My thoughts have significantly been of my own mom lately. She was born in Quebec City, farther East than Ottawa. Her parents were both English: Lillian Clara May and Roy Baker. She has 1 older brother Don, and 2 sisters: Joyce (a few years older than my mom) and Mickey (her actual name is Mildred) who is her younger
After heir family moved to Ottawa, the 3 sisters attended a private school in Aylmer which was run by nuns. This is where my mom learned French. My mom went to school to grade 9! Much too soon to be quitting school don't you think? It was a very strict school. They even had her change her name to Marie Gisele.
She went to help her mom, and a friend Maggie Ryan, at the restaurant/store which they had in an area called "The Flats" in Ottawa. At the time, it was probably a couple of miles away from the Ottawa Parliament buildings.
This is where she met my dad - Fernand Lacelle, this was in 1949.
. He had come by for a bite to eat:) In no time at all, they fell in love and were married on July 16, 1949. That date has become very important in the Lacelle/Gilchrist family. There have been 3 cousins born on that date: Michel-Eric, Ryan and Carolyn. One of my sister's Claire was also married on that date as well.
My mom was only 16 years old when she had me. She then had 8 more children: 5 brothers: Marcel, Michel, Pierre, Fernand, Alain and 3 sisters: Diane, Claire and Helene.
I once asked her how she managed with all of her children. Here is what she wrote back (I'll translate it):
"Irene quand tu me demandes ccomment j'ai fait avec plusieurs enfants, j'etais plus jeune quand nous avons commence notre famille, que je ne changerais par pour tout l'or au monde, mais je crois que j'ai eu un don de la patience, et tout l'amour de mes enfants."
"Irene when you asked how I did it with many children, I was much younger when we began our family, which I would never change for all the gold in the world, but I believe that I had a gift of patience, and all the love of my children."
I think she was an absolutely amazing mother. I feel strongly that my mom pretty much raised us by herself as my dad was a truck driver and was often gone. He'd leave early in the morning before any of us were even up and would return later in the evenings.
When our family was fairly small, with 4 children, we would take the bus and head over to the Ottawa river close to where my sister Claire lives today for days at the beach.
We are so spoiled now days, many moms have cars so they can drive us around, but not my mom she never did learn how to drive.
Every 2 years, it seemed my mom would be pregnant again:) She never complained. She loved playing with us, card games like 31 or crazy 8's were our favorites. We also played Snakes and Ladders and Sorry. Another favorite thing to do with her was painting by numbers. We also loved to color together as I do with my grandchildren!
Because of the number of children she had, when it came time for teacher/parent conferences she would not be able to attend, instead she would call our teachers. I do remember her once showing up for a Christmas performance. The specific song which I remember was "Mon beau sapin". It's the song about a Christmas tree. I was so excited, she had brought all of the little ones with her mostly my sisters I think as the older boys would have been in school too:) This was when I was in grade 8 or 9.
Some of my first memories of mom was when lived on Tachereau Street in Hull:
1. She made candied apples around Halloween, which we shared with our neighbors. There were only a few of us back then:)
2. She baked cakes for every one's birthday. No bought-cakes for her! It was always made from scratch. It took way longer to prepare but she also made everyone's favorites. I wish I could find a picture of this doll-cake which she made when all of us girls were young. Another favorite of ours was her spectacular "Queen Elizabeth cake", I have been able to find this recipe from Aunt Pat's magazine.
3. We always had Rice Krispie squares on holidays and her own maple fudge. It's funny although I have her recipe, I have never been successful with making it myself.
4. Another dessert was "Charlotte" which is a kind of truffle. She prepared hers with day old cake, peaches and whipping cream - lots of it!
5. Another fun thing which she would surprise us with were lemon cupcakes, it would be a plain white cupcake and then she'd cut off the top part of it to create a hole, she'd then fill with lemon pudding, put the top back on and sprinkle it with icing sugar:) Love it!!!!
5. Some of my favorite meals of hers were: her version of Chinese food which she made always the week following Christmas with the leftover turkey, pate chinois or shepherd pie, choux bourres or cabbage rolls and mashed turnip - my favorite vegetable:)
Mom was a very simple cook but she made us all very happy with her meals and her desserts. No wonder I love desserts so much. For our birthdays, she often would buy special bread which would be sliced horizontally instead of the usual way and she'd make these "party" sandwiches: egg salad, ham and pickles. They were so good!
Our place was often the "party" place for my relatives especially at Christmas time. After the midnight mass, my cousins and their parents would come by for the treats which my mom would have prepared. Then on Christmas day, her sisters and their family would go to grandma Lillian's house for dinner. Later on, this tradition was then to go to my dad's sisters Margo and Betty's place in Deschenes - this is between Hull and Aylmer along the Ottawa river on the Quebec side.
By the time, mom had 5 children, I was asked to do the grocery shopping for her. I was between 10 and 12 years old, the store was right at the top of the hill on St. Joseph Boulevard. I did not mind at all, except when I would make a mistake and she would ask me to return an item. One of these was buying a jar of sour pickles instead of the normal sweet pickles. I hated returning things, I'm not sure why but it was a big deal for me.
At that same time, I also remember my mom gathering us all and kneeling in the kitchen for prayer. We would actually be listening to the radio, and hearing a priest pray. We'd listen to his prayer and then join in. Mom always prayed and went to church. I'm sure it was very difficult with all of us but she never failed. If you were looking for mom on Sunday mornings she'd be at church. Every night before she'd go to bed she'd pray. As a matter of fact, her family knew this so well, that whenever someone needed to find a job, or was sick they would call my mom and ask her to pray for them. What an example she has been to all of us!
When I learned how to sew at school, mom would always come to the rescue when I'd make a mistake. She'd rip my seams and I'd happily redo it. Mistakes were very difficult for me to accept even back then. Mom had a very old sewing machine which you had to use your feet to make the machine work. It was not electrical like we have now, your feet would either make you sew slow or fast.
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID16607/images/threadlemachine.jpg
The only time I remember my mom upset with me was when I could not stop laughing when she was trying to get rid of "lice" which I had in my hair. It was not a happy experience at all for her! She was tickling me or at least that's what it felt like to me:)
In grade 12, as a special gift in our school, anyone who had not missed a day of school that year was given a piece of luggage. I had not missed a single day of school, except in June when my boyfriend, and another couple went to Ottawa on a date night and were in a car accident. Although I was not seriously hurt, I was in shock and was kept from school the next day. I was very upset but my mom promised me that she would get me the famous piece of luggage later on.
That Christmas, after everyone had opened their gifts, I still had not received mine. I was very sad:( Mom sent me to her bedroom to look under her bed. There it was a blue set of luggage as she had promised! Moms try the very best they can to keep promises! It's important to be able to trust our moms and dads:)
Mom had all of us at the Grace Hospital, this is the same hospital where Marc was born in Ottawa. Even though we lived in Hull, she always kept her same doctor who worked there. After mom had 9 children, her doctor told her that she could continue having babies but he felt that it was probably time to give her body a break. In our church, we encourage moms and dad to make the decision about how few or many children to pray together, come up with their decision and seek Heavenly Father's advice. As far as the catholic priests back then, you could not stop from having children! You can see how come French-canadian families had many children:)
We never had much money when I grew up. My dad would give my mom a certain amount of money every pay day and that would be all she'd have to pay groceries or school activities. He would take care of paying the rent and the utilities.
By the time, we had 6 children in the family, my parents moved to Binet Street. It was an added apartment to the side of a house. There were basically 4 rooms, a large kitchen, a large bedroom for most of the kids, a small bedroom for my parents and a very narrow living room with space enough for a couch, a rocking chair, TV and living room table for treats. In the large bedroom there were sets of bunk beds but boys and girls we all slept in that room until I was in grade 12, I think. Then, my mom gave me their bedroom so I could study quietly and graduate from high school. They then slept on the couch which opened as a bed.
Mom always made huge sacrifices for all of us children! I hardly remember her ever shopping for herself, but she always made sure we had new clothes for school - even though she had to put it on credit at the Zellers store.
(Skip this paragraph for young grandchildren) I remember a funny thing when I was a teenager, mom had asked me to buy a few things for our family. Among these things, she needed a "bras", now you must understand that the way she had written it, it translated into an "arm":) It made no sense to me. I had no idea what she meant as I called it a "brassiere" or bra. I was so embarrassed to have to ask someone at the store what that was:)
On April fool's day, my brother Pierre would always play a joke on mom.She'd laugh about it after she'd find out it was a silly joke:)
When I began my first full-time job, my parents asked me if I could help with giving them a little bit of money to help with the family. Even though, it was difficult at the time I did it because I knew my mom would never ask me if she did not truly need it.
Mom always worked at home, that was her full-time responsibility. When all of the children were grown up, she went to work with my sister Diane to clean offices at night. It was all right except for her having to take the elevators. One night, a man was working late at his office and my mom had not noticed him before. He scared her so much!!
Mom had such good health when I was growing up. She was always up before any of us children and always went to bed after we did, except as we got older and we had our own jobs - then, occasionally she'd be in bed because it was way too late!
When Tom and I chose to get married at the Washington Temple in the United States. At the time, this was the closest temple to Ottawa. My mom had no problem understanding that we wanted to be sealed for eternity and that she would not be able to attend. It was a very difficult decision for us to make, especially for me. I had been a member of the church for just a year, not having my parents with me on my wedding day was sad. So I did the next best thing, I went to the visitor's centre and took pictures of where we would be in the bride's room, the sealing room, and of course pictures of the temple itself.
I've copied the website so you can see it.
http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/washington/gallery/download.php?id=372
When Marc was born, being their first grandchild, my dad could not help himself he had to come to the hospital right away. Tom had called them to let them know that we were on our way to the hospital. Mom thought they should wait until the next day, but not my dad. When they arrived I had not even had our first baby yet, they had to be sent back home. Mom would have known what was best after having many herself:) This picture is a few weeks after Marc is born in 1978.
Mom and dad never have been able to make the trip out West to visit us in Calgary. We have been so fortunate to be able to return and see them:) One of my happiest days was at their 60th wedding anniversary when all of the grandchildren joined grandpa Tom and I for this special celebration.
Here are the latest additions to the family since this picture:
Chase and Saren both youngest to Ryan and Tiff:
Evan and Christy and their family:
Last news Patrick and Sarah are expecting for June 2016:
My mom has not had an easy life but she has always given it 100%. She truly believed in Jesus. She has been an amazing example of being a follower of Jesus Christ.
I love her with my all my heart and soul. I cherish the moment when we will be reunited in heaven!
