"My Mother's Funeral"

My mother had been ailing for quite some time during the 1920's.  She principally suffered from the ravages of diabetes.  Insulin had been discovered but it was a new drug and I don't think they yet knew how to use it properly.  She had a bad time; they treated her for anemia, removed all of her teeth but seh was still a very ill individual.  Her arms and thighs were all swelled up from the insulin needles and she was in torture.  Some information came about a new therapy called 'Christian Science'.  She was ready to try anything at that point and, after reading Mary Baker Eddy's writings, she decided to try and follow those teachings.  She put aside her insulin, ate healthier foods and she appeared to be a healthier person.  I can vouch for this.  I was 11 years old and I saw the difference in her.  Though she wasn't supposed to do it, according to Christian Science teachings, she would still periodically test herself.  She was delighted because the tests were now positive.  She went on this way for awhile and was like a new woman.  She felt so good and she decided to take my sister Mona, and along with a neighbor friend decided to head out to Ontario to visit some relatives.  As the train approached Fort William she suddenly went into a coma.  They took her off the train and into the McKellar hospital in that city.  They notified Dad and he went down to be with her.  In a few days she recovered enough to be taken back to the General Hospital in Winnipeg.  She wasn't doing too badly and Dad came home.  A day or so later he took us kids and my two uncles, and off we went to Winnipeg.  I recall we had a new car - a nice, shiney Chevy Super Six.  We saw mum and though I was only 11, I realized she was not well at all.  Shortly after we had come back home, Dad was called back as mother's condition has worsened and she subsequently died.  They said that she basically gave up.  Dad brought her home on the train in a casket.  I remember quite well.  It was a grey casket, unusual as in that day, most caskets were black.  Then, in those days, they brought the body to the family home and my mother lay in her casket in our parlour.  Her mother's side of the family were quite Irish and, I guess there was sort of a wake.  Some of the Culbertson relatives came the day before the funeral from Deloraine, Manitoba.  I remember one of her cousins, Uncle Bill, a bachelor and a rugged individual, though he came from Ontario looked like a real Westerner - big hat and all.  He was also a genuine 'Orange Man' and could smell a Catholic a mile away - and wouldn't turn down a good fight!    Anyway, I remember slipping into the parlour where my mother lay.  I must have stood on a chair or something but I was looking down at her and she was so pretty.  She was in a new red dress that she had recently bought for her trip and it had a gold-like clasp or brooch at the neck.  I reached in the casket and toucher her neck above the brooch and she was so cold.  She had beautiful dark hair and looked so pretty at that young age of only 33.  The next day was the funeral and it was a fine summer day.  I think it was the 10th of August and the year was 1929.   People gathered in the yard in the afternoon under the trees and I particularly recall one of the Chinese fellows who ran the local cafe was standing in the yard in his nice navy blue suit - Gee Boy was his name - a good friend.   They rented the building that housed the cafe from my dad.  My mum's body was taken out of the house and to the church.  After the funeral the crowd dispersed and I remember that the rest of the afternoon was a very lonely time.  I think there was a little shower of rain - but I do remember how lonely, and alone, it seemed.  My mother was gone, and the 3 of us and our dad were headed into the hard times.  My brother Carm was 9 and my sister Mona was 7.  We had a housekeeper off and on but with the hard times of the 30's we could ill afford such a luxury so most of those years we batched and, as a result of the depression, we didn't eat too well.  I often think of the way people live today and how my mother could have still been living at the time of this writing (80's/90's).  I've missed her for all these years.