Mabel Florence Crocker April 4, 1926 - August 7, 2014

This is the saddest blog post I have ever written. As many of my friends are aware, I lost my beautiful and beloved Mom one month ago today on August 7, 2014.  It was not unexpected but it also wasn't expected right at that moment either and it came as a terrible shock. As most can imagine, the last month has been very difficult on so many levels. My Mom was so much more than "Mom" to me. She was my best friend, travel companion and buddy for most of my adult life and her loss to me is huge. She had been failing in recent months, we knew this, and her quality of life had gone steadily down to a place she would never have wanted to be but she was always such a fighter. She fought her way back from many strokes and medical issues and somehow in the back of my mind I thought she would fight her way back from this latest round...but alas she was too tired and couldn't. She fought a very good fight and proved everyone wrong when medical staff told us that the most she had was 3 months following the last of many strokes she had in October of 2012. She was tenacious and never liked to be told what to do so she set out to prove them wrong and did!   RIP sweet my Mom, I love you and will miss you always....

                       This is one of the last pictures I took of Mom.

God's Garden Must Be Beautiful

God looked around the garden, and found an empty space. He looked down upon the earth, and saw your tired face. He put his arms around you, and lifted you to rest. God's garden must be beautiful for he only takes the best. He knew that you were weary, and he knew you were in pain. He knew that you would never be well on earth again. He saw the roads were getting rough, and the hills were hard to climb. So he closed your weary eyelids, and whispered peace be thine.

 

My Mom and Dad in 1945

 

My Mom, me and my baby brother in 1958

 

Mom and great granddaughter Dakotah

 

Mom and Great Grandson Jaime and Great Granddaughter Dakotah

 

 

 GaGa and Dakotah at Queens Park Hospital following one of her strokes

GaGa, Dakotah and Jaime going to Spaghetti Factory in October 2011

 

Mom and Great Grandson Kalani in January of 2010 

Mom and Great Grandson Teo in February 2012 

 

 

Mom with her dearly loved Grandsons Ben and James at one of all of our favorite places, Disneyland.

 

Mom in 2010 enjoying one of her favorite outings for fish and chips at Coney Island in White Rock before her strokes began

 Mom and Emily, Emily died in May of 2011, they adored one another

 

 Mom's favorite thing in the world was lemon meringue pie, this was 2011

 More lemon meringue pie, in 2012 this time

 Mom and Granddaughter Ana at the Spaghetti Factory

 

Mom in August of 2012

Mom and my brother Larry at Christmas 2012

Mom and I Halloween 2013

Christmas of 2013, Mom and Santa

                                           Mom at Christmas 2013

Mom and Great Granddaughter Dakotah, Canada Day tea 2014

Mom and Great Grandson Jaime and Granddaughter Analecia, May 2014

 

One of my favorite photos of Mom and Ana was on their shared birthday in 2010

Mom in Spring 2014 

Mom and Ana

 

 Walking outside at Queen's Park

 

 November 2012

 

 Summer 2012

2013

My Mom was not a collector of dolls however she enjoyed mine and bought me a lot of dolls when I was growing up!

 Here she is with a travelling Chatty that she got such a kick out of.

 Last year a friend sent me a darling outfit and Mom loved it! It is pink!

 Summer 2013

 Summer 2013

 Spring 2014, she had a fall and broke her arm but was still smiling:)

                                    Mother's Day 2014. She loved roses!

                               Mom and Ana's shared birthday 2014.

 No matter how tough things got and believe me they got tough many times in the last 3 and a half years, she never stopped smiling. If you brought out the camera she would smile, I will always remember that.....

                                 A few short days prior to her death, she was still smiling:)

God Saw You
God saw you getting tired, and a cure was not to be. So He put His arms around you and whispered "Come to ME". With tearful eyes we watched you, and watched you slip away. Although we love you dearly, we could not make you stay. A golden heart stopped beating, hard working hands at rest. God broke our hearts to prove to us, He only takes the best.

 

 

Years ago as her arthritis worsened and mobility became a problem Mom found TV, she enjoyed all the award shows, never missed an episode of Entertainment tonight and became hooked on CNN news. She loved the Grammy Awards, the Country Music awards and General Hospital...oh my she loved General Hospital!! She taped the episodes if she wasn't going to be home to watch them! She often would talk to me about the people on there like they were "real" and I guess to her they were. As her dementia became worse she lost interest in her shows. In the afternoons following General Hospital she would have a nap in her chair with this piece of a white cotton sheet over her eyes....the family joked about Mom and her white cloth moments...  She loved to travel in her younger years. She once went on a South Pacific cruise for 27 days all by herself! She loved Hawaii and visited their frequently and had many friends that would all go at the same time from all over the country and each year they would meet up under "the tree" on Wakiki beach. Before the dementia overtook her, she enjoyed all aspects of her life. In later years she would bomb around town in her red electric scooter, she loved that scooter and it afforded her lots of trips out she wouldn't have been able to do on foot.

Walk In Sunshine

May you always walk in sunshine
And God’s Love around you flow,
For the happiness you gave us,
No one will ever know.

It broke our hearts to lose you,
But you did not go alone,
A part of us went with you,
The day God called you home.

A million times we needed you,
A million times we cried,
If love could have only saved you,

You never would have died.

                                             RIP My Sweet Mom!

Crocker (nee Jacura) , Mabel Florence

April 4, 1926 – August 7, 2014

 

Passed peacefully after a long illness in Queens Park Hospital in New Westminster. Survived by daughter Linda (Fil)  and Son Larry . Also survived by grandsons Ben, James, (Nicci) Kevin and granddaughter Analecia, great grandchildren Dakotah, Jaime, Kalani and Teo. Brother John (Pat) and many nieces and nephews. Predeceased by husband Claude, her mother Celia (Labreque) and father Peter, sisters Pearl, Loraine, Stella, and brothers Cappy (Lawrence) and Albert. Mom loved her family more than anything and was extremely devoted to us. She enjoyed her time in Hawaii for many years and made frequent visits there until illness sidelined her. She also had a special fondness for Disneyland and made many trips there over the years on family vacations with her grandchildren. Mom was a fighter, she fought her illness and limitations right up until the end. After the strokes started, and her prognosis was poor, she survived and fought her way back much to the amazement of many. We will miss her spirit and her spunk! She will always be in our hearts and will be dearly missed.

Our family wishes to thank the staff of 2 west at Queens Park Hospital, Dr. Nick Petropolis, Dr. Doritt Klarke, Karen, Anne and all the nurses, caregivers and staff who tried to make her last few years more comfortable. There will be no public service per her wishes, and donations can be made in her name to the BC Heart and Stroke Foundation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

American Girl and Our Generation

After a very trying month, a couple of nice things happened this week. On August 28, 2014 American girl revamped their historical line and premiered their new line titled "Beforever" and they brought one of their very popular archived historicals, Samantha Parkington out of the archives! Samantha was the first American Girl I owned so I was very intrigued by the new line and bringing her back! The information has been available for quite some time through fan websites and I had an Amazon Gift card from a contest win stored in my Amazon account so I went hunting to see if the mini dolls were there and sure enough they were available for preorder so I ordered Samantha in her new outfit and also Kit Kittredge who was revamped and now has a bit shorter hair and a new meet outfit also. Both of my new mini dolls arrived this week. I had already heard they were not like the former mini dolls as the new ones are all vinyl! I actually think it is quite nice as their clothes look nicer on them. I don't think I would like the 18 inch girls to change to all vinyl but the mini dolls seem to look quite nice in this new format. I am just in love with Samantha's new dress and can't wait to get it for my Samantha! I also heard an interesting rumor that 4 of the historical dolls including Samantha will be coming to the Vancouver and Toronto boutique stores very soon. I have not been able to confirm this yet although someone has told me a release date so keeping my fingers crossed on that! Here are the new mini dolls, they are quite cute...Kit has an awful lot of freckles and looks a bit funny around the month but her new "look" may grow on me. I do love her new meet outfit though!

Yesterday I had some things I needed to take care of in the US so my husband kindly volunteered to take me on a field trip. It was a gorgeous summer day for a little road trip! Border lineups were very light and we got across much quicker than we expected to. After I took care of the things I went for we carried on to Bellingham. We are having beautiful warm weather in these parts and this was the temperature on Meridian in Bellingham yesterday afternoon!

I had an opportunity to do a little shopping and came home with a couple of really nice finds! Our Generation has come out with a mini doll and had 5 or 6 different hair and eye combinations of them. They look to be a tiny bit taller than the American girl ones and their eyes are glass and not painted. I Had a hard time choosing which one to bring home but eventually ended up with Mini Sienna. I don't like her vest so will be removing that as soon as I take her out of the box but I liked her face and eye and hair combination best of all the dolls they had in stock.

The Our Generation Line in the US has so much more than ours in Canada and there were so many really nice things. They even sell shoes in packages that are not at all like the ones that come packaged in the dress sets available here. As I was going through the many boxes of accessories they had available, I came across an item i have seen pictured online for quite some time and really wanted to buy but was reluctant to pay Ebay prices and shipping on. My surprise find was the Plaid to Meet You set which consists of a doll sized red laptop computer, a stylus, and an adorable red plaid and black faux leather laptop bag decorated with an adorable black Scottie Dog. I am just in love with this darling doll accessory!

Here is my Jess doll and she loves her new laptop!