The Lansdowne Letters: A Mother's Touch

What is your most compelling memory of your mother?
For me, it is my mother's soothing touch when I was sick.

I'm thinking of her a lot as I write this post because I may have the flu,
and I'd give just about anything to feel my mother's cool hand on my flushed forehead.

Right now in the USA, we are experiencing the worst flu season in over a decade.
Fortunately I had my flu shot a few months ago.
My symptoms are milder and will prove shorter, I hope. 

A Mother's Touch ~ Always Welcome
On My Birthday

Mom with Me (center)

Sister Donnie (lower right)
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada 1956  

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Whenever I was sick, my mother always cared for me.
She gave me medicine, brought me hot soup and soft custards,
held me when I vomited, changed my sweaty clothes and sheets,
bathed me, and watched me when I had bad reactions to antibiotics. 

My mother did whatever she could to ease my misery;
but the most important thing, the thing I remember most,
was the brush of her cool hand on my forehead comforting me.

When I was twenty and at university, I had an emergency operation.
As I began to regain consciousness, I started batting 
at all these tubes in me, not understanding what they were.
Suddenly there was my mother catching my flailing arms, 
holding my hands in one of hers, and soothing my forehead with her other.

I didn't know where I was,
and I couldn't grasp why she was there,
but that familiar touch calmed me and reassured me
that all would be right in my world.

I later learned that when she got word of my unexpected operation,
she ran out of her classroom, jumped in her car, 
and raced 90 miles (145 kilometers) to be with me
when I came out from under anesthesia. 

My Mother's Greatest Joy:  

Her Children

Mom and I

Stanhope, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Photo by Ella MacDonald

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Fifty-seven years ago medical care in the remote villages
of Northern Ontario was difficult to access.
In Lansdowne House we were fortunate because at least we had a nursing station,
and a dedicated nurse in the person of Mike O'Flaherty.

The nearest hospital and doctors were 150 miles (241 kilometers)
away in Nakina, a small northern rail outpost.  (Source)
However the nearest regional hospital with specialists
was 225 miles (362 kilometers) away in Sioux Lookout.  (Source) 
The only way to reach Nakina or Sioux Lookout was by bush plane,
when weather and landing conditions permitted.

When a bush plane had to fly a critical patient to Sioux Lookout,
a non-medically-trained adult in Lansdowne House
would fly with the patient to Sioux Lookout
and accompany him or her to the hospital,
a task my father undertook more than once.

Austin Airways Norseman CF-BSC 

canavbooks

Flying into Sioux Lookout

Wikipedia

Attribution:  Photo by User:  P199 at Wikimedia Commons

You can read about the isolation and remoteness of villages like Lansdowne House,
but I think it's hard to comprehend how remote and isolated they are,
if you haven't flown over the vast emptiness of Northern Ontario.

Even today this region is one of the least visited in Canada,
and, by some measures, is more remote than much of the Arctic.
Even now, more than than half a century after my family lived there,
the First Nations people continue to live off the land
and depend on it for shelter, food, and medicine.
(Canadian Geographic, March/April 2017)

I can't imagine how my mother must have felt,
landing on skis in Lansdowne House with five tired children,
one throwing up, and a shivering dachshund. 
We had flown for well over an hour
across the frozen emptiness from Nakina in a Norseman.

The Only Way in and Out:  by Bush Plane

A Norseman on Skis

Flickr ~ NOAA:  Rear Admiral Harley D. Nygren   License 

One thing I'm sure my mother understood quickly
was the risk of illness in the distant North.
I can imagine her taking stock of our medical kit after arriving,
and worrying about the what ifs as she sorted through
the bandaids, gauze dressings, adhesive tape, ace bandages,
calamine lotion, iodine, tweezers, safety pins, aspirin, and morphine.

I don't know what she thought, for my mother never burdened
me or my siblings with her worries when we were children.
She was the rock on which we could weather any storm.
She surrounded us with safety, certainty and optimism.

Fortunately while we were in Lansdowne House,
we children had only the usual colds and flu ~
Well, except for my brother who frequently had severe tonsillitis
and my sister Barb who stuffed an eraser up her nose
while clowning around in kindergarten with her Ojibwa friends. 

Whenever we were sick, however she cared for us,
the most welcome comfort she gave was sitting by our beds,
tucking our blankets up around us,
and soothing our foreheads with her cool hand.
Under her gentle touch, we knew we would be better soon
and all was right with our world.

Till next time ~

Fundy Blue

On the Shore of the Annapolis Basin

Smith's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada

July 24, 2016

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

For Map Lovers Like Me:

Map of Canada

Highlighting Ontario

Wikimedia

Location of Lansdowne House and Nakina

Wikimedia  edited

Route Map for Austin Airways, 1985

with Lansdowne House west of James Bay

Geraldton is near Nakina.

Wikipedia