Joanne's Birthday

When Mom got sick, her close friend Joanne went above and beyond the call of duty to give Mom as many lifts as she could think of. She sent cards, she mailed gifts, she called ... Mom said, "Joanne must spend all her spare time thinking of nice things to do for me!" I've told you this before, here, and know I'm repeating myself; bear with me.

Next to singing, Mom's favourite thing to do was quilting. And when she was sick, quilting was one of the few things she had the energy to do. Aside from enlisting each of my sisters and me to make a quilt with her that we each would have after she was gone, she got busy making lap quilts for special friends of hers. Joanne was one of those friends and Mom was determined to get her quilt made before it was too late.

She managed it.

Joanne passed away not terribly long ago and her husband and children have given me the quilt that Mom made for Joanne. I have a number of quilts made by Mom and didn't feel it was at all necessary that I have this one too, but was touched to receive it as a reminder of a beautiful, loving friendship.

Dad has been here, visiting from Kelowna for the past 10 days or so, and has told the story (and oh how we laugh!) about the time he found a young owl, maybe a baby, one time while working in the field. Joanne was afraid of birds, and she was coming over. Mom set the tiny owl on a doily on the kitchen table, where it sat perfectly still. Joanne, at the table, thought nothing of it ... until it turned its head. She screamed and ran ... and was pissed off at Mom for a while (of course) ... but their friendship survived the prank.