Happy Birthday Memories of Mom

Christening napkin ring "M.E.D" 1932

I brought a suitcase of miscellaneous pictures, papers and other items from my mother's house back to Canada after she died in 2013. They were stuffed in the back of my closet until I went through them recently. One interesting item was this silver napkin ring, engraved with Mom's birth initials. 

Engraved silver napkin rings were a common christening gift at the time Mom was born. Apparently napkin rings were used to identify personal napkins on the table between weekly wash days. I remember washing and ironing handkerchiefs in my childhood, but we never had washable napkins except for occasions like Christmas dinner. 

Our mother was born on May 5, 1932. She was an active girl who enjoyed skating, tennis, cycling, and horseback riding. She fell when skating at the age of 16 and had problems with a recurrent dislocating shoulder for years afterward. An orthopedic surgeon finally stabilized her left shoulder with a Putti-Platt procedure when she was in her 30s. I used to go to physiotherapy appointments with her at North York General Hospital in Toronto after her surgery, influencing me to became a physiotherapist myself. The picture on the right was taken in her back yard where her father flooded a rink for her in the winter. 

Mom was close to her father who was a doctor in a town north of Toronto. She missed him greatly when he died prematurely of cancer at the age of 52. Mom was only 16 years old at the time. They had a hobby farm five miles from their home where the family spent a lot of time together. Grandad came from the Thornbury-Meaford area and he planted a large apple orchard at the farm, just like the ones in his home area. He also had beehives and sheep. I am sorry I never had the chance to know him, but Mom told us lots of stories about his life. 

I would guess that the picture of Mom with her mother was taken around 1939. The photo was hand-coloured by the photographer and the pigments have stood the test of time. This is the only hand-coloured photograph in the box of old family pictures. Their birthdays were just five days apart and were often celebrated together at the farm when the apple blossoms were open. The family, like all good British subjects, loved picnics and had them frequently in the spring and summer months. Picnics were still a big deal in my childhood. 

I will share other family photos soon to commemorate other special days.