Mother's Day 2014, Goodbye mummy

Dear Mum:
This is the first Mother's day that you are not with us. I am still coming to grips that you are gone, so I guess this letter to you is a way for me to grieve, laugh and remember you.
You're usual vauge replies to emails and infrequent calls finally caught up with you. I'm so very glad that you had the chance to spend your last Easter with your husband, daughter, and extended family.


You sort of got your wish of dying with a piece of chalk in your hand. You always wanted to be a teacher and help children learn. Right up to when God took you away. I'm just sorry that I never got the chance to hold you in a hug again. I'm sorry you didn't get the chance to see your grandchildren in Japan again. Tomoki, Kazuma and Arisa, and Ian and Leena.
Though you would consume vast quantities of coffee, I'm barely able to finish a large double-double.
Tea is my thing, which you would drink a bit, but which I can consume in large amounts.
I began to write to my sister again, so in one way, you got one of your wishes to come true, that I would begin to patch things up with her.
Let's see, what's my earliest memory of you?
You told me I used to rock my crib back and forth to make a rythum, which would drive you crazy. I had a knack for that.
I remember the summer of 1977, when you went back to NSTC. You and Dad were running to get something done, and I was running to keep up. I tripped and scrapped my knees. I remember crying and feeling bad because I would get blood on your summer dress. I couldn't express that to you, but I guess my tears might have told you.
I do remember another time, one of the countless ones where I had to be taken to the IWK in Halifax to stay yet again because my kidneys were acting bad again. I was really mad because you and Dad were leaving me in the hospital alone again. This time, I tore away screaming and crying No Mommy daddy don't go, I won't be sick no more. The nurse picked me up and carried me back to bed, and I cried so hard because I made you cry. Many years later when I told you the story, you got mad at me because you cried for 40km on the drive home.
There were of course all those trips we took many  summers, PEI Cape Breton, Newfoundland, beaches dollar lake, shopping most Saturdays,  and of course your trip to see me in Korea and Japan.


We remember you and that's all that matters.
We love you, and miss you. Have a tea pot ready for us when we see you in heaven.
Love your son and his family in Japan

Myself about 18 months, Mum and my Dad probobly about 1975

And us again in 1981.