Easter According to Michael

I don’t remember Easters very well. It is a holiday I have always felt kind of awkward about as its religious context(s) mostly escape me and only after being with Sundi over a decade ago have I celebrated it as an adult.

For me, still, I focus on the chocolate. I know that sounds horrible, but it is what it is. These days especially when you can get Lindor eggs and such at reasonable sales rates post-easter.

Building up to the post this week there was a building anxiety as to what I was going to write. I couldn’t remember much about my Easters with Mamie. I couldn’t remember many Easters with anyone. So I had to call in the person who now takes up Mamie’s roll as observing and guiding me through the majority of my life: my brother Michael.

For those of you just joining the conversation, Mike is 6 years my senior and was a constant (positive) presence in my life from when I was born until my early teens when mom, dad, and I moved from Sarnia, Ontario to Earltown, Nova Scotia. Mike decided to stay in Ontario to finish his high school and hang out for the rest of his life with Keith. Well, maybe he hadn’t fully decided the latter then, but he definitely stayed for high school.

Anyways, Mike was my guide through a lot of tough times and I thought he would have a lot more memories around Easter than I did. Turns out I was right. With his acute memory and acumen for storytelling Mike shared a bunch of details about things I had mostly forgotten.

The highlights:

  1. Mom always made sure we had something pretty cool the morning of Easter. This usually came in the form of a hollow egg with frosting accents that laid on their backs in the packaging. The colours and tastes of these eggs varied year to year, but I definitely can taste one right now just thinking about it. Regardless of colour, the frosting tasted the same.
  2. After East mom would go a little nutty with the buying of chocolate on sale (I guess I know where I get it from). She would make sure we had lots of chocolate and whatever else was a good deal for months to come. This is why both Mike and I can’t eat white chocolate anymore. One year we each got 6 or so solid huge white chocolate rabbits. That is way too much white chocolate.
  3. Mom stopped bringing us to church services at Easter after she believed we’d gotten some of the moral compass stuff. We basically said: That’s enough and she respected us enough to say okay.
  4. Mamie made Easter last for a long time.
  5. She made us very happy little boys.

So, on this Easter, I propose a toast to all those parents/partners/friends/siblings/children who create that happiness that exists in most cases for a few days, and in others what may (amazingly) seem like forever.

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