My Mother’s  74^th birthday - 2003 

Mom’s 74th birthday was one for her to remember. It started with meeting her at her home with a surprise limousine ride. We had a great chauffeur who understood the importance of this day. She thought I was the only one going with her, but when she went to get into the car, everyone yelled SURPRISE! I had everyone meet the limousine a block away to get inside. She was surprised to see my sister Jean and her daughter, who came from Florida; My sister and her daughter from New Brunswick; My other sister and her daughter from Toronto; my other sister and my daughter.

We took a nice drive to wherever she wanted. First, we went to Crevier Street in Ville St. Laurent, where we grew up. The limo driver stopped and honked his horn so our old neighbour could see my mom. The kids in the area were excited and came to the limo window, probably thinking we were movie stars. We then continued downtown to the old port of Montreal, had champagne, told stories, and returned to Mom’s. We told her we would be back for her later for supper.

She expected that we were getting together for supper. Still, she was so surprised when she saw the number of people there to celebrate her birthday. There were a lot of relatives and friends. We had rented the church basement hall. We decorated it tastefully with everything we had made on our weekend away. My two sisters and I assembled an amazing buffet for over 100 people. We had a live band, to which we gave them a list of the songs Mom liked and also put together some dance music for when they were taking a break. We had speeches from her granddaughters and a few gifts were presented to her. One sister had made her a personalized sweater with all the names and dates of birth of all her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, hand painted by her. My brother and I put together a family tree. He made the frame and wooden tree, and I had all the family names and birth dates engraved on small plaques to put on each branch.

Mom was touched, showing it in her own way. She was never good at showing her emotions! Everyone seemed to have a great time, and to this day, people still mention what an amazing party it was.

MADE WITH LOVE BY MY SISTER.

MADE WITH LOVE BY BROTHER & ME

You may ask why her 74th and not her 75th.  A few months before her 74th birthday, her doctor told her that her kidneys were failing and that she only had approximately six months to live. We kind of panicked and decided not to wait for her 75th. As soon as I learned about her health, I was furious with this doctor. I stepped in and arranged an appointment with my Endocrinologist. She was great with my mom! She made sure to get her blood pressure under control and then her glucose levels where they should be. She kept a close eye on her kidney creatinine levels; my mom had another six years before needing dialysis. I am proud that I followed my gut instinct and got a second opinion.

In 2009, she started doing dialysis 3 days a week. I used to leave work, pick her up, and drive her to the Montreal General Hospital for her treatments. I did that for over 3 months until I couldn’t anymore because I was dealing with my own health issue. I had Thyroid Cancer and needed a full thyroidectomy.  I managed to arrange transportation for her to get to the treatments. She did dialysis until 2018 because her body could no longer accept it. Her blood pressure would drop so low, and the pain became unbearable. The last year of her life was not easy for her. It still amazes me that the 6 months the doctor said she had to live, turned into 15 years!

Picture of Mom and one of her Dialysis doctors at the Christmas Party.