January 23, 2011.

People I know, People I show.



My Mom and Chris, 1992
My favourite picture.



Mrs. Irja (Irene) Maki and Henry (Heikki) Maki,
Taken at their summer camp. (cottage).

My mother spent her last 10 years or more in a nursing home. It’s not like the terrible ones you see on TV, it’s run by the Ontario Government. Mom had her own room, three meals a day, plus snack and coffee time, as often as she wanted, she could have a bath or shower when she felt like it. She was free to come and go as she pleased, but had to let the home know when she would be back. The last five years of her life, Bill and I were retired, so we went to see her everyday. We would take her out from time to time, but the last few years she didn’t want to go anywhere so we just sat with her. The home changed the sheets on her bed every week, but my stubborn mom insisted I change her bed every Saturday. It was her way of making sure I would come back and be with her. It has taken me a long time to realize mom did love me, she just didn’t know how to show it. She left her family, mom, dad and 9 siblings at the age of 23 in 1927, and came to Canada from Slovakia. All her Aunts and Uncles went to the Sates (Pennsylvania and Connecticut). The reason mom couldn’t go to the States, in 1919 United Sates closed it’s door to the Slav nations, the government accused them of being too superstitious Mom passed away February 28, 2002, at the age of 97 3/4 years. I brought my Slovak album of mom’s family to show her nurse, her parents came from Slovakia. A few weeks before Mom died she was sitting in a wheel chair looking out the window on warm winter’s day, she asked me “could I see my mother one more time”.

I bought a digital camera about 4 years ago. While I was in the store getting my photos printed out for the first time, I ran into a retired Safeway employee, who told me she always carries her camera with her so she can take pictures of her grandchildren whenever she saw them. I thought that was such a good idea, I’ve carry the camera in my purse since that day.

My next bright inspiration was, “I should take a picture of all my old friends who grew up with me, went to school or who worked with me, and any others I met in my life time”. I would put one picture of each person in my special album. When I started quilting I decided to keep a record of all the things I’ve made. I’m doing a 1930/40‘s type of a scrapbook. I know that was the time because I have Bill’s Dad’s scrapbook. Mr. Henry Maki kept a wonderful scrapbook of the war in Europe, he was especially concern about his family he left behind in Finland. His sister Martta is still alive in Finland at the age of 95, she is the last of dad's siblings.







From Henry's scrapbook. I miss you dad.









Here are two pages of "My Friends" album.
















"Things I made" album.











I don't always make labels because I scrapbook my quilts, but here are few I did make. Cartoons by Bill.






These are projects I've made.






















This is the way I scrapbook my quilts. I'm not as good as Nicole, but I don't have the time because I need to take of Bill. What is most important to me is to make sure I take a photo of each quilt I made, who gets them and a little info of both the quilt and the person receiving my quilt.

Now, when I turn 100, I won't have to ask my children to show me my albums, I'm taking them with me and I will sit in my wheel chair and look out the window, check out my albums and reminisce. I have been blessed with good friends, and now I have more because this last year I joined a quilt swap club.