I went to my mother’s grave site today to leave her a few things: some flowers, soil from the groundbreaking ceremony at St. Augustine’s School, and a card with a prayer for the new school.

This week was quite a special week for her.

First of all, she loved sports and the Olympics, so the success of the Canadian Women’s Curling and Hockey teams with their respective gold medals would have given her a lot of excitement and pleasure.

It was also a stunningly beautiful day. She loved the view and in her boxes of treasures she had many photos of the North Shore mountains covered with snow, just like today. I took this photo from her grave site at the appropriately named, Mountain View Cemetery.

On Sunday, all of her children were invited to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for a new school at her parish in Kitsilano, St. Augustine’s . It would have meant to world to her to know that we were ALL there. The principal wanted to get a photo with us wearing hard hats. She wanted us to know that the would not be breaking ground now without my mother’s generous support, as her contribution re-energized the fundraising efforts.

They have a nicely edited video of the day’s events. I managed to have a few words with Archbishop Miller about mom’s long association with the school and the parish.

The very best news is that the new music room will be dedicated to her memory. She loved music, she loved children, she loved her school and her church.