:: crapweasel ::
the official blog of
Dave Tompkins

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Woohoo... starting to get excited! They've released the title crawl for Episode III.

Okay... so I should lighten up a little. I just want to point out that Tompkins made another (brief) appearance in a Teen Girl Squad cartoon. That Tompkins is such a renegade. Click on the exclamation point at the end for a Tompkins Easter Egg.

Today my Grandmother Isabel Peter (Zubricki) passed away. She was my last surviving grandparent and she will be missed dearly.

Before I say a few words, I thought I'd give my cousin Denise's words from the funeral:

Gramma showed her great love for all of us in her cooking. She put her heart into preparing great feasts for her family. She took great pride in pleasing us with her feasts of love. Whether it was an intimate visit or a large family gathering – we always felt at home at Gramma’s place.

Gramma lived for the gardening season and spent countless hours caring for her vegetable and flower gardens – she always shared her bounties with others.

We respect Gramma for her lifetime of hard work, dedication, generosity, and determination for her family.

One of my fondest childhood memories at Gramma’s place was sitting on her back patio with all my cousins on a hot summer day, and Gramma brought out a platter of watermelon and watched us enjoy it.

I’ll miss talking with Gramma and kissing her soft cheeks.

We look forward to meeting Gramma again and we feel comforted to know that she will be there to welcome us into heaven.

And my sister's speech:

I have the same childhood memories of Grandma as Denise does, but my most treasured memories of her are more recent.

After living in Delhi for many years, Grandma moved to London 3 years ago. Since then, we had become a lot closer – mostly because I was able to see Grandma every week.

Since Grandma’s afternoon homecare did not work on weekends, it was our responsibility to make sure Grandma was eating her dinner and taking her insulin. This became my task when mom was working. More than once when I was over visiting with her and helping her get ready for bed, she would say “oh, Tina, you are so good to me.” I would always laugh because I didn’t think that there was anything special that I did for her.

One of my favourite memories is our Tim Horton’s time together. Grandma loved her Tim Horton’s coffee so I tried to bring her a treat every week by dropping in with a fresh cup for her. We would sit and talk while she drank her coffee and I drank my tea.

The last time I saw Grandma alive was last Monday. Because of Bank holidays, I didn’t have to work so I dropped in with some Tim’s. Grandma was just getting over the flu that we all had over Christmas but she was, finally, starting to feel better.

I came inside and found her resting in her room. I walked in and gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. She was half asleep at the time but the minute that I said that I had a coffee for her, she perked right up and said “Coffee… I’ll get up”. As I said, she loved her Tim’s.

I was talking to my Brother, David, who lives in Vancouver and was not able to attend. He said that, when he came back for Christmas a few weeks ago, it was hard seeing Grandma look so frail because he has always thought of her as being so strong.

No matter what my memories are of Grandma – frail or strong, when I was younger or more recently - I know that I am going to treasure all of them and that I am going to miss her a lot.

My sister's comments are very true. Because I was sick over the holidays, I only got to see Grandma for 15 minutes and I was shocked to see how frail she looked as my mother was spoonfeeding her applesauce.

All my life she had been such a strong woman. The head of a large household, she had to deal with the families of her 5 children -- and trust me when I say that we're all a little nuts -- but my memories of Grandma were of a strong, commanding woman who would tell it as it is, and who wouldn't put up with any of our shit.

I remember trips to Grandma's house very fondly... food. Lots of food... and good food too. If I'm out at a restaurant and they server cabbage rolls, I'll try them, but I have yet to eat a cabbage roll that even comes close to the ones Grandma made. Rounding out the top 5 Grandma foods would have to be her homemade soups, her crepes, her cherry pies, and the holiday spread with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.

If I had to pick just one Grandma memory that makes me laugh whenever I think of it: Every Christmas we'd get an envelope with some cash from Grandma... and one year I remember it was a little bit more money than normal... I went to her to say thank you, and she said “Well, don't expect that much next year... Grandma just had a good night at Bingo”. Goodbye Grandma.

So it's the new year, and after being really sick over the break, I'm finally feeling better and settling in to our new lab in our cool new building. It's a fantastic work area, and I anticipate huge increases in my productivity.

But I just have to say that the new water-free urinals really kind of freak me out.