WARM MEMORIES ON A COLD DAY IN DAWSON

POST #13
In a bordertown between Alberta and Saskatchewan on what was probably a cold winter prairie day, a baby girl was born. She would be named Madonna and the date was January 21st 1916. I can only imagine that life on the Canadian prairies back in 1916 was a much harder life than what people are now accustomed to. In spite of that, she managed to survive and later the family would relocate to Drumheller Alberta, where eventually Madonna would become a hairdresser. (With a name like that she could have become a pop star, but she was way ahead of her time).
Time rolled on and eventually she settled in Calgary, got married and had 6 children, a boy (stillborn) then 4 girls and finally one more boy.
One of my earliest memories of this wonderful lady was when on occasion the radio played the song "Wheels" an instrumental which just made you want to dance. I was probably around 4, but the memory still is lodged firmly in my brain. And on the very odd time that this song is played now, I am instantly transported back to my childhood, happily dancing around the living room with Madonna, my dear mom.
We would have many memories to share over the years to come, some happy, some sad, but of course that is all a part of life, and when it comes down to it, memories are all we take with us at the end, so I feel very happy that I was fortunate enough to have the majority of my mom memories, pleasant ones indeed.
A couple of specific ones come to mind as I write this blog. One also has to do with dancing. It was the '90's and I had been living in Australia for some time at this point and I had made my monthly call home to mom to tell her that I loved her and to find out what was new. Well, she was like a teenage girl on the phone, all excited because in couple of days she was going out on a date. My mom going on a date? She had been a widow at this point for more than a decade, and I asked who the lucky gentleman was. She told me his name was Myron, a man whom I had met a few years before at a POW function in Calgary. Well, I wished her all the best and a few days later, I just had to call again to find out how the date had gone. Was I going to have a stepdad all of a sudden? "So mom, how did the date with Myron go?" "Well dear, he's a real nice man, BUT HE JUST CAN'T DANCE." How unfortunate for Myron, as mom would have been a catch.
And another memory that is at hand took place back in late March 2003 and at the time I was about half way across the Indian Ocean between Africa and Australia, on a yacht when I had the opportunity to call mom from a satellite phone. After trying to calculate what the time would be back in Calgary, I called and when she picked up the phone, I uttered the first two words that up to that point in time were the only two words I needed to say, in order for her to know who she was talking to, and those two words were, " Hi Mom". But this time it didn't work because she knew that I was sailing across an ocean but in her wildest imagination she couldn't have ever thought that she would get a phone call from me then. We ended up having a good conversation during which time I had her walk into one of the bedrooms at her house, where I had put up a large map of the world and while we talked, I pointed out to her whereabouts on the map that I was calling from. She was quite amazed and also thankful that I was ok.
She celebrated her last birthday on January 21st 2007 and sadly on October 6th of that same year she died. I last saw her on September 29th, coming out from Vancouver to Calgary to see her in hospital.
So it's memories that we take with us, sad ones, and happy ones, but when it came to Madonna, my mom, the happy ones take first place by a very long shot, and I am grateful for that. And as the years pass, it's the happy ones that endure. So today, on what would have been mom's 96th birthday I will spend the day surrounded by those warm fuzzy good thoughts of mom.

And WARM thoughts are a very good idea for today, as here in Dawson it's been a week in the minus 40's so anything at all to make one feel warmer is more than welcome. The forecast for the coming week is for warmer temperatures, like warmer in the minus 20's and minus 30's so we'll take whatever we can get. I was looking at some old photos of here back during the gold rush days in the late 1800's and there is a photo of a thermometer with minus 72 on it. So I guess we shouldn't really complain. I think we've all become a bit soft over the years since then.
Now it's time to go back out and brave the weather and head over to the general store to see what's on sale.
And a final note, happy birthday to Troykofski as well.
Until next time,
stay warm
Paul
The Thoughtful Wanderer