Archives: memoir

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Faith

After donning gown, gloves, and mask, I entered the pale blue isolation room. The little girl was sleeping, more deeply than usual. Her father stood praying over her. Not long before, the nurses had called me. “Debbie”, they said, “there’s been a medication error. We just gave Sara ten times the dose we should... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Sex Ed a la Helen

Sex Ed a la Helen Sister Aloysius taught us arithmetic and English; Father O’Neil or as the older girls called him, Father What a Waste, taught us religion. When pressed for an explanation as to the nickname the grade 12 girls told us with smirks that we were “too young”. No one taught us... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Fishing

My father loved to fish. As he did with everything in his life that was important to him, he kept his fishing gear in perfect order. Particularly fascinating was his tackle box of flies, lures and Iines. He tied the delicate flies himself, using gorgeously coloured threads and materials, surprisingly nimble despite his blunt... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Influential Photo

Influential Photo 03/22/2022 London England, 1944 It was just after my mother who was a Wren with the British Navy married my dad who was in Britain with the Canadian Army. My mother was in deep stages of depression following the death of her fiancé’, killed in a tank battle many months earlier in... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Disappearance

Disappearance My father, pastor of the Trail First Baptist Church, was adored by his congregation. That meant I was often close to the center of attention. Two days after my fourth birthday, I was getting ready to perform with a group of preschoolers on stage at the Sunday School Christmas Concert. Because I was... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

Dirt

D-a-a-a-dy! Daddy, come see the awful dirty ring! My wide-mouthed holler, shrill with glee, rings out loudly. A giggle sits in my throat as I anticipate my fathers’ approving grin. If my hands were not already busy clutching the bath towel wrapped around my small, almost five-year-old body, they would surely be clapping with... More

Wednesday, March 23, 2022

A Portrait of my Mother

When she was fifty years old, my father left my mother for another woman. It was a good move for my father and he was blessedly happy in his new relationship. My mother has never sought out a new relationship and is happy wallowing in the lonely dregs of her rejection. Fifteen years after... More

Monday, March 21, 2022

Hands Tell a Story

Hands Tell a Story Stretching to stand his tallest, my father measured in at 5’8”. His hands were proportional to his height, just filling the men’s medium gloves left for him under the tree every other Christmas. Their strength was more proportional to those of a much larger man, maybe a six-footer. A lifetime... More

Monday, March 21, 2022

“Escape to PEI”

“Escape to PEI” At the end of school, around the end of June, we’d pack up the old blue Chevy Impala and drive to the ferry dock. On clear days, I could see a thin red line across the Strait, as I heard the ferry’s blaring honk when it parked at the jetty, hoping... More

Monday, March 21, 2022

An unusual dinner guest

The evening Chris and her husband came to dinner the guest list was chosen by Bill. She had often spoken of his recent entrance to the world of painting. We had been over to their place several times. His pictures adorned their walls, his primary theme the sometimes stark realism of life. When we... More

Monday, March 21, 2022

Drives

I got my tonsils out when I was five. Before that, I used to get ear aches a lot. It hurt when the wind blew in my ears so Mom made me wear old-fashioned kerchiefs that covered my head down to my shoulders. It hurt when I got water in my ears so Mom... More

Monday, March 21, 2022

Baby Crow

There were long shadows on the wet grass and rich rubescent light in the sky. The linden tree was in full flower, its fragrance filling the morning with grace. In the mature Colorado blue spruce at the back of the yard a pair of raucous crows croaked and cawed, flapping and darting about me,... More

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