Esther May Badowsky

To start off I would like to thank each and every one of you for coming and joining us for a time of reflection on some of the very special memories and moments that we as a family have had with our mom. We have all had the privilege and honour of living and sharing our life with our precious mother, provider, protector, counselor, friend and sometimes an angel in disguise in some of the hardest and most difficult times in our life.

So thank you so very much mother for your patience, kindness, love, understanding, wisdom and strength through all our years and your faith in our heavenly Father who watches over us all.

Mom growing up in Wainwright and Jasper, Alberta.

My mother was born in small town called Wainwright, located east/central in Alberta approx. 206 km from Edmonton, where her life begins with her parents Harvey and Laverine Ward and younger brother Ron Ward. My mother resided in Wainwright as a child before the family moved to Jasper, which is also located in Alberta where my mom spent some of her adolescent and teenage years growing up.

Rail Road / Jasper

At that time the rail road industry was growing and expanding in Alberta and all over Canada, which played a huge part of my mom’s life growing up. My mom’s dad (Harvey) worked for the CNR and various jobs during his career. My mom’s mom Laverine did odd jobs to help out but was mostly a stay at home mom due to Harvey working long hours and doing shift work which was the life of a rail road worker.

Jasper / Calgary

After mom had spent some time working and growing up in Jasper she decided to venture out on her own with some of her girlfriends to look for work and other opportunities. Mom and her friends were all working for CNR at the time, but they wanted to see more of Alberta. Mom and the girls decided to move to Calgary which had a rail road company known as the CPR. At that time CPR had similar jobs as the CNR and they had no problem getting hired and it was close to Jasper. Mom worked as a tella operator, basically working the switch board.

Calgary

My dad at that time just finished one year at U of A in Edmonton for his civil engineering and decided to work the summer for a survey company in Calgary for the CPR. My mom’s girlfriends were also working as tella operators for CPR at that time of the move to Calgary. The CPR provided special events for their staff and employees throughout the year and one of those events was a bowling tournament. My dad wanted to go to that function because he had the hot’s for one of mom’s girlfriends (Dagnee) but as the evening progressed my mom and dad began to take an interest in each other and as fate would have it, it was not long after that, they were both dating. This took mom and dad on this incredible journey of thrills, spills and chills.

Montana / Calgary

After mom and dad dated for a while, dad decided to move to Bozeman, Montana to go to the university to comp his degree in civil engineering. While dad was in his last year of school mom got pregnant with me and mom told dad that there was no way I was going to be born in America and that I was going to be born in Canada. I was born in Canada on Nov. 17, 1962 and mom and dad married prior to me being born which was on Feb. 15, 1962. I was a legitimate child and a Canadian, thanks to mom and dad.

Mom and dad were now living in Calgary where I and my sister Dana were born. Dad went back to work and was short a couple of courses to comp his degree and mom went back to work at the CPR, with the aid of a babysitter to help her out during the day time. Mom and dad spent 4 years in Calgary before moving to Edmonton so that we were close to dad’s family and his mother. Dad’s mom helped with me and Dana while mom and dad continued to work. It was not long after Mark and Marni were born and mom was a full time mother with 4 children.

Edmonton / Fort McMurray

Mom and dad lived in Edmonton for approximately 10 years before all of us moved to Fort McMurray in 1977 for dad’s new job opportunity. This was working for Northward Developments which was a surveying company. I am sure there were moments where mom was thinking what the heck are we doing in this dirt road hick town, where the winter were long and cold and the summers very short. There was one road in and one road out and 400 km to the city of Edmonton. Mom spent the next 10 years raising her wonderful children and our dog named Towser. There was never a dull moment between dealing with her wonderful, outgoing kids and that Casanova dog and lady killer Towser. That mutt had all kinds of lady friends in the neighborhood and would come home smelling like a poll cat (my mom would always say). Mom would also spend special days watching me pack my suitcase and leave the house for periods of time. This happened when I had done something really bad and had to be out of house before dad got home.

Fort McMurray

There was one time when I borrowed the car to take a cruise and hit another car and tore the bumper off. Then there was another time , when I smoked a Chech and Chong rolling paper in the bathroom and smoke came rolling out the window and the neighbor thought the house was on fire and called the fire department. Here is one that tops them all; my mom found a bag of my pot on the kitchen floor that fell out my underwear in the middle of the night and thought it was dad’s tobacco and put it in his tobacco case. Dad went to work and was in a big meeting where dad started smoking his pipe. Dad knew something was not right and left the meeting and was so stoned that he locked himself in his office until home time. When my mom told me, my suitcase was packed and I was gone for about a month. I called mom every week and asked if I could come home and she would lovingly say, sorry Brock not his week he still wants to clobber you. I remember times when mom would keep us all in line with her wooden spoons, padding boards and the dreaded wooden sandals or shoes, she gave a new meaning to the word Boomerang when she threw the wooden shoe , she rarely ever missed. Mom always kept a very clean house and lunch and supper was always on time, just like clockwork.

Fort McMurray

At supper time mom would serve her famous mashed potatoes and Dana would ball her eyes out because mom would make them lumpy sometimes and Dana did not want to eat them. Dad always said when supper was served, you finished your plate, but nobody had a problem with desert because mom would always serve it with the best whipping cream you ever ate, legendary for sure. As we all got older mom went to work as a waitress for different places over the years getting to know a lot of people in town and at hotels where she would work. The people mom knew whether they were police, firemen, city workers of just hotel staff, would all tell you that dear old mom was well respected for her kindness, warm smile and caring heart and that always proceeded her. Mom was also known for her hard working ethic. Mom never learned how to drive but was never late and always on time using the bus service or walking, mom rarely took a cab because of the cost. She was always bundled up for the winter time. What a trooper. Mom worked right up until she was 69 as a Super Store greeter. You never wanted to mess with her when it came to checking your bag in and out of the store, she had a lot of training and experience form detectives like Colombo, Kojak, Ironside, Hawaii Five-O, Barnaby Jones, Cannon and Magnum PI just to mention a few. Mom always used to tell us there are two roads in life to take that her father used to tell her. There is the right road and the wrong road. If you choose the right road, good things will happen to you, if you choose the wrong road, bad things will happen to you, and she was so very right. Mom always tried to keep everyone on the straight and narrow with the old wooden shoe to guide us and to protect us. I cannot write down all the stories and events that I remember but I know you would all love to hear about them and our family can fill you in any time for your listening pleasure.

Kelowna

The day has finally come not long after mom had left Super Store that it was time to retire, to leave Fort McMurray and move to Kelowna, close to where her mom Laverine lived, who is now 109 years old. Mom had finally found a spot called the Fountains where she had gotten it ready for her and dad to move into, while dad still worked in McMurray for Suncor. Dad had commuted back and forth from Suncor to Kelowna for about 1 year. Mom finally made dad retire at 69 years old and mom came back to Fort McMurray to get dad because he was reluctant to go to Kelowna. I remember loading my transport van with the remainder of mom’s things and dad sitting in the back seat behind mom with a flower pot on his lap with a fake tree in it with no room to move. Mom had so much stuff packed in the van that it was unbelievable. Mom kept reassuring me that he would be fine as long as he got out for smoke and to use the washroom. We did make it to Kelowna safely. All our family has got together every summer in Kelowna for the past 17 years. It has been the best time of our lives, memories upon memories that we all share to this day and they continue to go on.

Sun Pointe / Kelowna

I have one more moment to share that is one of my dearest memories of my mom just months prior to her passing away. We had just finished going out for supper mom, dad and myself and we were back at Sun Pointe, dad had gone to bed and me and mom were watching Zorro, it was movie night. There was about 15 residents watching, mom was on my left side in her wheelchair and across from me was a couch where a man was sitting and a woman on each side of him. All of us watching Zorro. All of a sudden the man on the couch stands up and pulls his shorts right off and stands there in his pull ups. He was just standing there, everyone still watching Zorro like this was normal. Mom never talked much because of her dementia, but I was good at reading her body language. She turned her head toward me with her hand on her face like I swear I could read her mind. She looked at me as to say what a nut case and what am I doing here. We both started laughing hard and could not stop laughing and everyone else did not seem to notice or care. The man eventually walked away going down the hallway with no pants on. It was like being in the movie the one who flew over the cuckoo’s nest. Those were some of my memories of my mother that stands out in my life and here are some of my brothers and sister memories.

I remember by Marni

One night I came home really late and I passed out in my bed. The next day I was still sleeping and I heard my mom come into my room, thinking she had come in to wake me up. I then heard mom literally take off her slipper from her foot and as I turned over to see what was happening to my surprise all I could see was the bottom of mom’s shoe continually hitting me on the head as I tried to take cover. In the end mom and her slipper won the secret attack.

I remember by Dana

One day my mom and I were going for a coffee when mom was still at the Fountains. Mom decided to get dressed on her own for the outing. Mom came out of the bedroom and I started helping her with her coat, it seemed so tight and would not zip up. I said to myself how could this coat be so tight to zip up. I soon figured out why it was so hard to zip up. Mom had her pj’s on, 3 blouses and her jeans and to top it off 5 broaches and 2 different earrings in. My little Miss Sunshine was ready to go.

I remember by Mark

There was that time when we were taking a cab to the greyhound from Fort McMurray to Edmonton and Dana was about 15 and did not want to go. Dana was in a bad mood because of the trip which added to the situation. We were in the back seat of the cab getting ready to back out of driveway when mom started to put on her makeup and fix her hair in the rearview mirror. Dana then says what are you trying to do mom, impress the cab driver. Mom just sat there for good 5-10 min with just a smile on her face. When the cab driver was not looking mom cracks Dana across the face with the back of her hand. Again do not mess with mother dearest.

Mom also used to be really bad for mispronouncing words, here are some classic from the 70’s shows. There was Laverne and Shirley (mom would say Shirley and Laverne) the show called That’s Incredible ( mom would call it the incredibles) then there was Three’s Company (mom would say Three’s a company” we all remember Oprah (mom would say Opa) and porno (mom would say prono) last of of all the Bahama’s (mom would say the Hamas) Mom would sometimes put her little special verbage on certain titles and words, lots of smiles and laughs because of our old mom.

Every time I was with mom right up until she broke her hip and long after her passing, she was the best person to hang out with even though she barley spoke a word, she was just like an angel. Even through all her dementia she barely showed any pain in her face when doing her physio or getting her up to learn how to walk. I miss my mother greatly, my memories of her are so thick I feel like I could wipe them away from in front of my face. She has to be at the top of the list ----- for the best mother on the planet, way up high in the heavens somewhere. We love you and miss you mom so very very much and you will be in our hearts forever and ever. Amen.