Mother’s Day is here to remind all of us of the preciousness of our moms. I am truly blessed to be able to call my mother every single morning to catch up on the day’s events. Mother’s Day is a profound reminder of the boundless love, sacrifices, and strength embodied by our moms. It is a tribute to their unwavering support, nurturing guidance, and endless devotion. My mother is my hero, my inspiration, and my eternal source of love and gratitude.
This is indeed a doubly special week for my mom because in addition to Mother’s Day, we are also celebrating my mother’s 98th birthday! Can you imagine, she was born in newly independent Latvia on May 15, 1926 – before the discovery of penicillin, before Charles Lindberg’s historic, solo transatlantic flight!
My mother grew up on a farm, a rather simple rural life in Latvia, but her life was turned upside down by the Soviet invasion in 1940 and the Nazi invasion in 1941. When the Soviets were poised to return to Latvia in 1944, she started her life as a refugee, basically walking westward as the front advanced, and found herself in West Germany when the war ended. She met my dad, got married and I was born in a refugee camp in Lubeck, Germany. We emigrated to Canada in 1951 and my mom has been raising children, grandchildren and great grandchildren ever since.
