January 2

January 2 holds many memories and much emotion for me. Two significant events happened on this day and they will be forever entwined.

My mother, Eva Margaret Baker, was born near Maple, Ontario, not on January 2, but on October 22nd, 1935. Her father was a harness maker, and her mother was busy with children, home, and garden, raising chickens and selling eggs to help make ends meet. The post-depression and war years were hard, but their family was happy.

Mom married our father, Herb Diller, in May 1956, and along came five girls.

Mom was a busy farmwife and mother, and she raised her girls with loving enthusiasm. She applied that same love, enthusiasm, and involvement to her grandchildren, and each of them benefitted from her presence and interest in their lives.

Then, along came the great-grandchildren. The first one was my granddaughter, Margaret Eva, called Maggie

She and Mom shared a name and seemed to share a special bond.

In 2019, Mom became ill. What happened wasn’t unexpected, but caused her so much pain that it was difficult to watch .

Despite enduring two months that were, quite honestly, awful, Mom managed to find the strength to join our family Christmas held in the building where she and Dad lived. If it had been me, I would have wrapped myself in a blanket and tried to get comfortable on a nearby sofa, but where did we find her? At the kids’ table.

Not long after this, Covid shut down the world. With heavy restrictions in place, we worked hard to love, support, and care for Mom, at the hospital and at home. After a difficult year, she told us that she was ready for her journey to end. Gently, in hospice, Eva Margaret slipped away during the evening of January 2, 2021, Margaret Eva‘s fifteenth birthday.

We have always celebrated Maggie’s birthday with Chinese or Thai food, good conversation, and maybe a good movie, and we plan to do the same this year. It’s a true joy to be with my granddaughter, and, especially now, it warms my heart to know that she will always carry a little bit of Eva Margaret with her.