Hi Mom! It’s me, David. Happy Mother’s Day!

Rare photo of me & Mom, Bernice (Roi) Dupuis. 1959. In front of the house on Robert St. W.

Hi Mom. It's me, David, your baby. I pray that heaven is as blissful and beautiful as it's supposed to be, because if anybody deserved it from being on this Earth, you surely did. It's hard to believe it's been almost 48 years since you left us. Especially me. I was only sixteen at the time. As the youngest in the family, I barely got to know you. But I did feel your love. We all did.

I thank God I got to experience your weekly baked bread. I didn't know they had bread at the grocery store until I worked at the IGA years later. And your "belly-buttons" - butter, cinnamon and brown sugar spread on baked pieces of rolled extra pie crust. I remember those! Oh yeah. I haven't had them since. And your amazing graham wafer-eagle bran milk-peach pie. OMG! It was to die for. I didn't have it for so many years after you left us, then Anne started making it for my birthday. There are some of us in the family who make it just like you did. I even tried but it's not nearly as good as yours was. And your sugar pie. You sure could bake. It's been our way of keeping your memory alive.

One year, I remember you knitted sweaters for everyone in the family - your children, spouses, grandchildren (the few little ones you had at the time), your sisters and their spouses and families, probably like twenty-three or something like that, in all. It was amazing. I remember your winter quilting, its wooden framing taking up all the space in our small living room on Robert St. in the winter. There were always home-made quilts on our beds. They fended off the cold winter nights as the only heat source came up through the main stairway.

You were always so proud to watch and listen to Pat and Vin sing, and Anne play the piano. I remember a bit of that. I also remember you watching Jimmy play hockey on TV and being so worked up and stressed every time an opposing player came near and took a shot on him. You moved as much as he did. I’m glad you got to watch him win the 1975 Canadian University Hockey championship on CBC TV before you left us later that summer. That was a happy and proud moment for you, even if it was stressful.

I remember, the last summer you saved up all your baby bonus cheques and gave them all to me to buy my first set of new goalie pads. $200 at the time. A substantial amount. You never got to see me wear them. I treasured them for a long time. And you got dad to buy me a moped because I had taken it upon myself to clean up all the steel scrap from the back yard and around dad’s shop.

That summer when I was so sick and almost died myself from bronchitis, you were always at my bedside, especially through the night when you would rush into my bedroom because you thought you heard me choking again, only to find me sleeping. I know I scared you a few times and I’m sorry for that. It was motherly love at its finest. It was abiding. Always, to your last breath and beyond.

Jimmy, Vin and Anne surely have a lot more memories of you than I do, and Pat, (say hi to him up there with you, dad, Yvon and Bobbie. I'm sure you're having great discussions.) We miss you all. You would be so proud of your family, what your children became, the many grandchildren and great-grandchildren you never got to meet or know. I'm sorry that you didn't get to meet them. You would be so proud. Your offspring became teachers, principal, school superintendent, nurses, managers, department heads, builders, designers, lawyers, writers, editors, graphic artists, coaches, and investors - just to name a few. Some of us were and are pretty good at sports and arts.

There is still so much more I could say Mom, but suffice it that you are still loved and remembered. Anne's doing better as you know and surely you helped her through her recent health scare. I'm sure you were there with her, right by her side. Even your many nieces and nephews who are old enough, and that I run into, surely remember "Aunt or Ma Tante Bernice!"

So on this Mother's Day, almost forty-eight years later, know that you are missed and still loved. I think this is the only picture of you and I as a baby. And here’s an outdated family picture from 2012 that shows how our family has grown. Like I said, you would be proud. I’m sure you still are.

An already much-outdated photo of descendants of Bernice and Celestin Dupuis, taken at David’s place at Peek-a-Boo Trail in 2012.