May 14 2006
(The following was submitted to the Edmonton Journal by Evan Chrapko as an entry for their "Special Mom" contest)

In all our travels and business dealings, my siblings and I have never met a more "Gentle-Strong" person than our Mom.Words aren't enough to describe why our Mom is world class, so suffice it to have readers imagine, if they can, growing up as the elder of two daughters of first-generation immigrants on a remote, sparse pioneer farm. Go further in your mind by acquiring a nursing degree at the U of A, finishing at the top of your class.Then marry an ambitious farmer back home and raise four kids, all born within a 5-year span . Work tirelessly, under financially & physically trying conditions to expand the farm 10-fold in size and complexity, at one point motivating the Lieutenant Governor of the province to conduct a ribbon-cutting ceremony to officially open your unique, very large hog operation. Do all of this while not only retaining your nursing credentials at the local hospital (with a renowned bedside manner), but also championing innovative wound therapy alternatives and being a key motivator for the establishment of an Alzheimer's Home in your community. In your mind's eye, try to ALSO conceive of running an insurance brokerage business out of the farm house, as well as being the family's accountant/tax planner, event scheduler, repair procurement specialist, gardener (1 full acre), food preserver, school lunchbox-filler-upper, chef (whether feeding just your husband or 16 farm hands & unexpected visitors) and confidante.Come to a full stop in this mental journey by flat-lining in the aftermath of a car accident with a semi-trailer truck...you being the lone occupant of the car on a remote rural road. You are so mangled the paramedics called in the helicopter air ambulance, "STARS", because the locals didn't have a hope of helping you. In flight, you die. The doctors who were assembling at the city hospital trauma center are told they can go home. However, your will to live--your deep pool of inner strength--then kicks in for you then "come to", albeit barely (possibly because you want to live to see at least one grandchild).You are unconscious to start with, and after the 16-hour operation to put you back together, all of your family and friends wonder whether we will ever *really* have you back. You do come back, indeed...your memories, your sense of humor, all the intangible, non-physical gifts that make you "you" and our Mom. You then hold on for a grueling, often pain-wracked physical recovery that takes 3 years and multiple more surgeries, greatly assisted by your eldest daughter, Tonia, and your husband who remain at your bedside the whole time. That was 6 years ago.In your mind's eye, wind down the labor intensive hog operation. Then imagine that you and your husband--ever the visionaries--are now the proud owner/operators of Alberta's very first organic-fruit cottage winery, called "en Sante Winery", based on the family farm. You are looking forward to the first bottling this spring, under the label Forbidden Fruit.For icing on the cake, carry off everything above over several decades with such a quiet dignity--with such grace and humility--that some people think you're a member of the clergy.That's our Mom.And that's why my first-born daughter, who is also Mom's first grandchild, is named after the gentlest strong person in the world--my Mom.

-- Evan, Mom's first-born.

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