Mum’s Aunt Kate was a strong, bold woman who could stand up to just anyone or anything I think. She was a very tiny lady, but stature didn’t figure into the equation when it came to her character. No one would ever see this character unless she was obligated to display it because she was also the sweetest, gentlest, most loving and most giving person you would ever want to know. She developed her character out of the terrible hardships she encountered during her lifetime.
When Aunt Kate was in her mid twenties, she and my grandmother went to British Columbia for a vacation one summer. Grandma came home, but Aunt Kate didn’t much to everyone’s dismay. Instead, she took a job as the cook on a ship that was going to Alaska where she met Uncle Milton. By the time they reached Alaska, they had fallen in love and shortly after that, they were married. They lived on a farm which could only be reached by boat and had two boys, David and Lee. When Lee was about two, he had meningitis which left him mentally disabled.
Aunt Kate loved to write, and in her writings, we can tell how much she adored her family and Alaska. Uncle Milton was a logger, and the men who came for logs were the only contact they had with the outside world. While David helped his father, Aunt Kate took care of Lee. I can only imagine how good she with him because she had endless patience with children. I have no doubt that she put all her effort into teaching him all he could learn, and knowing her the way I did, she probably tried to teach him beyond what he could comprehend. Lee surely learned everything he possibly could even though he had the mentality of a three year old.
Tragedy struck the family when Uncle Milton died from a heart attack. People tried to convince Aunt Kate to move away from the home she loved, but she wouldn’t hear of it. She stayed on the farm, and David completely took over his father’s job. I don’t how long it was after Uncle Milton’s death, but David went to work one morning but didn’t come that night. Aunt Kate knew there was something wrong because she heard the machinery continuously running besides the fact that David wasn’t home. She couldn’t go see what was wrong because she couldn’t leave Lee alone. After about a day and a half, some men came and told her that David had been knocked unconscious by a log, fell in the river, and drowned.
Aunt Kate’s brother went to Alaska and convinced her to come home with him. Lee became violent because he was taken from the only place he had ever known, so she very reluctantly put him in a home. No one knew how she handled him in Alaska because they saw him out of his domain, but Aunt Kate always insisted that he was gentle at home. He died from some kind of brain hemorrhage a year or so after being put in the home.
Aunt Kate was always so good to me. I was at her house in Thessalon at least once a week especially when I was home from school. She had a cupboard and a drawer full of toys for her many great-nieces and nephews who often visited her. She even kept toys on hand that she thought would help me develop my coordination. Sometimes I didn’t want to play with them because they were too much like work, but she would gently encourage me which helped a lot. To tell you the truth, I loved the undivided attention I got from her. I loved it when she read to me and fed me grapes and tangerines. Yea, I know, she spoiled me rotten, and I loved every minute of it!
Even though she adored all the people who were in this life, both young and old, her heart was always in Alaska. She always said there was such a thing as a broken heart, and I believe she truly died with one.
I have cerebral palsy, and am the Disability Columnist for the Sault Star in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario.
Source: www.ezinearticles.com