Wednesday, January 12, 2022
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Our condolences to you all, Glenda, Serge and family. We were so sad to hear of Inette’s sudden passing. The funeral and speeches that we watched online were such a wonderful tribute to her life.
Some of the earliest memories of your Mom that I think about were from 1969 when I first attended the “Pine Creek Elementary School”. She taught Grades 1-3 at the time and was THE most interesting lady I’d ever met. I marvelled at her makeup and jewellrey, her painted nails, her hair sprayed hair, which to my surprise/amazement, changed colour quite frequently! Each morning she would call out our names for her attendance records. Following “roll call”, I became slightly nervous as she proceeded to walk around the classroom to check our fingernails, which we placed on a handkerchief, on top of our desks. I was very careful to always have clean fingernails not knowing what would happen if I didn’t. As she passed by I remember her wonderful smell. She smelled like the sweetest perfume. All of these things were new and unfamiliar to me at the time, having grown up in a family of 11 children with a Mom who had none of that “pretty stuff”. “Mrs. Asmundson” wore beautiful clothes and had perfect penmanship.
I remember a large board that she covered with fabric then pinned insects on and added a description of each one. My favourite was the monarch butterfly which she’d placed near the top left hand side.
I was extremely shy in those early days and I sure appreciated her kindness to me, sometimes placing her hand on my shoulder, encouraging me with my schoolwork or to speak. I held her in the highest regard.
It was a very honourable thing to be the chosen student to pick up her plate or bagged lunch at the Patterson’s Restaurant. I might have drooled on her cream pie on the one occasion that I picked up her food. Man, I remember returning with that slice of pie!! …As I crossed the street I stared and smelled at that dessert with the toothpicks so neatly placed, to keep the filling from touching the plastic, which covered it so perfectly.
I clearly remember the hand bell she rung at the end of “recess” when it was time to line up and get back inside. At the beginning of the day we all met in one room where she confidently led us in singing O Canada and God save the Queen. I admired her every school day. Having said that, I do recall moments of being scared of her too, when she was “cross” at one of the Anderson boys who was misbehaving.
She was a hero in my eyes the day she poured warm water on my close friend “Janine Beaudette’s” tongue which was firmly stuck on the top of the frozen mud boot scraper.
So many wonderful memories I won’t ever forget.
