Linda Liebrentz married Eduard Kubke on March 16, 1957, in Calgary, Alberta. She had been living in East Germany and didn’t see a future there.  This courageous woman escaped East Germany by taking a train to West Germany.  She told authorities she was going to visit family for an afternoon, but instead she boarded a plane and flew to Canada.  She left without saying goodbye to her mother, brothers or sisters, with the exception of Lucie.  She arrived with the clothes on her back and a small satchel.  She and Ed started their married life in a small house in Renfrew that they shared with Uncle Bernhard and Tante Adele.  Linda & Ed would have been married fifty years in March, 2007.  Those fifty years had their share of good times and bad times and they stayed together through it all.  My parents had ways of communicating that would make marriage counsellors cringe, and certainly made us kids cringe, but eventually we learned to appreciate that being a good wife also meant being honest and standing up for what was right.

Linda worked hard at being a mother to the three of us, Rita, Rose and me.  She had difficult pregnancies and difficult labours, so for her, the challenges of parenting started from inception.  It didn’t get easier:  soon Mom had an 18 month old, a newborn, little in the way of finances, and a husband who was either building a house in Rosscarrock or working full time.  She had no family here to support her and limited language skills, but somehow she met and exceeded the challenge.  Soon there was a third addition to the family and Mom would take the three girls on little adventures to the zoo, the Stampede, Dairy Queen and all with the help of City Transit. Rita, Rose and I were dressed in the best that children’s clothing stores had to offer while Mom wore the same winter coat year after year.  It was very important to Mom that we did well in school.  She not only helped us with homework; she motivated us by eliminating chores if you had to do homework.  I don’t know how she did it but we grew up wanting to do housework, and even fought over who would get to do the vacuuming.  (The one who was left to do the dusting would Pledge the hardwood floors so the next person to walk there would get the ride of their lives.)  Mom didn’t mind, it was great entertainment.  When we tired of that, Mom would let us watch TV:  she loved the Carol Burnett show, the Ed Sullivan show, Disney movies, Bob Hope, Doris Day and Rock Hudson.  Our camping trips were another source of entertainment.  We started by picking cherries in Kelowna, then spent many summers in Osoyoos, went to Vancouver Island, Yellowstone and spent countless weekends camping in North Ghost.  Dad did the work of building 20 foot high bonfires and Mom packed, unpacked, cooked, cleaned and looked after the kids.  It’s only now that I realize how much energy that took and I’m amazed that Mom made it look so easy.  She makes the Energizer Bunny look like a slacker.  Mom eventually progressed to Grandmom and revelled in the role of Oma.  She started by spoiling Rachelle and Alex in their early impressionable years, and then looked after Lindsay and Nikki after school and on holidays.  She loved to feed them pudding and candy just before Rita came home and made supper.  Aydan was the most recent light of her life.  She loved dancing with him and playing with him.  Whenever we phoned to talk to Mom, we would get an update on Aydan’s bowel movements, the lunch menu she had planned for the next day and then a quick sign-off so she could play hide and seek with him.

Mom expressed her love for others in many ways but the best was through her cooking.  This was the stuff of legends.  Mom would scour several stores for the best cuts of meat and the freshest produce.  She never skimped on food.  Some meals weren’t as gladly received as others, like the head cheese or the beef tongue but the majority of the time, we were in heaven.  Mom’s tortes were to die for, especially the black forest cake which quickly became the favourite of family and friends (it might have been the bottle of brandy that she poured over top of the cake).  Her cinnamon buns were light and fluffy, her rum cake moist, and her cheesecakes lemony and creamy.  A Sunday tradition was to have roast duck for the noonday meal and two tortes for the evening meal.  Friends and family who were treated to her meals left happy and satisfied, especially my husband.  As we grew older and us girls started to host family functions in our homes, Mom loved to bring the meat, whether it was turkey or marinated T-bone steaks.  I remember Mom buying a fifty dollar roast for Roger’s birthday, which was thoroughly enjoyed.  Her cooking was a great gift.

Another passion of Mom’s was her garden.  She started by growing tea roses in Calgary.  After she and Dad purchased their lots in Shuswap, she finally had both space and a gentle climate.  She planted a vegetable garden, fruit trees, and countless flowers.  She loved all kinds of flowers: roses, clematis, lilies, tulips, hydrangeas, and irises.  Every morning she would go out and water her babies.  She loved seeing the miracle of what would grow from a wrinkled seed or bulb.  Often after planting, Mom would go out every hour to see if anything had sprouted.  She loved seeing the results of her labour, and loved the harvest.  She would only pick fruit that was perfectly ripe.  I remember one year she checked the grapes and said to herself: “Tomorrow they will be at their best for picking.”  A bear foiled her plans by getting to her grapes that evening.  He left a sign of appreciation.  Mom wasn’t too bothered, saying she had to share her bounty.  Mom was incredibly generous and shared her harvest with her kids, extended family, and friends.  She donated to many charities and all the neighbourhood kids knew to go to Mom’s place at Halloween for bags filled with oversize chocolate bars and candy.  Many kids came back two or three times.

Mom received a Bernina sewing machine as a birthday present from Dad.  She put that machine to good use and quickly became an accomplished seamstress.  She sewed everything: tops, pants, dresses, coats, and even swimsuits.  We loved the beautiful clothes she made while we were in elementary school but unfortunately for us, her zeal continued well into our teens.  We were the only junior high students to wear purple polyester pant suits with floral polyester trim.  We eventually recovered from the trauma and I think knowing how much we were loved helped a lot.

Mom just didn’t count on love to heal us from aches and pains: she had her arsenal of sure fire products: rubbing alcohol, Sunlight soap, and especially Penaten cream.  Some of the ways she used these products were unorthodox, like using the rubbing alcohol as eye drops, but others did indeed work, like Penaten cream, or zinc oxide, for skin rashes.  Rose has to keep several containers around the house, in the car, and in the trailer since Mom converted Aydan.  In addition, we also have several bars of Sunlight laundry soap in our houses.  It gets stains out of clothes and eases muscle pain, duck mite itch and mosquito bites.  I remember once when Mom dug into an underground wasp’s nest with her spade and got stung by an entire swarm of wasps.  She simply washed herself with Sunlight soap to get rid of the venom, and went back out to garden some more.

Mom gave good advice.  Most often she’d tell us to avoid dairy products and she always encouraged us to pray.  As it turns out, she was right on both counts.  In Rita and me, the dairy caused great intestinal turmoil.  Our families were extremely relieved when that problem was solved.  Mom prayed a lot, for herself and for all of us.  God rescued my mom from very, very dangerous situations in Poland, Germany and here in Canada and He has rescued us as well.  Mom’s prayers were a gift so great that we cannot fathom it.

While in our minds we know Mom is gone, our hearts are still connected.  We knew that heart before we took our first breath.  Although Mom’s heart no longer beats in her body, her love is in our hearts and so beats on.  Linda’s whole life was a continual gift.  She unceasingly blessed all those around her.  We loved her indomitable spirit, her sense of humour, her honesty (most of the time), her courage, her wisdom, her generosity, her love of life.  How can we possibly thank her for all that she did?  I know that she is with God in heaven right now, and that her every need is looked after.  We can thank Linda by living life to the fullest, by buying the best cuts of meat, by baking a great cake, by dancing with a toddler, by turning to God in prayer, and by planting a rose.