It was early in 2020 that we first started hearing about the Coronavirus. Really - at first - it didn’t affect our lives in any way! Harv and I were in Florida enjoying the heat, the golf, the ocean, bbq’s, pickle ball, church suppers, the pool and walking the long stretches of the Gulf coast. Like everyone else in North America, we didn’t think the virus would ever affect our day to day life.

We were wrong.

The whole world was affected by the virus very quickly and very quickly we were on our way home from the sunny south to not-quite-spring in Kincardine.

Life changed for all of us overnight. What we took for granted was no more. Two things were heartbreaking for me personally. We couldn’t attend our local church and we couldn’t visit my Mom in her Retirement Home. I have attended church pretty much every Sunday for 62 years and it was shocking to me that the churches were closed. I cried most Sunday mornings as the new normal began….something called Zoom. The second thing that broke my heart was that my Mom was in lockdown in her Retirement Residence. We called everyday and arranged FaceTime calls but for five months not one of my siblings or her grandchildren had access to visit her. To make matters worse - the dining room in her Residence was also closed - so my 99 year old mother ate all her meals alone in her room for five months. Tears - tears and more tears.

Mom turned 100 in July.

This is my mom - Alice. She and my dad - Stan - had 9 children - 27 grandchildren - 72 great grandchildren and 8 great, great grandchildren. There are 162 of us to date. The huge celebration we had planned was whittled down from 150 - to 15. Covid!

Just as Mom’s Retirement Home opened up for two of my siblings to have in - room visits - once a week for one hour - it has closed down again. We determined as a family, we would not leave mom alone for the long winter days and nights alone. No way. It was not going to happen.

So - Harv and I are expanding our family. Mom is coming to live with us!

No more eating alone.

No more long days looking out the window at the wall of the next building.

No more days of not getting a hug or a touch or a caress.

Mom’s days will be filled with all the love Harv and I can give her. Her view from her bedroom will be looking at the Caribbean blue waters of Lake Huron (well not so blue once the snow flies). She won’t wonder if the staff brought her lunch or supper. She won’t lie on her bed all day long - unmotivated to get up. We will sing. We will chat. We will read. We will rest. We will be with her.

Our mom cared for her parents (who were really her grandparents as her mom died when she was but two years old) and nursed them through their old age. Both her parents died at home. We’re trusting we can do the same for her.

Our mom longs for Heaven and looks forward to going “Home” to be with Jesus. She looks forward to seeing Dad and Tim and Bill and Randy and countless numbers of family and friends. And yet she lives. And so as she lives on - she will live with us.

It was Ralph Waldo Emerson that said - All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen.” I have watched my mother trust the Lord all my life - I have watched her through hard times and easy times - through thick and thin - through grief and joy - I have seen it with my own eyes. And now we will continue to trust our Lord in this new chapter of our life. Welcome Home Mom.

By the way - we bought at baby monitor!