I am the mother of sons, four of them, and one special daughter. Then I became a grandmother of five wonderful girls, and four equally wonderful  boys. The boys are special but I have to admit the girls have been extra special in my life, maybe because I’ve been more involved with them.
My eldest granddaughter and I have always had a special relationship, bonding when she was just a few days old. Even though she lived in Perth, just outside of Ottawa, she would spend part of every summer with us, plus Christmas, as well as our many trips to the Ottawa area. Then when she attended the University of Waterloo she spent many weekends with us.
Her mother tragically passed away when she was just 14, and as her dad was a teacher, and had to be in school, I was the one who took her to Kitchener and helped settled her into her first year. She is now lives and works in Vancouver and I miss her dreadfully but do see her once a year and keep in touch with her weekly via e-mail and the phone.
Then along came our second eldest granddaughter and to describe the impact she has had on our lives in words would take a whole book. As she lived and grew up in St. Marys, it was a daily love affair, through her delightful “ups” and exciting “downs.”
Last Thursday four of her family members drove to Windsor in the early hours of the morning  to attend her graduation from the University of Windsor. Whew!
The day she was born my son phoned us from the hospital in London and insisted we had to come immediately to welcome her into the family.
She was just few hours old and we had gathered in her mother’s room along with the baby. The nurse came came in and requested us to leave and put the wee precious bundle into my arms and sent us out into the hall. With a mass of black hair standing straight up and eyes wide open, she looked up at us as if to say, “well here I am and I’ve have been sent to put a bit of excitement into your drab lives!” Which she has — along with a lot laughs, fun, hugs and love.
The four of us (two grandparents, older brother and father) stood out in the hall making a safe circle around her and a man passed us saying, “that sure looks like an official Mutual Admiration Society if I ever saw one.”
Our three youngest granddaughters live in Toronto and with their beautiful long black hair and black-brown eyes, from their mother’s Ecuadorian background, the first, in our blue-eyed generations on both sides, in our family.
They are quite a novelty and although I don’t see that much of them with two working parents and a busy schedule, but they do come to visit and give me lots of new interest as I age, as all the other grandchildren are into their adult life.
Just a short note on the Ninety-First Convocation at the University of Windsor. For some reason or other I always thought the University of Windsor had a small campus but was I ever wrong, it is huge with thousands of students graduating each year. The University, like all North American universities, is a product of medieval Europe and founded in 1857 as Assumption College.
First established as a mission, then made a parish in 1767, it’s the oldest in Canada and was incorporated by an Act of Legislature of the Province of Canada, which received Royal Assent in 1858.
In 1953 the transition from historic Roman Catholic University to non-denominational institution was unprecedented.
The First Session of graduates was the day before, our granddaughter was in the second session and she was the 545th to walk up for her certificate. The Third Session was to begin at 1 p.m. so we knew the program had to move along and it went by so fast that all four of us missed seeing her accept her certificate. The Fourth and Fifth session was the next day.
Our wait, sitting on wooden old folding chairs for 2 1/2 hours, was rewarded by hearing the speaker of the main address. Jeffery Simpson, the very popular columnist for many years in the Toronto Globe and Mail, was the best and most entertaining speaker I have ever heard. He was there to be awarded a Degree of Doctor of Laws, honoris causa.
The city of Windsor is having its problems with unemployment and now a strike of the city workers, so garbage is piling up on the streets and lawns about a foot high along the boulevards;  the only plus is the workers who collect the parking meters are part of the strike so people are not being ticketed.
We here can count our lucky stars and sit back and enjoy a wonderful dessert of Lemon Mousse, given before but a reminder it is excellent with sliced fresh strawberries.
Lemon Yogurt Mousse
1 tbsp. of unflavoured gelatin
1/2  cup fresh lemon juice (grate rind first, you’ll need 2 tsp.)
2/3  cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp. butter
2 cups plain yogurt
In saucepan sprinkle gelatin over lemon juice and add butter. Heat, stirring until gelatin dissolves.
Transfer mixture to a metal bowl and set bowl in a larger bowl of ice cold water. Stir until mixture is the texture of raw egg white.
Whisk yogurt into lemon mixture. Spoon into 4 serving dishes and chill for 30 minutes or until set.
Serve cold with sliced strawberries or on its own.