Storyphile | Your life. Your story. For the people you love.

Remembering Mama

Had she lived, today would have been my mama’s 102nd birthday. It would also have been my parents’ 77th wedding anniversary. My parents got married on Mama’s birthday because my grandfather, Mama’s dad, thought that would be an auspicious day. But poor Mama found herself in a predicament when it came time to sign the … Read more

More on Grandmothers

My late mother-in-law, Lillian (née Winters) MacLeod, grandmother par excellence.

I heard an interesting idea on CBC Radio the other day, on one of the summer reruns. Canadian novelist Katherena Vermette was talking about her latest novel, The Strangers, which I liked a lot. It’s about family—grandmothers, mothers and daughters—and the complicated ties that bind generations together. Vermette made the point that girl babies are … Read more

In Praise of Grandmothers

I’m a baba. Truth be told, I’m a proud-as-can-be, floating-on-air, tickled pink-and-blue baba who thinks her grandson is the cutest, brightest, smartest little boy in the whole wide world. Other babas are free to make the same claim. I don’t mind. It’s a baba’s prerogative. My babas were certainly proud of me. And I was … Read more

Garlic

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only choose one, would it be onion or garlic? I’d opt for onion, I think. It grows bigger bulbs, so there’d be more of it to eat. But I have to say, it would be darn hard to live without garlic! Fortunately, my garlic crop … Read more

Cranes and Potatoes

My family had a huge garden, when I was growing up—about 2½ town lots. Its bounty kept us fed throughout the year. By summer’s end, Mama had a huge freezer filled with beans, corn, peas, carrots, spinach and Swiss chard. And Baba’s root cellar, next door to us, was brimming with beets, turnips, potatoes and … Read more

Home

Picture this. A mountain-ringed campsite beside the Athabasca River in Jasper National Park. A crackling fire. Sun slanting down through the trees. River rumbling over rapids. The occasional crow chorus. (The resident clan regularly sends scouts to check if we’ve forgotten to take the dog food in.) Soft music playing from one of the randomly … Read more