In Transit
Friday 5 April 2024
I Light A Candle
Wednesday 6 March 2024
Discovering Joy
Six months have passed since my life changed drastically. Mostly I go on doing things the way I did before, but I do them alone now, unless children, grandchildren, siblings and friends come by or invite me to an activity. Or I take the initiative and invite people to interact with me. It is becoming my new normal. Life must go on.
Recently I hosted my church care group for a 90th birthday party lunch. When I cleared the table after they left, I noticed that a Japanese friend, who is part of the group, had folded her napkin into the form of a crane, the symbol of happiness and eternal youth. However, one of its wings flopped over a bit, and it reminded me of how I feel at times!
Several weeks ago a friend called. Habibah had only recently heard that I had lost my husband, and she wanted to come for a visit. She and her family are Rohingya refugees sponsored by our church. Hardy and I visited and interacted with them regularly before Covid, but had not seen them since. Hardy was ill, and they had been busy making a major move and welcoming and helping to settle extended family members who arrived later.
When Habibah entered my house, tears began to flow. "Oh Hardy, I will miss him," she said as she hugged me. Rafique, her husband, had stopped at the grocery store and brought me a bag of fruit. Our roles had reversed. They were now comforting and gifting me! The girls have grown so much I hardly recognized them! The older ones are in school and speak perfect English. The baby has become a toddler! They like ice cream and I still had a few bars of Hardy's favorite in the freezer which we all enjoyed. Later I took the girls downstairs where our grandchildren used to play when they were younger. They each chose some toys to take with them.
Friday 9 February 2024
Let Words be Your Weapons
As I've mentioned in previous blog posts, Hardy, my husband who passed away recently, kept everything. I did not want to burden others with having to go through all that some day, so I tackled it. I sorted, threw out, and packed boxes for the thrift store. I went through the boxes in the garage first, as I didn't want to work in there during the cold winter days. Then I turned my attention to the store room in the basement.
There was evidence of a mouse invasion and grandson Ivan set the traps. We caught five mice and I mustered up all my courage to dispose them into the garbage bin! The traps have remained empty since then, but I knew cleanup had to happen and I would have to go through the boxes. The recycling bin has been full to overflowing every week. Mostly Hardy kept old newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, etc.; things that no one else will care to keep and mice will claim for their nests. Among all that, however, there are treasures. Below is one of them, and my heart broke as I read this document.
Saturday 13 January 2024
In Transit!
The Winnipeg Free Press, which I read daily, caught me by surprise recently. I noticed an article entitled In Transit which happens to be the title of my blog. However, they were not publishing my blog postings but beginning "a special series on the state of the city's public transportation system."
Although I haven't used the bus for years, after graduating from high school, I used to take it quite regularly to my work at a Christian book store . Now my oldest grandson takes it to his university classes and wherever else he needs to go.
Here's a quote from the newspaper article that caught my eye and tugged at my heart strings:
"It's the route that exists to break your heart on the darkest of mornings and the coldest of evenings, in the pounding rain and cold wind. You see the shape of a bus in the distance heading towards you, and you can't make out the number to see if it's yours. It passes. It isn't yours. The only thing worse is watching the lights of your bus pull away from the curb before you can get to it. . . The bus has 10,000 stories, both inside and out, and a front-row seat to every one of them.
Here's one of my bus stories:
I remember going home for Christmas, by Greyhound bus from Winnipeg to Alberta the year I graduated from high school. The song "The Little Drummer Boy" was playing at the restaurant where we stopped. When I hear that song I'm always back there again.
At home everything was different. My teenage brothers, who picked me up at the train station, had grown lean and lank. My middle sisters were approaching their teen years and my baby sister was about to enter grade one. The sister next to me was graduating from high school in spring and would join me later in Winnipeg. Dad promised me that the whole family would be moving there soon.
Back in Winnipeg after Christmas, I got off the Grayhound on Main Street around midnight and tried to get a bus back to my relatives where I was staying. I finally did catch a bus which proved to be the last one. By that time I had no feeling in my hands and feet. Just numbness. And my mind felt numb as well. There was no one to welcome me back as I quietly slipped into the house and into my room. That was the coldest and loneliest time of my life.
Here's one of Hardy's bus stories:
It is a sweltering hot Sunday. Hardy is boarding a bus on a busy street in Kinshasa, in the Republic of Congo. He plans to attend a church service together with his African companion who will preach the sermon. It seems everyone is getting on this bus and there are no rules about overcrowding. People are packed in like sardines. Some are still trying to get on as the bus leaves and hanging on wherever they can get a grip. A Congolese Mama towers over Hardy, on her head a bowl full of market produce . She manages to balance it there without effort until he accidentally steps on her foot. "Mundele, sambu na inki nge kele awa na bus? Nge fweti baka voiture!" ("white man, why are you here on this bus? You should be taking your car!") She scolds him, but then laughs, raucously, at the sight of this short white man on the bus, speaking her language! Hardy got a new name that day. "Mundele ya bus." White man on the bus."
Hardy returned from that tropical steam bath to marry the girl who tried, half frozen, to catch a bus at midnight. They were married mid January, fifty six years ago today, and the weather was as bad as that night when she almost froze trying to catch the bus! But for the next fifteen years, living close to the equator, which was almost like living in a sauna, she was never cold or lonely again.
This anniversary year will be different. Hardy has gone ahead of me again.
I didn't know much about the Congo, and when I arrived it was totally different from anything I could have imagined.
I suspect that when I join him where he is now I will be surprised !
But I have a feeling that, like in the Congo, there will be music, and dancing, and light.
Tuesday 12 December 2023
"All That We are is Story"
Thursday 16 November 2023
In November I Remember
In November I remember:
Husband Hardy, looking out the window at the birds on the feeder while the first snow fall appears: "Elly, take a picture!"
My response: "It's the same as last year!"
And he said: "No, every year is special and different. Take a picture!
And I did.
This picture is for Hardy, this post dedicated to him, because "every year is different!"
It took me a long time, but now I've started to go through the basket of cards we received at Hardy's memorial service and from friends and relatives by mail. I'm amazed and overwhelmed by all the love expressed there. So many people touched Hardy's life in so many different ways!