“A strong woman loves, forgives, walks away, lets go, tries again, and perseveres… no matter what life throws at her.”

While our mother never actually said those words to us it was at the very core of who she taught us to be.  We were raised by a quiet somewhat reserved woman who had the heart of a lioness….okay we are Canadian so I will say bear instead.  She was fierce in her loyalty to those she loved but she was also uncompromising in her expectations of who we would become.

She once said when questioned why she never spoke of our accomplishments with the, shall we say, enthusiasm that other parents did… "I am not putting you up on a pedestal, it is just further for you to fall".

In truth there are a number of ways to interpret what our mother said but I think it is fair to say, and if you had known our mother you would agree, that she was making sure that we remained humble in all that we did.

Our mother worked hard all of her life and in October 2006 she was finally going to take her well deserved retirement.  Unfortunately 2 days later she received a devastating diagnosis of stage 4 lung cancer.  78 days later she was gone.

In honour of the woman that helped make us who we are today we are going to take a "78 conversations" journey to remind ourselves that life is precious and that we need to make time for the important things in life. During this journey we hope to challenge ourselves and hopefully you as well.

In our house the teapot was always on and the kitchen table was a place for gathering, conversation, commiseration and celebration.  Some of the most profound conversations we had with our mother were over a cup of tea.

So, we are going to have 78 cups of tea and 78 conversations that honour the woman that raised us.

This is for you Katherine Mae.

Thank you to our friend and editor Missie Brown.