Fresh Air in My Linens

How Sheila Mary Diakiw touched our lives

Just this minute, I flopped down on top of the quilt on my bed. The first sense I am aware of is smell. Fresh air, fresh linens, fresh laundy. My dear cleaning lady has been here today, putting things to rights on a day I needed it more than almost any other. It reminds me of my room as a child on a spring day. Sheets fresh off the line made my bed the most fabulous place 
on earth.

My beautiful momma drew her last breath last night. She was (and this is not just my opinion) a force. Sheila Mary Diakiw (nee Sowden) was a fiery, intelligent, witty, funny and very talented juggernaut. She raised six children (carried eight). She loved and supported a husband who succumbed to alcoholism, mental illness and, finally, suicide of the most violent nature. Undeterred, she found work with the RCMP as a civilian member, and then joined CSIS (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service). Due to security concerns, I never actually knew what she did (but I did sleep better knowing she was doing it). All the while, she wrote creatively, gardened year-round, prepared incredible meals and entertained anyone who needed shelter from their own personal storm.

She was a Supermom. Nothing mattered to her more than all of you.
 — Jerry Diakiw

My mom had a tough childhood, but not insurmountable. She grew up in Simcoe, Ontario. She had a good home, if you can describe alcoholic, warring parents who used their children as pawns as good….She was often spirited away in the night with her baby brother by her mom, back to Salt Lake City and away from her father. But she had food, love and shelter and beautiful memories here and there — growing up on a farm of peaches, asparagus, tobacco and a grand stone house built by her father.

She was a graduate of the University of Western Ontario, Brescia College. She read voraciously. She made friends easily, but suffered fools poorly.
She was generous to a fault with her time and love. She volunteered at hospices, teaching her youngest children the importance of every aspect and milestone of life.

Mom was highly sensory. Smells, beauty, music and great food moved her to poetry. Newborns, flowers, laundry fresh from the line, Willie Nelson, Gregorian chant and L’il Abner pork chops. If there was sunshine outside, the windows were open, fresh air chasing out stale air and comingling with the smells of baking, pickling, or a roasting chicken.

She was Bellogia perfume, tailored little shifts, and hats — Jacquie Kennedy incarnate. Sheila Mary Lollipop was handmade gingham skirts adorned with bric-a-brac. Sheila Mary was size seven and a half, triple A, very, very fine shoes. Nonny was a threat behind the wheel and could sing harmony to anything. She was peek-a-boo, grilled cheese sandwiches and unspeakably bad language.

Her story is worth a book. Her life was priceless. 
We will always miss you, mom.