I remember the day that I finally understood my Mother.

She was a strong woman that was a teenager during the Second World War in Holland.  Apparently she ran errands for the Resistance on her bike but she wouldn’t talk about it much.  Something happened.  We don’t know much about that time of her life.  At least I don’t.  But she met my Dad who was working in a shop and they got married, had two kids in Holland and then decided to emigrate to Canada in 1953.

Mom had a difficult character anyway, but life was hard and that didn’t make things any easier.  On top of that, she ended up having eight kids in total.  The house was always full.  I remember one Thanksgiving Day dinner when we were all sitting at a long table in our house at 6 Bond St.  The table was full of food and Mom had just placed the heavy turkey in the middle of the spread when the table collapsed and everything came crashing down.  What a surprise!