Funny Stuff

My mother was recently moved in to a seniors lodge in Edmonton, which has been difficult for my dad and our family. One saving grace, aside from the wonderful staff, is my mother’s roommate. Her name is Doris, and to show our appreciation of her kindness to my mom, I wanted to share her funny marble story with everyone: I was very young back when I got my first marbles. Living northeast of St. Paul, Alta., we were a very poor family back then without many toys. My aunt on the other hand was much better off, and on one of her visits, she brought marbles for me and my siblings. She divided them among us and I ended up with three marbles. Beautiful, multi-coloured and bright marbles! I was thrilled, yet at the same time worried. What was I going to do with these three wonderful marbles? I was so afraid I would lose them that I did not want to play with them or share them. I wanted to cherish them forever. Maybe, in my young mind, I wanted more?

It was summer and I had been watching my mother plant seeds in the garden when I had a moment of clarity. What if I was to plant the marbles? My family would be so surprised! The marbles would be safe and at the same time possibly grow

into more marbles! I was unbelievably smart! And, so, the summer passed and in the busyness of my little girl life, I forgot about the marbles. Then one day while watching my mother harvest the family garden, I panicked and went searching for my growing marbles. Nothing—i could not find them anywhere. They were completely and utterly gone. My beautiful, shiny marbles were lost. I looked for days and thought and thought about where they could be. Eventually, I moved on to other little girl things in life, but over the years I have wondered many times what could have happened to them.

Finally, one day when I was much older, I had another moment of clarity and I realized I had to accept the fact that I, Doris, had truly lost my marbles! We gave Doris three shiny new marbles on Mother’s Day a couple of years ago, and there were tears in her eyes when she thanked us for such a wonderful gift. Little does she know what a gift she has been to all of us!