A VERY SPECIAL DEDICATION

This post is dedicated to my Mom and Dad. They are two very special people who mean the world to me. They are the best parents a person could ask for. I remember going to visit them at work when they both worked at the hospital. I would go to my Mom's office and she would let me sit at a desk and would give me stickers, and paper. Then I would go to Dad's workshop and he always had colouring stuff there for us. Then Dad would take us to the kitchen and we would go into the big walk-in fridge and get grape juice. It was one of my favourite memories. Every Christmas I am reminded of their Christmas rituals - they would stay up until the middle of the night getting presents ready; we couldn't wake them up before 8:00 and then they had to have toast and coffee. Then we could open a present or two and it was off to church. It was an agonizingly slow process for a kid, but we made it through. My Dad has super hero xray vision. When I was about 9 I broke my skiis, so I hid them behind a pile of wood. The first thing he said when he walked in the door after work was "So, Ann, you broke your skiis." I was very worried I would be in trouble, but I wasn't. Mom's super hero power was her hearing. Even though she is deaf, she would always hear us at night when we were babies. Dad would sleep on, blissfully unaware and Mom would get up with us. They must have been very rich when we were kids, because Mom seemed to have many of the other neighbourhood moms in her employ. That must be how she always knew when we went swimming in May, or that I rode my bike on the highway with Tony, or that we were riding our skateboards down the hill by the store (the hill leading right onto the highway). I got special things that my siblings didn't because I was the youngest. Mom and Dad would drag me along with them to school board meetings in Vancouver. Mom and I would shop and sight-see while Dad sat in meetings all day. Even when I was in Bible College Mom insisted that I take two weeks off work and come on a holiday with them. She always swears up and down that I didn't want to leave home, but it was actually that she wanted me to stay around. (Actually it was probably both.) Those apron strings have just been stretched a lot longer in the last few years, but they are still there. I wish I had a picture to publish on here, but I don't - sorry. I could go on and on, but suffice to say: I love you both immensely. You are the greatest parents I could ever have had.