I think I was looking for my photograph archives from a trip I took with my son, the summer of 2009, when I came upon some images from the end of the teaching year and celebrations with my students; specifically, my grade nine art students, our life sized sculpture exhibit and my grade seven home room.
It was that year that I invited my students to bring in a special object for our prayer table…so, every Monday, it would be the next person’s turn. It started with me…and a stone. Jarrett Alley, a former student of mine, had passed away in 1997 at the age of 13. His place in the classroom was two rows back, but directly across from the framed article that remained, for all of my teaching years, a tribute to his life.
I think I always intended to copy and pass on a photo to each student at the end of that year, but evidently that never happened!
I’m going to loop the photographs here. My students, of over thirty years of teaching, remain in my heart.
For the most part, I am out of touch with these students, so if my readers know any of them, please share.
I received a parcel four years ago from Mom and Dad. It may have been the last year that Mom participated in shopping for Christmas for me before the Alzheimer’s disease stole so much from her. I put it on a shelf…in a box…thinking that I wouldn’t ever replace a perfectly good and functioning coffee machine. I owned my white ‘number’ since my #2 was born in 1986. The past three weeks, I’ve been sticking doubled paper towel underneath my coffee maker so that the water that was leaking would stop spilling over my counter.
Today held the morning of magic; I went down to my basement storage area and brought out my NEW coffee maker. In the storage room, I was squealing. And then I went upstairs, read all of the safety concerns, set the bright blue digital numbers to the proper time and then made my first cups of coffee. What a blessing! The ‘whitish’ coffee maker is done…it served its years well and I pride myself that I didn’t toss it before its time had passed.
Rarely will I share BEFORE and AFTER shots…but here, it just seems a part of the celebration!
Thanks to the generous hearts of Mom and Dad!
BEFORE
AFTER
When people go,
when people leave,
make some people cry,
make some people drink.
When people go,
when people leave,
it’s the saddest thing.
When people go,
is it like they’re asleep?
lost to the world,
in the longest dream.
Like when boats at sea,
never come back,
is it like that?
I think it’s going to be,
another long night,
i think it’s going to be,
another long ride.
When people go,
when people leave,
make some people cry,
make some people drink.
When people go,
when people leave,
it’s the saddest thing.
Dizzy in the head,
broke in the heart,
there’s no business,
it’s all art.
Until it’s far behind,
and it all comes back,
when people go it’s so sad, so sad, so sad,
so sad, so sad, so sad.
And goodnight,
and go home,
and there is nothing more to see,
just a song,
in a box,
some need to cry,
and please,
find a friend,
have a drink,
and go home,
taking two,
empty hearts,
go to bed and,
go to bed and.
Well goodnight,
go home,
there is nothing more to see,
my friend,
have a drink,
go to bed,
and tell them,
that you need them,
hold them hold them tight,
My dear and treasured friend, Elma, turns 95 on February 19. There are some people who mark your life with blessings again and again, and Elma is one of those people for me! I include Jadea Kelly’s music here as a beautiful sound to enjoy while watching our Elma’s slideshow. :0)
Tonight we shared family dinner and I knew, once I waved my goodbyes at the front window, that I must recognize some of the years that we have shared…I love you, Elma Flaherty!
I went to the mailbox after a day of guest-teaching in a junior high social studies classroom and found Hollee’s card. She wrote to me about finding a card that I had sent to her. It was waiting in her mailbox, among a stack of bills… “personal mail amongst the bills is a gift”, she wrote. And today, I feel the same. I am looking down, this very moment, at Tom Thomson’s Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay (1914-1915) and I am happy for this correspondence! As I sat down to write about writing…I picked a few of my favourite cards/notes off of my book shelf to include them in this photograph. I will treasure these always…and there are many others tucked away for safe keeping. After a time, some folk toss out their correspondence…as you might guess, I don’t do this easily. I enjoy, as much, the sentiment or the intention of the note, as the medium for that message. I am grateful for all correspondence.
Letters from Temuco, Chile
I frame correspondence, display it and finally, I file it in my Significant Others archives. The letters and cards from my friends and family over so many years, is a narrative about our life journeys…the story of faith, support and friendship. I do not take your choice to send me a note, lightly. I honour that choice, always!
A Homemade Card to Celebrate the Birth of My First Born, 31 Years Ago
I received a lovely e mail from Peter Mason, the researcher/writer/expert on tourist codes of conduct in the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions. In fact, he did NOT snap the photograph that I own and is signed and dated, P. Mason, 1989. THIS P. Mason was generous to even correspond with a Canadian artist-chick about this photograph and I am very appreciative. So, the bear-photographer hunt continues! If you recognize these two wrestling bears and your name is P. Mason, I would really enjoy hearing from you! Thank you, Peter, and you have my best wishes as we adventure into 2012! I have much respect for your life’s work!
Here they are AGAIN, readers!
Hi Katleen,
Thanks very much for your message and I have now looked at your very interesting blog and also can now see the polar bear photos. However I am going to disappoint you by letting you know that I did not take the photos. Strangely enough I was in Canada at the time of the photos, but did not really start researching Arctic tourism issues until the 1990s. This does mean, however, that I am the author of the articles that you have referred to.
So, apologies for not being in a position to give your permission to use the photos, as they are not mine!
Best wishes,
Peter
Hello Peter!
I paint endangered species…came upon this photograph in a second hand shop…I treasure it regardless, but, will treasure it more if I find that it was taken by the gent who wrote about and studied tourism in the developing north. :0) Thank you for communicating through your other e mail. I need your permission to use this as a reference for a painting I want to do and Peter, if you have any other references that I might paint from, I would be so appreciative. Kathleen
Given the approach I am taking with my Covenant Series, I tend to buy up all of the Holy Bibles that I can at second-hand shops. When I end up holding on to a Bible with a special inscription, such as this one, I make the effort to get it back to the family, since I DO view these artifacts as family treasures.
With Love, Beverley Jean
Thanks to Ancestry.ca and a quick search, I was able to find Beverley Jean Van Iderstine of Prince Edward Island, who married Ejner Frederik Liepmann, born in Denmark in 1909 and immigrated also to our east coast. I’ve contacted a distant relation to ask if they would like me to mail them this Holy Bible, that was given ‘With Love’.
Beverley Jean Van Iderstine, daughter of Berley Cephas and Lucy Martha Campbell
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe. — Gustave Flaubert
