Family
The Diagnosis
By Sheena Koops It started with squirrels at the end of his bed, and sometimes he would make Mom get up and see what those tall people in the corner were doing. He saw horses in a field and riders wearing tall hats with stovepipe points; he saw all this through the walls of his own home and through the houses along the streets. Not long before he passed he said, “Why is the little girl crying?” referring to the empty chair at the round kitchen table of their new home in Fort Qu’Appelle. Dad had neuropathy, a…
Read MoreThe Gift
By Bonnie Baxter The Season! December. It’s here. I’ve always loved Christmas! I love the lights, the music, and the extra kindness most people seemed to show for a month or so. But as I got older, Christmas somehow got harder. It was overwhelming enough to keep up on regular house tasks and then add in decorating for Christmas, working, parties, concerts, not to mention shopping for the perfect gift for loved ones and having picture-perfect photo cards to send out. Also, my kids need a mom and my husband deserves a wife. My expectations for myself exceeded my abilities…
Read MoreWhen I Grow Up
By Arlene Manson Last fall, I finally got a permanent job after six years of term positions. The goal I was working for – a permanent job – had been achieved. And this past spring, I turned 50. At this point, my life has kind of settled. So, what or where do I want to go next? This period of life has put me in a reflective mood. Lately, I have been reading books on spiritual disciplines and the like. I am trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up. I know that I want…
Read MoreClimbing
By Katelyn Pippus When I was little, one of my favourite ways to spend an afternoon was playing on the sandstone rock formations outside of Roche Percee, Saskatchewan. The rocks had been weathered and worn over time presenting the perfect spot for a prairie girl to pretend she was a mountain climber. I remember the first time mom and dad took me to the rocks and I got to clamber through the caves. Climbing at the rocks became a fall tradition for my family. Every time we went climbing, dad would show off how he could climb and jump between the…
Read MoreMy Uncle’s Passing
By Sheena Koops I remember Christmas, must have been 1987. My Uncle Jelsing and Auntie Sheena, their three boys, and a tag-along-friend-of-the-family came to the farm for Christmas. The young man, like a brother to my cousins, was Michael Koops from Victoria, BC. This young guy, my cousin, and I walked over the prairie into the Souris Valley, sometimes knee deep in snow, pretending we were on a quest. We watched movies; we sang carols, we played games: my cousins and this tall, dark and handsome friend-of-the-family. In August of 1989, I married that guy. Three daughters later, my Uncle and Auntie consider our girls their granddaughters, because they…
Read MoreYour Body is Mine
Jennifer Wallace “Your body is mine! Your body is mine!” I hear my son singing a song that sounds…well inappropriate for a five-year-old or anyone to be singing. I ask him about it and he tells me he made it up. “And where did you hear this? Where did you get the idea?” I ask concerned about what I might hear for an answer. “You, mom!” “What?!” I respond. “…‘Member when you told us that everyone in the family thinks your body is theirs?” I do remember and it is all making sense now. I was laughing and slightly exasperated…
Read MoreLove Story
Jennifer Wallace I love a good love story. Always have. When I heard that Jonathan Crombie died, the actor who played Gilbert Blythe opposite Megan Follows in Anne of Green Gables, I was genuinely saddened. While I did not know the actor, Jonathan portrayed Gil so well. He represented a character that I, and many other girls, had loved so much. Gilbert was a boy and then a man who was undaunted by a strong and feisty Anne. He was not intimidated by her but liked being challenged by her. He encouraged Anne and even admonished her to do what…
Read MoreHome: Potluck
Katelyn Pippus “It’s not, actually, strictly, about food for me. It’s about what happens when we come together, slow down, open our homes, look into one another’s faces, listen to one another’s stories….. It happens when we enter the joy and sorrow of the people we love, and we join together at the table to feed one another and be fed, and while it’s not strictly about food, it doesn’t happen without it. Food is the starting point, the common ground…..” *Shauna Niequist, As the doors to the fellowship hall open, I am hit by the aroma of casseroles, stews,…
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