I find that Mothers’ Day gains more and more importance to me as time goes on. This spring, I had the great pleasure of traveling and staying with Mom over a 4-day period as the weather was warming up after a long and cold winter.

As we drove together, we talked about how this time of year was always a busy one for us as we prepared for the Spring Bear Hunt and opened up our Prairie Bee operation for another season of fishing and summer vacations for our clients. We reminisced about how they were busy times but also very good times. We remembered about how my Mom, all alone, drove a standard truck to the Prairie Bee landing and took a boat across the 7 mile trek to our cottages to deliver a very important message to a guest out there.

We also talked about how critical her role was in my Dad’s overall tourist operation. There were several comments in our Bear Hunt guest book which read something like “Rained all week, lots of flies, no bear, food was fantastic – coming back next year”. 

They say that smell is the strongest memory trigger. I told Mom about how we were recently bringing a roasted ham to a family dinner and as I stepped into the vehicle, I caught a whiff of that ham, and was driven backwards in time to any given Sunday morning of the Bear Hunt when Mom would start her ham at home, then truck it out to our bear camp on Mulligan’s Bay to finish it off for the afternoon dinner before we organized the hunters to take them out to their stands.Although my Mom was a true partner in with my dad in the business sense, she never considered it that way; she told me "He just told me what he wanted to do and I supported him".

During our travels this spring, as we were moving Mom from Lively near Al and Laura’s to Hamilton near Lark and Connie, we talked more than we have in years. We also played cards and Mom schooled Jared and I on how to play a mean game of Rummy 500 WITH the jokers in the deck.

We talked a lot about my Dad. They had a great marriage; full of bumps and turns but also full of laughter, love and working ‘vacations’ on Prairie Bee Lake that would rival the entertainment value of any Caribbean all-inclusive resort.

The taste and company shared during those late-night, fresh pickerel dinners, have never been beat in any downtown Toronto restaurant. 

Our Mom doesn't only weave her generous and heart-felt magic within her own family, she also extends her web of love and support to her nieces, nephews, friends, neighbors and anyone else who needs pants hemmed, pies baked, afghans knitted, socks darned or dinners cooked. If happiness comes from giving, then it is no coincidence that our Mom has led a happy life with few regrets and even fewer enemies.   

I was blessed to be a part of the family that I grew up with and blessed to have a mother as loving and generous as one could have.

In 1986, our first child, Kaitlin was born and Robert Munsch published his book 'Love You Fovever'. I’m not sure who gave us this book, but I do know, I never made it through without shedding at least a few tears. If you've read the book, and if you know my mom, you will recognize that we are nearing the final pages of Robert Munsch’s children’s classic.

This past week, I played cards with Mom at her new home in Stoney Creek, and she asked me several times if I would stay with her until it was bedtime, until she was asleep. Of course I did, and I tucked her in after she changed into her pajamas, and I kissed her goodnight. I will treasure every word between the two of us, every bite shared, and every hand of rummy until the time when there are no more pages in the book to turn; only the pictures and words on these pages and memories in our hearts of a beautiful mother, a loving wife to our Dad and a wonderful person to all those around her.

Happy Mothers Day to the one of the best ever!

Love you forever,

Brian

Thanks to our good family friend Angelo Bucciarelli for this great picture of Mom at the 2012 CHS Reunion