Our family moved to Edmonton, Alberta, when I was just five years old. The reason wasn’t that they sought better pastures, but that they felt I needed a good Jewish education, which wasn’t available in the small town we lived at.
High Prairie, Alberta, was not a hub of Jewish families, so Dad sold his store to the Hudson’s Bay Company and moved us to Edmonton. My mother, who worked hand in hand with Dad, opted to become a stay at home mom.
At the time, what did I know, but when you think about it, it was a huge sacrifice. I mean she used to work with Dad, now they would be apart for a great part of the day. Not something one adapts to easily, and yet she never hesitated to do that.
In fact, looking back on it, she was always doing things like that, making the sacrifices for either Dad or me, always ignoring her own needs, or desires. Funny, how one doesn’t realize it at the time, or even really later on. We just take it for granted, which I don’t understand.
