It’s been a minute since I’ve written a blog. Life is messy and chaotic and busy these days which doesn’t exactly lend itself to time for …well anything, really, least of all reflection. But today I was sitting at mass with Mom, looking around the Cathedral I was raised in and found myself waxing poetic about a lot of things.
Mom and I have a friend Joanne who we sit with every week. She’s kind and thoughtful and generous…and we’ve grown to love her so much! 2 weeks ago she wasn’t at mass and we were worried about her. But we realized we didn’t even know her last name, let alone how to contact her!! So today, when we saw her, the first thing we did was exchange numbers and last names. As I put her number in my phone, a notification popped up telling me it is Grandma Allan C’s birthday tomorrow! And that made me think about her all day long.
So who is Grandma Allan C? She was my mother’s maternal grandmother, Mary, Minnie (MacLean) MacDonald. The matriarch of our Allan C MacDonald clan. But, truth be told, I don’t know that much about her!! She passed long before I was born so I didn’t get the opportunity to know her. The stories shared at family gatherings are typically of the infamous Allan C, her husband. Even in the Ships of 1801 plays, they share a few stories of him. But I don’t know much about HER.
As I dive into the recesses of my mind, I’m embarrassed that it’s never occurred to me to ask my Mom or my aunts or uncle or any of the cousins to tell me about her. Thanks to my cousin Rita in Michigan, I have a copy of her will – basically a hand written love letter to her children and grandchildren. In it, she demonstrates kindness and thoughtfulness and gratitude. She seemed so happy with her little life; with her huge family and the vast array of grandchildren.
How inspirational is that? Someone who is happy with their life? Someone who has given such love to her family and friends that as she nears the end, she has nothing but gratitude? That is so beautiful and inspiring!!
Her life could NOT have been easy. Married to a prospector who spent so much time away from home – when working away was not at all the norm. She bore 16 children and raised them in a little farm house in the Ohio, Antigonish county. She raised them to be hardworking and ambitious and faithfilled. She taught them to love each other and their extended family and community. She taught them to dream big and to follow those dreams. She HAD to have a good sense of humour…because that sprinkle of badness that twinkles in almost all of her descendants eyes has to have come from somewhere!!
I like to think that she had a musical flair about her that helped to inspire her daughter Jean’s piano stylings.
Together with her children she ran a farm, was active in her community, raised babies…and buried three of her children; something no mother should ever face. She watched some get married and settle close by and others venture off for far off places like Alaska and California. I can’t imagine her heartbreak of missing those children…the ones gone too soon and the ones gone so far away. I remember walking in on my Mom crying at the kitchen table one day. When I asked her what was wrong, she said she was just missing Brian. My brother who’d spent some time working in the West of Canada. Grandma Allan C wouldn’t have had the luxury of email communication or even too many phone calls as it was very expensive in that era. Not knowing if her children were safe or happy or healthy had to have played on her heart.
I wish i knew her. And wish I knew real stories about her. I guess that’s a goal for this year – to find out as much as i can about her! .
But i do know the legacy she’s left behind. Her 16 kids have all now passed but she had 52 grandchildren who had children and grandchildren and great grandchildren of their own.
I’d like to think she would be so incredibly proud of the generations that came after her…those that keep her commitments to family and faith and heritage and hospitality. I’m sure that when we gather, whether in our small groups of friends/cousins or in our large family reunions we have every 5 years that she smiles upon us all.
I am lucky enough to be close to many of my Allan C cousins and since I’m here in the homeland as my cousin Joan says, I’m privileged to be able to welcome those who come “home” from away..tonight I’m wondering if Kathy’s ability to instantly read people or her profound generosity are traits she shares with Minnie. What about Joanne’s huge heart? Or Nancy’s commitment to faith? Or Scott’s absolute belief in love? Or Marion’s tenacity in the face of adversity? Or Gene’s devotion to keeping traditions alive?
There are so many things we as MacDonalds share in common…much of that has to come from her. Don’t you think? A Mama sets the tone afterall!
So as we saunter into what would have been her 138th birthday on the 17th, let’s celebrate her legacy and let’s strive to learn more about her! And let’s keep making her proud from one end of this family to the other!
Happy Birthday Grandma Minnie MacDonald!
Dandelion Wishes 