Their first kiss, but not their last

As we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome in 2022, as part of our Year in Review Tina Comeau is re-sharing a ‘Tina's pick' of a column she wrote during this past year that warmed her heart and yours as well.

My dad says the first time my mom kissed him, he fell in love.

He was from Meteghan. She from Church Point.

He told me this story for the first time in May, which, if you know my dad Alain, is remarkable because he tells a lot of stories. I've heard the same ones many times.

Then he told me about the time he and she had gone for a drive while dating and their vehicle got stuck in the mud. He got out to push and rock the car and had told mom to press lightly on the gas when he gave her the signal.

Except that she didn't press lightly.

“Vrrrooommmm!” he said, telling the story. “I was covered from head to toe in mud.”

I'd heard this story before. This time was different. Not just because it seemed more so than ever he could not stop laughing – but because at the time he was really missing mom.

At the time, she was in the hospital for a couple of days being treated for an injury after a fall in our yard.

My dad was emotional, mixed up, confused, sad and scared.

As he ages, we see changes in him. One change is he's become very protective of mom.

He depends on her more than ever. He loves her more than ever.

While mom was in the hospital, I spent my days at their house to keep dad company and to reassure him that everyone was taking good care of her, which they were.

We couldn't visit because of COVID restrictions, making a bad situation worse.

These two do everything together. Before COVID hit in 2020, their morning ritual always involved going to Tim Hortons for a coffee and chatting with friends.

Most of my friends would see my parents together at the rink. For more than 15 years, they'd be there for home hockey games of my sons Jacob and Justin, as well as most away games and tournaments. I recall a Barrington friend once telling me how excited her young son was when they pulled into a parking lot and he saw their car.

“Yay!” he had said. “Al and Marie are here!”

They've also been Yarmouth Jr. A Mariners season ticket holders since 2002, sitting in the same section since the team came to town.

Aside from the rink, another favourite spot is our camp in Meteghan.

I know I can count on mom and dad for anything and everything. That was even more evident after a hurricane passed through the area many years ago. After an extended power outage, it was a couple of weeks before I noticed our freezer in the basement had not come back on, despite seeming like it had.

My husband was away fishing, so I did the only logical thing – I called mom and dad.

I'll never forget the image of my dad carrying a bloated, rotting, stinky, dripping, Butterball turkey across our driveway and telling mom and me, “It's gonna blow!”

While I know a lot about these two, admittedly, I don't know their whole story.

But I got more of a sense of it seeing dad so emotional when he couldn't be with mom.

On the second night she was going to be in the hospital he asked me if I could drive him to the hospital. He thought it would cheer mom up if we waved to her from outside her window.

“It will make her so happy,” he said.

But I knew it was really him who needed to see her.

He was so excited as we drove there. They've been married 53 years, and yet it felt like I was driving him to their first date.

We found the window she was in. My dad waved and smiled and talked to her on the phone. He had brought his camera and took pictures of her too.

As we were driving home, he said to me, “Marie was always a pretty woman. When I saw her in the window it made my heart speed up. Thank you, Tina.”

And then he told me about that first kiss, telling me, "I just fell in love."