gerald, Raymond (Buddy), Joan (my mother), Desmond, Madeline (Susie), Lorraine (Chickie), Katharine (Kitty), Mary Louise, Michelle, and Tommy and she still took care of me until I was about 5. She died at 56 of polycystic kidney disease but she left me with a legacy.

My earliest memories are of her and of her home. She gave me a gift of belonging that I have cherished. She gave me the gift of fascinating older kids to play with which shaped my reasoning abilities. Most of all though, I remember the food. I remember the garden plot that seem enormous. I remember the pies lined up on the ironing board and the distinctive smell of the gas stove. There would be pumpkin, sugar pie, pecan, apple and cherry. I remember trying to make a soup that she made for me as a child and it wasn't until I was much much older that I realized that it had not been made with beef but with lamb (I think she was convinced that I would balk at eating lambs). I remember baked beans in the old bean pot that is now Louise's treasured possession in Chillawack BC. I remember her warm smell, and her 'tick French accent, der'. She was fiercly proud, intelligent and witty. She was born in northern Ontario and I think it was some sort of poorly kept secret that her mother had been a 'squaw', an aboriginal woman. So I am a mixed blood Canadian that passes as white because no one ever asks. They didn't ask when I qualified for scholarships. Once an interviewer asked what nationality my last name was and I happily told him that I am a mutt. I am convinced that mutts like me are genetically hardy. (My grandmere was not the only one to supply diverse genes). My kids sure are beautiful and she would have been very proud of them.

It is in honour of her that I encouraged my children to speak French as well as English. Two of them are fully bilingual as is my daughter-in-law. It enriches the children of any country where people speak more than one language. It enriches all of the citizens to embrace difference and I have lived a rich and varied life in this country that I love. (PS- She looked like Louise Arbour to me).