Balance

Life has a way of reminding us that we need to have balance in it. From time to time something is thrown our way to 'interrupt the regular programming', yet it actually is a way to balance things out. With all the good in life, there has to be some sorrow, I guess.

Thursday morning, peacefully in her sleep, my mother-in-law Jennie died.

 Jennie Watson
(1917 - 2010)












She had been declining pretty rapidly these last few weeks and became bed-ridden and last weekend stopped eating or drinking. We knew it was just a matter of time but it was still shocking to get the call. Things are going quite well as far as all the arrangements and the running around that has to be done. In the community where she lived in the nursing home, the funeral home is next door to the lawyer and 1 block from the grocery store where the food was ordered for the reception after the funeral tomorrow and the florist is 1 block from the grocery store. The banks are 1 block the other way and a restaurant with tasty food is on the way. We handled all the errands on foot this morning. I have one more errand to run today and then I can relax.

Jennie (Vincenza Cudia) was the second of 4 children who were born in Canada of parents who had immigrated from Sicily in 1914. She was raised on the family farm which was located at what is now the corner of Martin Grove Rd. and Belfield Rd. In 1943, she met Archie Watson at a square dance and they were married on October 27 of that same year. Along came Fred in December of 1944, Andy in July 1946 and Ron in Apriil 1948. It was a very busy household. In 1949, the Watsons moved to a farm of their own in Ballantrae and began raising chickens. For the first couple of years, Jennie made and sold her delicious, home-made pies to support the family as Archie worked hard to get the first couple of batches of chickens to lay enough eggs to sell. They worked hard on the farm and after the boys moved on to their grown-up pursuits with their own careers and families, Archie and Jennie sold the farm and retired, moving to his brother's home. They soon bought it from him when the brother moved to BC after he retired from his job at GM. The house was the manse of the local church. We learned today while talking to the minister, that the money the Watsons paid for the house had been set aside in one of the church accounts and was left there until just a couple of years ago when it was decided that it and the accrued interest should be used to replace the windows in the current manse. It was nice that we got to actually see today the good use this money had been put to. After Archie's death in 2005, Jennie lived in the house until March of 2007 when she went into a nursing home and the house was sold.

It is nice to think that after a long life of hard work and family life, that Jennie is with Archie again and finally at rest.

After all the errands today, I turned on the computer, only to find a message that Keith Fury, the husband of my new-found cousin Linda Etter Fury, had died suddenly this morning. I had just met them both two weeks ago when I was in NB.  Last weekend they had just been to a big family reunion of the other side of Linda's family where over 200 people had attended.  My goodness, what a shock to know that he's gone!

Keith and Linda had planned to stop in our area to visit friends on their way to Florida with their RV later this year. Her whole world is now changed in an instant.  I am glad Linda has lots of family and friends there to help her through this dark time. I just wish I could be there, too. I copied this photo of Linda and Keith from her facebook profile pics. I believe it was taken at dinner as they were celebrating Valentine's Day this year. What a lovely photo of them both.

I think I'll go and give my loved ones a hug now.