March the eighth is International Women’s Day which celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity and aims to help eliminate discrimination against women.
Memories of strong women
I wanted to share a few memories I have of the strong women that are and have been in my life.
Both my grandmothers were born in the late 1800s. My maternal grandmother lived in an age where women gave birth at home. On one occasion she went into labour and had already delivered the baby on her own when her husband returned home. They had eleven children, losing one of a set twins at age five months. She lived to the age of ninety-two.
My paternal grandmother borrowed money from her brother to pay for her passage to immigrate from Russia to the United States. She travelled on her own at age sixteen on a ship from England, befriending an older couple and staying close to them for the duration of the passage for safety. When she arrived, she worked to pay off the money she had borrowed. She landed in New York and then travelled to Chicago where she met and married my grandfather. Eventually, they moved to Saskatchewan with everything they owned in this steamer trunk.
One year, Grandma noticed a duck that liked to “quack” at her when she walked through the pasture past a slough to fetch the cows. She set her sights on the duck and brought the shotgun with her on her next trip to the pasture. She spotted a small piece of wood in the mud amongst the cattails. In her cotton dress she stepped onto the piece of wood, raised her weapon and took aim at the unsuspecting duck. She closed one eye and pulled the trigger. The power of the gun’s recoil caught her off guard and she went tumbling into the mud.
They spent one summer living in a granary while Grandpa built them a house. With her husband by her side she had ten children, suffering the loss of two daughters, one at five days old and the other at age twelve.
Grandma was a widow for over thirty years and suffered from diabetes. She lived to the age of ninety-one.
Alongside my dad, Mom worked on the farm for fifty years and together they raised five children. She was a generous caregiver to her parents and her husband in their later years. Mom took a class when she was in her forties and obtained her drivers license to become more independent. One time she got her hand stuck in a ringer washer and required skin grafting to repair it. Today, Mom is in her nineties and is courageously battling Parkinson’s disease.
My mother-in-law is first and foremost a farm woman. She also worked different jobs including as a school bus driver, butcher shop worker, cook at several restaurants, and as a cook and housekeeper for a local farmer. She was widowed at the age of fifty-two and has remained on the farm with her son for the last thirty-eight years.
When the load in life gets heavy, draw strength from the women who have walked through your life. She could be your mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunt or sister. The women who came before me said that they didn’t think their life was hard because they knew nothing different. I wonder if I will say that about myself one day.
Things we can do to celebrate women:
- Tell them or write to them saying what you admire about them.
- Buy them flowers, a small gift or take them out.
- Acknowledge the work they do.
- Donate to a women’s shelter.
- Attend a virtual women’s networking event.
We are each responsible for our own thoughts and actions. We can choose to challenge stereotypes, fight bias, broaden perceptions, improve situations and celebrate women’s achievements.
As women we need to build each other up, not strike each other down. We need to stand as a unified group to continue to move forward.
Happy International Women’s Day to all my female readers.
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©️Copyright 2021 Norma Galambos
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