thank god. Well it was only a matter of time. This being Newfoundland and all. We got our first snow storm of the season and I think it is here to stay. The kids come home early yesterday and today they had a delayed opening. So naturally my high schooler didn't go at all either day. lol
The dog wouldn't take no for an answer when he asked to go out in the middle of the storm. FYI he is a shih tzu that is trained to a litter box. So no real need for him to go out. But of course he wanted to. He jumped out the back door when up past his belly in snow. Then had the nerve to look at me saying help. lol So I had to lean out and not loose my balance and take him out of the snowbank lol .
I have a love hate relationship with snow. I love the beauty of it when it is down or falling. Love to take pictures. But I don't like going out in it. Only because once I get cold or wet I am not fit to talk too. Plus the whole slipping and falling down.
it is one of my favorite holidays with Halloween being a close second. I love to decorate for both. But dam is it alot of work. It takes me 3 or 4 days to decorate for Christmas and then another 2 to take it all down. Yes I have that many decorations. lol My friend would say Christmas throw up in your house. I can't help it I love Christmas. lol
But Christmas hasn't really been the same since the kids are older. No fun Christmas morning when they know everything they are getting. They are at the age that they are too hard to shop for. So Christmas morning isn't' at the crack of dawn it is more closer to noon. Not that I mind the sleeping in after being up late getting the gifts wrapped and under the tree Christmas Eve. But it just isn't the same.
Looking around the house now that everything is down, well all but the tree. The house looks bare. But I know in a few days I will be use to it and Christmas will be forgotten till next time.
At least it is for me. Nothing better then getting out of the house for a walk.
I put my music on, to drown out my thoughts, not always a good thing living in my head. To just, try to be in the moment. It is one of a few things I get to do just for me, alone. Yeah it would be great to have someone to talk to sometimes, but what can you do.
Thankfully where I live I can go for a walk around the block which takes about 45 minutes.
No matter how much you do. Like really was it necessary for you to give me attitude. Then you wonder why I have one. Or as you say I am crooked all the time. I wonder why I even try or open my mouth anymore. Then I wonder why I don't know how to talk to people anymore.
Thank god for my online stuff. Only thing that keeps me sane most days. Even then some days that doesn't even help. Maybe that is why I have been watching way to many Hallmark movies. sigh
lol .. yeah nope. Hate to break it to you, what you see is what you get. Not sure if that is a good thing or not. But you have been warned. Life is too short to be any one else but you. I think last year was proof of that.
Anyway after last years mess. I think I will go with the flow a bit more on my goals/resolutions for the year. I see alot of people saying, they are going to take each day as it comes. That they what to take more time for themselves. Sounds good to me. I know I stretch myself too thin most days and don't leave anything for me. That is why I like being online, doing things that interest me. These things are just for me, no one else.
So with that in mind I want to find a few minutes each day to pop on here and post something. Anything even if it is just to vent about things that are going on with me.
I really need to get out of my comfort zone that I have been living in for way too long. I feel like I have gotten into a rut. Of course I decided to do this when you really can't do much socializing well at least in person anyway. So that is why I want to put more of me out there. I tend to keep things to myself which most of the time isn't a good thing. But then I think why would anyone be interested in what I have to say and so I don't.
I have other interests out side of being online so I am going to try and do more of that as well, reading ( I have a blog for reviews that I am terrible of keeping up to date), photography ( I have a blog for that as well). I like to walk, but not in the winter. I hate the cold well it is more like once I get cold I am not fit to be around. lol I like doing puzzles, regular and 3d. I have a few activity books that I like to do as well.
Anyway, the jury is still out for me if this year is going to be better then the last. We will see I guess.
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.
