MOTHER'S DAY 2024

 

A daily reminder of Mom.

The last Mother’s Day I spent with my mom was in 2011. I was home (Nova Scotia) because she had recently been diagnosed with brain cancer and was having some of the tumor removed at the Victoria General Hospital in Halifax.

She was on the “brain floor” which is scent free. I bought her a little potted white flower at the hospital gift shop for her Mother's Day gift. The flower went with her to the nursing homes she stayed at after leaving the hospital.

 

Mom passed away eight months later. When I was home for her funeral, I brought the flower back to Toronto with me and placed it in a spot I see multiple times a day. It remained in that spot for just over twelve years.  

The plaque is packed away now, but the flower stayed in that spot for over 12 years.

I always knew that one day I would take the flower back and place it at my parents’ grave. This past May was that time. Rob and I flew to Nova Scotia on Mother’s Day. It was his first-time visiting Nova Scotia, and he understood the importance of going to the cemetery shortly after we landed so I could place the flower there. We also put birdseed on top of the headstone, as that is something I always do when I visit.

 

I knew when we left on that trip that I would be looking for something to put in “that spot” back in Toronto, and it needed to be something to remind me of mom. I didn’t want to buy just anything to put there, and I knew I would know it when I spotted it. I was beginning to lose hope as our trip was quickly coming to an end and after visiting various shops I hadn’t found anything that spoke to me. It wasn't until we were at the airport to fly back that I found it. A beautiful wooden hummingbird, crafted in Nova Scotia and made out of four different types of wood.

The perfect trinket to replace the flower.

 

My dad was a lumberjack and my mom also worked with wood to make lawn ornaments. But it was the fact it was a hummingbird that made all the difference. The last gift my mom gave me was a pair of hummingbird earrings she had made for me. I knew that was the perfect addition to go in that special spot!  
 
You can read more about why hummingbirds are important to me by checking out a blog I did a few months after Mom passed.

Another daily reminder of Mom. 💖