typical friday

Early Friday morning Mom phones with her grocery list, which Ernie and I shop for on the way to her apartment in Abbotsford. Today along with her groceries, I picked up five primulas. They are the perfect herald of spring with their glorious jewel colors and look so perfect, they could be artificial (or that kind of craft flower I saw when I was a kid made out of dyed nylons stretched on thin wire). She had me put them in a big basket just outside her glass patio door so they brighten her living room.

Mom, even at almost 91, is my inspiration. She doesn’t get around very well any more, but her mind is active and she can’t stand to be idle. Today she had two or three quilts she’d made, ready for us to take to the MCC store. She also showed me the cookbook she is making for Jane, one of her grand-daughters (in-law). Jane is Rwandan, and finds it hard to reading writing script. So Mom has printed each recipe – a collection of all the goodies and oldies that are in the recipe book she made me when I left home. (She found a hardcover blank notebook for this with Canadian flags on the cover - perfect!)

Once the groceries were put away it was back in the car with the three of us hitting the MCC store - where we dropped off the quilts and browsed in their thrift store section. Mom looked at blouses, and picked up a couple of $1.00 bags of assorted toys for when the great-grandkids (Chris & Jane’s - a couple of toddlers to Kindergarten) and bought yarn for her next project which is making bookmarks (she uses old cards - and the yarn makes a tassel at the bottom or top). I tried on some jeans - but no, they weren’t ‘friendly.’ Then I wandered into the book section. There a hardback of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon Days caught my attention for only $3. On further browsing I found the same thing in paperback for only $1.50. When I took it to the checkout the lady charged me only $.75. Now if I’d have known there was that kind of sale - well, there’s no predicting how I would have ravaged their book section.

Next it was off to the "Towers" for lunch - to which Mom treated us. Oooh, those Mennonite ladies sure can cook! We had cabbage rolls and mashed potatoes smothered in a tomato sauce savory with oregano (I think it was), peas and carrots, coleslaw and chocolate pudding for desert.

On our drive back to Surrey, we realized the rain had stopped. No excuses, then, to avoid our walk. We took the Fort Langley exit in order to walk a section of the Fort to Fort Trail. It’s one of my favorite paths - rich with moss-covered trees and rainforest vegetation that follows the Bedford Channel of the Fraser River . About ten minutes into our walk the rain began again, though, so today I would have needed windshield wipers on my glasses to see the scenery around me. We got drenched, but we did get our exercise!

Now we’re home again and I’m feeling good - with a sense of satisfaction from looking in on (and being a good, dutiful daughter to?) Mom, mellow from the walk, and contemplating porridge for dinner.