May 10, 2020
An event happens and I think I will always remember every moment of it.
Now I am 3 weeks away from writing about church on Mother's Day and I am going to need help.
For sure I can remember that we went around the table saying something about our mothers.
Easier for me, since my mother has been dead for 52 years. I have written about her on many mother’s days. Lately I have gone back to picking up a book of her collected letters, seeing if her voice can come back to me that way. I promised to blog something more about her, and with that I passed my turn to the next person.
Rebecca Rose wanted to thank her mother for ongoing support. Some tears came down her cheeks. Catherine rose from the table and went over to Rebecca, came behind her, rubbed her back for a moment and then said, those will be enough words. I understand what you are saying.
Thomas mentioned that Catherine was such a hard-working mother because of the way she devotes time to Hebe and is patient with her despite Hebe’s limitations. There were many nods of agreement with Thomas at the table.
Norman Kong was the next person to speak. He told us mother’s family had emigrated, and that the grandmother had suffered some mental illness which made growing up difficult for his mom. She eventually enrolled in a fine arts degree at McGill and after that completed her LLB, a great feat for a mom raising a boy on her own.
Then Norman said he would like to say something about Catherine, as well, even though she is not his mom. He thanked her for gathering him into her family during the Covid crisis. Actually, Norman had quite a bit to say about what he had learned from Catherine. Catherine had a box of Kleenex beside her by now, and the size of the used tissues was growing.
Eric was next and he talked about Kathy Jarvis. Eric had a friend who wanted to be baptized. The night before the baptism, common friends took his friend aside to tell him all of the reasons joining the Mormon church would be a bad idea. The friend weighed the pros and cons. The cons had a lot of weight on one side of the scale. The friend put all of the kindness of Kathy Jarvis on the other side of the scale and looking at her life, decided joining would be a good idea.
Next it was Catherine’s time to talk. Catherine said that when she was in Grade VII, she knew she wanted to be a doctor, but she had no model in front of her, no model of what to be a female Mormon doctor would look like. But she did know that I always had her back. That I was always supportive and that when hard times came she knew I was there with full support for her moving ahead with her professional endeavour. We tried to think if young women have any model besides Catherine now, and she said, yes, she knew Canadian Mormon women who were doctors -- one of her room mates, Bobby Jo became a doctor, married a paramedic and they live in Medicine Hat.
Catherine said that recently she had been given an audio interview about this and that the interview will come out sometime in the early summer. The pile of used tissues was growing taller at her side.
We learned that Kathy Jarvis’s mom, had a fine sense of humour. Grandma Snow was always right on time! She came from poor circumstances and only had one dress to wear in high school, so the kids called her the girl in the red dress. She was marked by those times and had a keen sense of social justice, given that her father had died of diabetes when she was young and her step father had died by suicide when she was a teenager, so the family was left destitute. Her mother had to beg for the family - very shameful experiences that she rarely if ever discussed.
George talked about his mother. She worked all her life. I wanted to know if she managed her own money. George said yes, and that she was so good at it, her husband had her do the finances for the whole house – his and hers. He worked for the church at a time when church employees were not fairly paid. The family needed both salaries.
George said that Rose Carol Kirkham, his mother, always gave money to the grandchildren At their last meeting she gave Eric and Cathy a large wad of one dollar bills - a parting gesture the memory of which has lasted a lifetime.
Catherine had gathered together all of the tissues that had caught her tears. They were carried on a tray and maybe they were 8 inches high.
I was thinking about one of the B.C. Indigenous practises where tissues like these, (cried when dear memories surface or when bitter tears are wept) are taken to a sacred place and burned with some sweetgrass. Catherine was just good with showing how high the pile was before she put them in the trash can.
Then the two sets of grandparents zoomed away and the Jarvis family began to think about their meal for the day.
Arta
An event happens and I think I will always remember every moment of it.
Now I am 3 weeks away from writing about church on Mother's Day and I am going to need help.
For sure I can remember that we went around the table saying something about our mothers.
Easier for me, since my mother has been dead for 52 years. I have written about her on many mother’s days. Lately I have gone back to picking up a book of her collected letters, seeing if her voice can come back to me that way. I promised to blog something more about her, and with that I passed my turn to the next person.
 |
| Zoom Church Top left: Arta Johnson (Calgary) Top right: Catherine, Tom,Erick, Rebecca, Norman (Montreal) Bottom Centre: Kathy and George Jarvis (Edmonton) |
Thomas mentioned that Catherine was such a hard-working mother because of the way she devotes time to Hebe and is patient with her despite Hebe’s limitations. There were many nods of agreement with Thomas at the table.
Norman Kong was the next person to speak. He told us mother’s family had emigrated, and that the grandmother had suffered some mental illness which made growing up difficult for his mom. She eventually enrolled in a fine arts degree at McGill and after that completed her LLB, a great feat for a mom raising a boy on her own.
Then Norman said he would like to say something about Catherine, as well, even though she is not his mom. He thanked her for gathering him into her family during the Covid crisis. Actually, Norman had quite a bit to say about what he had learned from Catherine. Catherine had a box of Kleenex beside her by now, and the size of the used tissues was growing.
Eric was next and he talked about Kathy Jarvis. Eric had a friend who wanted to be baptized. The night before the baptism, common friends took his friend aside to tell him all of the reasons joining the Mormon church would be a bad idea. The friend weighed the pros and cons. The cons had a lot of weight on one side of the scale. The friend put all of the kindness of Kathy Jarvis on the other side of the scale and looking at her life, decided joining would be a good idea.
Next it was Catherine’s time to talk. Catherine said that when she was in Grade VII, she knew she wanted to be a doctor, but she had no model in front of her, no model of what to be a female Mormon doctor would look like. But she did know that I always had her back. That I was always supportive and that when hard times came she knew I was there with full support for her moving ahead with her professional endeavour. We tried to think if young women have any model besides Catherine now, and she said, yes, she knew Canadian Mormon women who were doctors -- one of her room mates, Bobby Jo became a doctor, married a paramedic and they live in Medicine Hat.
Catherine said that recently she had been given an audio interview about this and that the interview will come out sometime in the early summer. The pile of used tissues was growing taller at her side.
We learned that Kathy Jarvis’s mom, had a fine sense of humour. Grandma Snow was always right on time! She came from poor circumstances and only had one dress to wear in high school, so the kids called her the girl in the red dress. She was marked by those times and had a keen sense of social justice, given that her father had died of diabetes when she was young and her step father had died by suicide when she was a teenager, so the family was left destitute. Her mother had to beg for the family - very shameful experiences that she rarely if ever discussed.
George talked about his mother. She worked all her life. I wanted to know if she managed her own money. George said yes, and that she was so good at it, her husband had her do the finances for the whole house – his and hers. He worked for the church at a time when church employees were not fairly paid. The family needed both salaries.
George said that Rose Carol Kirkham, his mother, always gave money to the grandchildren At their last meeting she gave Eric and Cathy a large wad of one dollar bills - a parting gesture the memory of which has lasted a lifetime.
Catherine had gathered together all of the tissues that had caught her tears. They were carried on a tray and maybe they were 8 inches high.
I was thinking about one of the B.C. Indigenous practises where tissues like these, (cried when dear memories surface or when bitter tears are wept) are taken to a sacred place and burned with some sweetgrass. Catherine was just good with showing how high the pile was before she put them in the trash can.
Then the two sets of grandparents zoomed away and the Jarvis family began to think about their meal for the day.
Arta
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