Mother - joan

The Vision

Joan Delores was about 3 or 4 years of age when one morning she was awakened by the good smells created by her mother cooking breakfast. As she rolled from her side to her back, she noticed the figure of an old man in a black suite standing at the foot of her bed. She did not recognize him but felt no fear of the stranger because of his kind and caring expression. He then began to speak to her but without his lips moving. He said "Child you have nothing to fear in this life for I will always be watching over you". At that he was suddenly gone. Happy to have met this new friend and protector little Joan got herself up and dressed to go down stairs to the breakfast her mother had prepared. She sat at the table and asked her mother who the nice man was she had just met up stairs? Concerned, her mother asked "what old man?' Joan replied "the man standing over my bed as I woke up". Her mother asked "Can you describe him for me?" After she had describing the kindly old man, her mother simply said "Oh, that must have been your Grandfather Charles Sauve, my Father, who has come to visit you. He died a year before you were born.

This is just one of the many stories my mother told while I was growing up. But I particularly love this story because of the way it provides insight into the early and positive experiences and influences that helped to shape her  "world view".  Influences from both the spirit world and the Metis culture from her own mother who accepted the event as true, normal and even matter-of-fact. 

The Bully

Joan had just been enrolled in the local preschool. She had found a little girl friend in the same class. This little friend was unusual in that she had one brown eye and one blue eye. Joan thought she was beautiful. During one of their first recess periods, Joan and her new friend were at play in the sandbox when a tall boy from a more advanced grade came up to the sandbox and focusing on Joan's friend, began to ridicule and berate her for her strange and ugly eye coloring. The boy continued the abuse until the little girl began to cry. Having been born the youngest, into a family of five older brothers, Joan was no stranger to older boys pushing their weight around. So, Joan said to the boy "Just leave us alone and go away!" Undetered the boy continued the abuse, and stood even closer to the sandbox to increase his onslaught. Joan warned him again "JUST GO AWAY AND LEAVE US ALONE!" Again the boy continued as before. To this, Joan (who was very small for her age) jumped up and onto the wood sided edge of the sandbox which increased her to reach the boys face. She then punched him in the nose as hard as she possibly could. The punch was sufficeint to knock him to the ground and break his nose. Joan said the boy howled in pain while blood gushed from his nose in an unstoppable flow. Later that day the school administrator call Joan's mother to the school and was told that Joan was not ready to be in a classroom setting. Joans mother responded by saying "What kind of lesson do you teach by deciding to tolerate a bully who torments little girls while punishing my daughter who has shown  courage in standing up to him!"

The POOPY

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