She was a nurse who saved many lives.
She once sowed up a piglet whose mother had stepped wrong and split its belly wide open.
She saved my brother’s life–he survived encephalitis when no one else did.
She could break the code of a cryptoquote in seconds.
She could recite poetry she’d learned almost eight decades ago.
She was one of the first female town councillors in Nova Scotia.
On her first day of school she was too shy to come to the front of the class to say her name. The teacher tried to spank her for it. It took two of them to do it.
At six she watched her mother die of pneumonia.
She took care of the housework after that.
At seventeen she was the youngest nursing student in Nova Scotia.
At twenty-two she nursed her father through his battle with cancer of the tongue.
She travelled the world and saw most of it. She rode a camel in Africa, had a snake around her neck in Cairo and was blessed by the Pope twice.
She took me to Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany and Disney World. She sent me to Holland, the Hague, Bermuda and university.
What do I remember best?
I remember running and looking over my shoulder. I was heading for a dead end. In my memory she is frozen mid-stride, five steps behind me and closing. She’s got a wooden spoon and a smile.
Filed under: What about Chazz?, remembrance
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