Well this year has been a shit show from the beginning and it didn't get any better. Here in my little slice of the world we started with Snowmagedden which hit us in January. Then the Pandemic hit us in March. Which we are still dealing with and will be still dealing with going into the new year. But we are doing better then most place. But I guess that is the benefit of living on an island. We still get case but they are all travel related due to people coming and going for work.
I would like to say things can't get any worse but I am not about to temp fate on that one. She might call my bluff.
Not sure what has kept me going all these months. I keep looking for the light at the end of the tunnel and I thought we were seeing that with the vaccine but then the UK gets a case of covid that hasn't been seen before. So of course Canada can't be left out and now we are seeing new cases of this variant as they are calling it.
But I guess one good thing came of this year, Trump wasn't re-elected. So I guess that is something. But he isn't going out with out a fight. He is acting like a spoiled child that didn't get his way. Thank god I don't live in the States but I feel for all those who are struggling and going without because of that man. I haven't seem someone so selfish as that man.
Anyway just had to put my few thoughts down on this year so when this is finally all over I can look back. But I don't think I will forget this year any time soon.
Only a few more days left of this dumpster fire of a year and I can't wait to see it in my rearview mirror. Here's hoping for better things in the new year. Stay safe, wear your mask and keep your 6 feet, keep your bubble.
Margie Osmond (left) and her sister, Cathy Breen, both of St. John’s, hold a framed display of photos of their grandparents, along with their four uncles, who were killed during the Second World War. — ROSIE MULLALEY/The Telegram
Maurice, Michael, James and David O'Brien were lost in one two-year period, from 1940 to 1942
ST. JOHN'S, N.L. —
Growing up in a tiny house with their family in St. John’s, sisters Cathy Breen and Margie Osmond could never figure out why their grandmother always looked so glum.
“You never ever saw her smile,” Breen said about her father’s mother, Margaret O’Brien (nee Hickey).
“I remember being told not to make any noise because Nanny wasn’t feeling very well.”
“She lived with us,” Osmond added, “and now and then, she’d call us into her room to say the rosary and always had her prayer beads, but we weren’t allowed to bother her. She always seemed so sad.”
As children, they never knew why she was so unhappy.
It was only in later years that they realized what their grandmother was going through.
“Nanny was Newfoundland’s most bereaved mother."
Margaret O’Brien was a woman in mourning, having lost four of her sons in the Second World War, all within the span of two years.
Maurice Jr., 19, named after his father, was the first to lose his life, on Dec. 2, 1940, while serving in the Royal Navy on the HMS Forfar. Four months later, on April 19, 1941, Michael, 28, a member of the Merchant Navy, was lost at sea while serving on the merchant ship Easterlea. A year later, in July 1942, news arrived of the death of her 30-year-old son, James, who died while also serving in the Merchant Navy. On Oct. 5 of that year, David, 26, a member of the Canadian Navy, was lost at sea on the HMCS Frisky.
Two other brothers — Jack (Breen and Osmond’s father), a member of the Newfoundland Militia, and Denis (Dinn), who served in the Royal Navy — were honourably discharged.
“Nanny was Newfoundland’s most bereaved mother,” Breen said.
There were also two other brothers in the O’Brien family – William and Patrick — as well as three daughters, Mary, Bridget (Bride) and Perpetua (Pet).
“Dad was so quiet,” Osmond said. “He didn’t like to talk about any of it.”
“I can never remember Dad mentioning anything about the death of his four brothers,” Breen added. “And the same with Nanny.
“The first inclination we had of any of this was when Dad took Nanny, his mother, to the war memorial every year.”
Every Remembrance Day, sisters (from left) Margie Osmond, Joni Snow and Cathy Breen visit O’Brien Park at the corner of Signal Hill Road and Battery Road in St. John's — on the site where their family home once stood — to pay tribute to their four uncles who were killed during the Second World War. — CONTRIBUTED
As mothers, Breen and Osmond can empathize with their grandmother.
“When the O’Brien memorial was placed (there), I found myself trying to imagine the unspeakable pain and heartache that my grandmother must have suffered for the rest of her life from that tragedy,” said Breen, adding that Margaret’s husband, their grandfather, Maurice O’Brien Sr., also died in 1942.
“I have four sons of my own and I can’t even begin to imagine losing one of them, let alone four.”
Their grandmother was a National Silver Cross Mother, an honour bestowed by the Royal Canadian Legion as a memento of personal loss and sacrifice on the part of widows and mothers of Canadian sailors, aviators and soldiers who died for their country during the war.
Margaret died in 1963 and their father, Jack, died in 1994. Whatever information the grandchildren had about the four O’Brien brothers, they heard from their mother, Mary (nee Finn), who died in 2003.
Remembering their sacrifice has always been important for Breen, Osmond, their sister, Joni Snow, and other members of their family.
In 1980, the four O’Brien brothers were commemorated with a memorial park at the corner of Signal Hill Road and Battery Road, on the site where their family home once stood. The official opening ceremony on Aug. 4 of that year was attended by government officials, including then-mayor Dorothy Wyatt, along with Jack Dinn, who was president of the Battery Neighbourhood Improvement Program committee at the time and spurred the efforts to have the park built. Several residents and family members were also in attendance.
“That’s Mom and Dad and Dad’s sisters at the opening ceremonies there,” Osmond said, pointing to one of the black and white photos scattered with Telegram newspaper clippings on the dining room table at Breen’s house earlier this week.
They say residents and tourists pass the park frequently, but many don't know what and who it commemorates. Breen, Osmond and Snow visit the site every year on Remembrance Day to lay a wreath.
The family is disappointed the brothers aren’t recognized with a wreath at the annual official Remembrance Day ceremony at the War Memorial in St. John’s
“It feels like they’ve been forgotten,” Breen said.
“Not a lot of people know about these men, but they gave so much. We just want people to remember the sacrifice they made during the war years.”
However, they’re glad many still do remember the brothers and their sacrifice.
There’s also a memorial grotto at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Logy Bay-Middle Cove-Outer Cove, where the O’Brien brothers lived.
Breen and Snow also have framed photo displays of the brothers and their parents. Snow’s includes the brothers’ medals.
“We’re just really proud (to be their descendants),” Osmond said of her four uncles.
Breen’s son, Peter Breen, found a permanent way to pay tribute to his great-uncles. Two years ago, he got a large tattoo on his left arm, on which is inked the O’Brien brothers’ names, their dates of death, large red poppies and four crosses.
“People are nice to wear their poppies in November (for Remembrance Day), but I thought, why just November?” he said, proudly displaying the colourful body art. “It’s something I always wanted, especially with our family ties.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of the official Remembrance Day ceremony in St. John’s, the family is asking that people, in their private memorials, remember the O’Brien brothers.
“Not a lot of people know about these men, but they gave so much,” Breen said. “We just want people to remember the sacrifice they made during the war years.”
They believe if their grandmother was alive today, that’s what would make her smile.
I am so over this year. Can we just skip to 2021 already. Or at least I want a do over for this year. With the Covid-19 taking over our day to day lives and life as we know it is no more. I don't even see a light at the end of the tunnel either.
Don't get me wrong where I live we have flattened the curve hell we have eradicated Covid-19. But all our hard work and doing with out, might be for not. We have opened our boarder to other Atlantic Providences. Now for the most part those 4 we have invited to join our bubble have gotten a handle on there cases and have little to no cases. But with all good things, people go looking for loop holes and before we know it we will have cases again. Then there is talk to open our boards to the US well don't get me going on that mess, 50 thousand cases a day. Yikes. I think not keep the US out till they get a handle on things.
I want my daughter to go to school next year, do her grade 12 in class and graduate with all the bells and whistles that she has worked so hard all these years. I know things won't be totally the same as previous years but if we have no new case and we do social distancing then the school year can be achieved. Yes we have to learn to live with Covid but all this hard work and sacrificing we are doing only to have others from outside our provenience to ruin it just isn't fair. We have gone without seeing family, gone without socializing, gone without vacations, gone without our normal day to day lives. We have proven that social distancing does work and to wear masks when we can't but to allow visitors that could potentially bring the virus back to us only to have to go back to lock down when we just opened up isn't fair.
Now I don't know things might go swimmingly, with minimal to no cases but I am a glass half empty person and I don't see things working out in our favor.
On January the 27th my city declared a state of emergency (SOE) for the first time in over a decade. You see we had one hell of a snow storm. Now where I live it isn't strange for us to have lots of snow. We do after all have winter here on the rock.
But mother nature was surely pissed at us for what ever reason because she dumped 93 cm's of snow on us in a 24 hour period. At the same time for a 12 hour time frame we had very high winds, 130 plus gusts. We had white outs with zero visibility. The only silver lining is we didn't loose power. Usually with such a storm we do.
So by Saturday morning a SOE was in affect. No one was aloud on the roads, no business where aloud to open. Only city snow clearing workers where aloud out, trying to clean up the unending mess. Everyone woke up to at least 6 foot snow banks or more. To make matters worse we had a major snow storm just before Christmas and we got at least 30 cm's of snow then.
Doctors and nurses where stranded at work with no relief for over 50 hours. Emergency vehicles where escorted to there distentions by snow plows and even then it was slow going. One hospital emergency was bought in by snowmobile. She delivered a health baby some time later. What a story to tell to the child when he or she is older.
On day 4 of the shut down they opened up temporarily, supermarkets and drugstores from 10 am to 9 pm. So we could stock up on food and medications. I thought for sure going to the stores would be madness under the circumstances but it wasn't, it felt like any other Saturday granted it was a Monday. Busy but nothing like in the joining city where there was long line ups outside of the stores waiting to get in. This went on till the city totally lifted the SOE Friday morning at 6 am.
Of course all this time the kids where home from school and loving it. Not that my daughter has set foot out the door since she left school on Thursday before the storm. Only down side is she's in high school and missing a week of school work with exams coming up the following week wasn't a good thing. But the school has since pushed back the exams a week so she will get her review time like planned. What a relief.
Considering once winter hits I hibernate and only go out when I have to. I started to get cabin fever being stuck in. Isn't that the way you can't do something and that is exactly what you want to do. lol
The city is still cleaning up the snow, trucking it away. Hoping they get to the sidewalks before the kids return to school on Monday.
We haven't gotten any mail in all this time and of course I have 4 package due. But hoping to see them sometime next week.
Hats off to all the city workers that haven't stopped clearing the streets and I hope we have seen the last of the snow for this winter season. Talk of 5 to 15 mm's of rain Monday night. Guess it is better then snow lol
I decided way late in the month, like half way thought, that I wan't to do writing prompts to get me posting everyday.
I scoured the web from prompted ideas. Found a few different lists that I meshed together in one. I took the ones I like and thought would get me writing and so here we are.
I am a bit behind but being a completest I am not just going to start half way thought the month. So what I am going to try and do is post two each day. One for the actual day and one past prompt. Till I get caught up.
I hope this, like most things I start, I can keep it up for the year. I know lofty goal. I really need to do things I like, that makes me happy instead of dropping them and filling my life with everyone else stuff. Basically I need to make time for me.
So you have been warned and maybe if you see me slacking give me a kick in the butt. lol
This post was a long time in the works. I just haven't had a moment to sit and post anything. See posts to come on that.
Like every new year I have high hopes to what the year has in store for me. I look at the new year as wiping the slate clean to all the crap of the previous year. I just hope that unlike every other year I am not left disappointed and nothing has changed.
I know alot believe that change comes from with in, and only you can change your fate. I would like to believe that but when there are obstacles at ever turn it is hard not to get discouraged.
Anyway each year I try to do more things for myself, to carve out a little slice of heaven for myself. Even if it is just baby steps towards what I want, what I need. As long as I continue to move forward I am making progress.
I thought I knew where this post was going to go when I stared it but some how it gone off the rails as it were.
Not sure if that is a good thing or not. Maybe I shouldn't post late at night, almost midnight here, but when it is my only alone time I have to take what I get.
