I’m doing a wee project for my grandchildren this summer that involves my Mom’s family history. I’ve been looking at pictures all week long. I’ve been reading stories and accounts of grandparents and great grandparents. I’ve been listening to the videos we recorded when Mom lived with us near the very end of her life.

I’ve been reminded of those wonderful months when we cared for Mom in our home and it went something like this………..

It was early in 2020 that we first started hearing about the Coronavirus. Really - at first - it didn’t affect our lives in any way. Harv and I were in Florida enjoying the sun - the heat - the golf - the ocean - bbq’s - pickle ball - church suppers - the pool - and walking the long stretches of the Golf Coast. Like everyone else in North America, we didn’t think the virus would ever makes it way into our day to day life.

We were wrong!

The whole world was affected by the virus very quickly and just as fast we were on our way home from the sunny south to not-quite-spring in Kincardine.

Life changed for all of us overnight. What we took for granted was no more. Two things were heartbreaking for me personally. We couldn’t attend our local church and we couldn’t visit my Mom in her Retirement Home. I have attended church pretty much every Sunday for 62 years (at the time) and it was shocking to me that the churches were closed. I cried most Sunday mornings as the new normal began - remember Zoom!!! The second thing that broke my heart was that my Mom was in lockdown in her Retirement Residence. We called her everyday and arranged FaceTime calls - but - for five long - agonizing months - not one of my siblings or any of her grandchildren had access to visit her. To make matters worse - the dining room in her Residence was closed - so my 99 year old mother ate all her meals alone in her room for five months. Tears - tears and more tears.

My Mom’s name was Alice Lula Castle (nee Fetterly). When mom was only two years old, her own mother passed away suddenly - leaving my mom and her 8 month old baby sister. Their father (my grandfather) was not able to care for his children and the girls were soon adopted by their maternal grandparents - Lou and Harry Hollister. Mom often spoke glowingly of these two people, who lovingly raised the girls as their own. They lived at 13 Elm Street in Cornwall, Ontario. Mom’s great grandmother - born around 1850 - lived with them until mom was 10 - so that means Mom knew family members for 171 years - 8 generation. Incredible.

She and my dad - Stan (the man) were married in 1938 and raised 9 children who would produce 27 grandchildren. That generation would continue the family line and 72 great grandchildren were added to the family. Then 8 great, great grandchildren - now there are 170 + in our family.

Mom turned 100 in the summer of 2020 - but the huge celebration we had planned was whittled down from 150 - to - 15.

Covid!

Just as Mom’s Retirement Home opened up in the fall for two of my siblings to have in-room visits - once a week for one hour - it closed down again. We determined as a family - we would not leave mom alone for the long winters days and night. No way! It was not going to happen.

So Harv and I - along with my siblings - freed Mom! We broke her out! Mom came to live with us around the middle of November. She arrived on a blustery Sunday afternoon - the waves were high - the wind was intense - the skies were filled with a snowy rain mixture - but our hearts were filled with joy. Mom was home.

No more eating alone.

No more days of not getting a hug or a touch or a caress.

No more days hearing her tears.

No more!

Mom’s days would be filled with all the love Harv and I could give her. She wouldn’t wonder if the staff brought her lunch or supper. She wouldn’t lie on her bed all day long - unmotivated to get up. We would sing hymns and songs. We would chat. We would read together. We would rest. We would be with her. We would hug her and kiss her good night. We would take care of her as she had cared for her family in years gone by.

My mom longed for Heaven and looked forward to going “Home” to be with Jesus. She looked forward to seeing Dad and Tim and Bill and Randy and countless numbers of family and friends. And yet she lived - and as she lived on - she lived with us.

After being with us for almost 3 months - Mom suffered a couple of minor strokes - TIA’s. They took their toll on her and left her physically and emotionally weakened. We really thought we were going to lose her that day. My sister - Sue - who is a nurse came to stay with Harv and me - to help care for Mom. Sadly over the next 12 days - we watched Mom lose her appetite and grow weaker and weaker.

It would be a “village” that gathered to help us walk Mom the rest of her earthly journey - a wonderful doctor in our community reached out to us after hearing ours story to give us wisdom and guidance - a team from LHIN - including caring nurses stopped by our home to monitor mom and encourage us - our pastor - and my brother - Phil and his wife Gwen - (also a nurse) came to help and gently care for Mom.

Monday, January 25th at 11:50 pm - our Mom passed peacefully to Heaven - surrounded by a few of her large family - knowing she was loved and cared for - dying at home as she had hoped for.

I really thought we’d have more time. That’s a funny thing to say when a person is already 100 and 1/2 - but I thought Mom would be with us for a lot longer time. Harv and I had prepared ourselves to postpone travelling - to postpone Florida - to put those things on the back burner so that Mom would never live alone again. Some would say we were sacrificing but we would say it wasn’t a sacrifice at all. It was the right thing to do. It’s what we could do for a woman who had done so much for her family throughout her 100 years of living and giving sacrificially.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson who said - “All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” I had watched my mother trust the Lord all my life - I had watched her through hard times and easy times - through thick and thin - through grief and joy - I had seen it with my own eyes. And that night in late January of 2021 - I watched her go from this life to the next. Her faith was her strength.

A few nights before Mom passed away - I was tucking her into bed and I said to her - “are you afraid?” She sat up and took my face in her hands and looked me in the eye and said - “absolutely not!” My Mom’s faith became her reality. She saw her Lord face to face and was reunited with my Dad.

She had met her very own mother - who died when she was but two years old - and I do think it was a pretty sweet reunion.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you - I will come back again and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”