A Final Farewell

No, I'm not planning on leaving the blogging world. This is about my mother, Helen Fern Woodliffe, who after a full life of 95+ years, passed away last Monday.

These past few weeks and months have been especially chaotic in many ways. It was particularly challenging for my aging mother who met her physical decline with determination as well as frustration. Anyone reading this who has had to deal with aging parents will understand.

This is not intended to be an adequate eulogy, but I want to touch on a few things. She and my dad were incredibly influential in my life in so many ways, of course. Not the least was with respect to my interest, career and hobbies pertaining to nature.

Our family loved to travel and explore. When we travelled we wouldn't look for the things and activities that many families did. We never went to Disney World nor sought out the Canada's Wonderland or other theme park types of things to do. We didn't go on vacation to be entertained. No, we explored natural areas.

This first photo was our family back in the summer of 1953 (that is me in the stroller....I was less than a year old) with my older sister, Susan, and dad, as we explored Waterton Lakes National Park in Alberta. My younger sister, Patricia, came along a couple of years later.

We travelled to the west coast and east coast and places in between on several occasions as I was growing up, always camping in our tent or tent trailer at provincial parks or national forests. The travel bug has remained firmly entrenched with me in my adult years.

In my teenage years, I remember fondly going to places like Rondeau Provincial Park with mom and/or dad when we had caught up on our farm work, with various Peterson field guides in hand and binoculars around our necks, trying to identify everything we could. That interest in the natural world which I got at an early age was part of the reason I could make a career out of exploring and defending natural areas and the myriad species that make them up.

In mom and dad's retirement, they were able to spend even more time travelling, camping and exploring across the continent and beyond. Family members joined them as often as we could, whether it be in Arizona or Algonquin or somewhere else. This next photo is of my family along an Algonquin trail. That is Tim, Marie and Kristin in between my parents in 1994.

Mom was not afraid of a challenge. She was constantly learning. Here she is at age 90, on the Spicebush Trail of Rondeau with my wife Marie, using her iPod to check on some bird songs she was hearing along the trail in mid-May.

Nature was just one of many facets of mom's life. But it was an important one, and for anyone reading this who has benefited from my knowledge of the natural world in any way, be aware that my parents' influence is partly responsible!

Right now I am sure mom is enjoying time with her heavenly Father, as well as my dad, and they are busily rejoicing and exploring the perfect creation there. I look forward to joining them someday.