Loss

There was a reason I have not updated my blog for a few weeks.
A week ago on Sunday I received a call from my brother in Holland. My mother had passed away very suddenly, a week shy of her 91st birthday. The Friday before she had phoned me yet and we had a very good talk. She had a massive stroke and did not suffer much.
Plans had to be made in a hurry . Jeannette and I flew over on Tuesday. The funeral was on Friday. During the visitation I met a lot of people I had not seen in a long time,but I wished it would not have been for this reason.
We flew back on Sunday and arrived in Kitchener around midnight.
This picture was taken last year, when I was over for her 90th birthday. She did still some knitting, but she complained about her failing eye sight.
It was from my mother that I learned my needle work skills. I was not even in school and I learned myself to knit, sitting across from her. It was easy for me to change hands, so I just copied her knitting and did it mirror wise. And I still knit "backwards" despite the teachers trying to change that. Sewing was learned on a threadle machine, a Singer.She did mostly mending, but did make our clothes, when we were small. Later there was a motor on the machine.
My mother loved to knit and crochet and she would knit the whole family socks till she was well into her 80th.
She also taught me to never give up. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 4 and had a brace on from 4 till 16. I think it hurt her more than me to see me struggle at times. But it did help me and the cost of all that was not easy for a beginning farmer after the war.
Yes, we had our quarrels and could not agree on things, but that happens.
Friday is coming up again, the day I used to give her a call.
I will miss her!