MEMORY MONDAY

 

My mother has written her memoirs and has been after me to write mine. I have been resisting for a while however I am creating Memory Monday to help me along. Come join me with your own memories. Each week will be a different prompt to encourage the writing of your memories. Link your memories and share them with everyone.

Our prompt is: My Parents

I am writing this post in honour of both of my parents who have passed away this winter. Mom left us in January and Dad just 2 months later in March. My mother was my biggest fan when it came to my blog. She read everyone that I wrote and encouraged me to write these memoirs. Dad was unaware of many things however his memories of the past were excellent.

Both of my parents came from large families. Dad was the youngest of 8 and practically raised himself when his Mom died when he was 9 years old. He moved to the big city and supported himself from the age of 13. He completed his grade 8 in school and never went any further. Mom came to the city when she 15 as she had completed a secretarial course and got her first job.

To my parents education was the key to improving oneself. I have a college degree, my sister P got her Dr.’s degree, my brother D completed high school and my younger sister B got her BA.

My parents also considered hard work the other way to achieve success. When they started their own business they often worked around the clock. If you want something badly enough you will work for it. They have installed both of these principals in their children, grandchildren and hopefully their great-grandchildren.

My parents were also willing to take risks. It was often a gamble and mostly paid off. They bought their first home by borrowing the down payment and Mom kept boarders to help pay the mortgage. Mom also made all of our clothes and scrimped and saved to buy us good shoes. She always said “if you have bad feet you will have bad health”.

Dad encouraged us to be our best. He ensured that we had any sports equipment we needed. We all learned to swim because of the cottage. Dad taught us all to drive as well.

We will miss both of them however they have left a legacy that many generations will remember.

Next Week’s Prompt: My Siblings

My daughter made us a Memory Monday button that you can grab from my sidebar if you want.

Please link up your posts to this continuing linky so we can watch each other’s memoirs develop over this year.  Please use the format of “PROMPT – BLOG NAME” so we can follow each week’s writing.