{"id":14401,"date":"2025-06-08T20:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T00:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/?p=14401"},"modified":"2025-06-08T20:49:57","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T00:49:57","slug":"mom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/?p=14401","title":{"rendered":"Mom\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Grandma, I will miss you forever and hope that I always make you proud.<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

He said<\/h1>\n

And with that, my family of six is half its size in the span of a year and a half\u2026 And the weirder piece in all of that is I am now an orphan. Weird to say that as a fifty-three-year-old adult, but I feel it in my heart.<\/p>\n

The last year and a half has been a journey I would wish on no one. In that time, I lost my best friend and brother, Greg. Four months later, we lost my father. Bam! In that span, we lost probably the two most influential male role models in my life. What\u2019s more to the point was there were a whole lot of other people who lost those two very meaningful people in their lives.<\/p>\n

Most notably, Danielle & Emelia.<\/p>\n

And Mom\u2026 She made life after their passing and doing better than we expected in her new Long-Term Care facility at Glendale Crossing despite already being in declining health with increasing mobility issues. She was in congestive heart failure but, like Dad, would always find a way to bounce back from setbacks.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That was until the last month or so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Towards the end of April, it was suggested that we move forward with palliative care as everyone on her care team who knew the situation better than anyone and we trusted could see the writing on the wall. And from the moment we moved forward on that, we were blown away at the support and care we got.<\/p>\n

In the last week, we started to see a very marked and increased decline and prepared ourselves for the inevitable. We messaged family and kept them in the loop, and there were visits with her that really lifted her spirits. Hell, Emelia even snuck over with us one time and got into her prom dress so Mom could have a preview of Emelia face to face\u2014Mom\u2019s smile was ear to ear. (Very similar to the time she saw Danielle before our prom).<\/p>\n

Tuesday morning (this week), we got messages from the care team that it was beginning to look like the time was near for us to drop what we are doing and to get bedside with her if we could.<\/p>\n

So we did.<\/p>\n

Somewhere just ahead of 7:00pm Tuesday evening, Mom took her last breath. The world felt a little less golden as her glow moved to a different plane. Shawn, Matthew, Danielle, & I were with her as she passed. She had a wonderful visit with her sister and niece just before. And her other sister and brother were there this weekend.<\/p>\n

There isn\u2019t a doubt in my mind that she felt loved by everyone she came into contact with. There also isn\u2019t a doubt in my mind that everyone she knew knew about her siblings, her husband, her kids, and her grandkids as she was so proud of her family.<\/p>\n

And within minutes of her passing after sharing with family, I got the most touching message from my absolute best friend from growing up that explained my Mom in a way that anyone who knows her would<\/p>\n

Sitting here listening to Van Morrison desperately wishing we were 13 years old and both your Mom and Dad were here to make your home feel like my home. Every ounce of my love and sympathy is finding its way to you tonight. What a brilliant, kind, beautiful soul your Mom was to me and a billion others. I wish I could say something more comforting. She didn\u2019t have to love my brother and me, but she did. And when we probably needed plenty of it. What a beautiful human.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Because that\u2019s who she was. She, like Dad, taught us to always<\/b> lead with love, care, and most of all, a \u201cwhat\u2019s mine is yours\u201d approach.<\/p>\n

The funniest thing to my brothers and me is how my Mom would ensure that everything was divided equally, right down to the last piece, to ensure fairness across all four boys, where my Dad, if asked why one kid got more of something than the other, would respond with, \u201cBecause I love him and I don\u2019t love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Everyone remembers the Festive Special at Swiss Chalet when it came with a Toblerone chocolate bar? My Mom would ensure that each kid got an equal amount of pieces. And when she got to the last triangle, she would actually cut that triangle into four so there were no cocoa favourites to be found. That was her in a nutshell.<\/p>\n

But, the bigger loss to speak of hits a chord with Danielle and me most. When we were early in university, we lost Danielle\u2019s mother to suicide. That is a solar system-sized hole in developing young women\u2019s hearts. And without ever being asked or ever trying to overstep boundaries, Mom filled a section of a colossal void in Danielle\u2019s life. She stepped up and was there for Danielle in ways that we mostly only recognized years later as we started our own family.<\/p>\n

With Greg, Dad, and now Mom, it feels like giant pieces of the universe I know, now missing. But don\u2019t take this post as sad or feel sorry for me. I recognize the fortune I was dealt with having those bigger-than-life personalities as my family and the privilege of being tasked with taking their presence forward. I will do the best I can with whatever time I get to do that in.<\/p>\n

Many will know my Mom as the kindergarten teacher. Many will know my Mom as the one who was officially or unofficially their Mom. Many will know my Mom as a great friend. I had the fortune of knowing all of those versions of her and so much more.<\/p>\n

Tonight, after we accepted that she was no longer with us, Matthew, Shawn, Danielle, and I went and had Swiss Chalet for dinner together \u2013 something we all know Mom would have been happy we did as it was her favourite.<\/p>\n

Mom, you are gone. I love you and will miss you like crazy. But, you are never forgotten as you are with the person I am still becoming.<\/p>\n

Love,
\nJohn<\/p>\n

She said<\/h1>\n
\n
It has taken me a few days after Helen’s passing \u00a0to find the words\u2014and the strength\u2014to put my thoughts into words.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
On Tuesday evening, we said our final goodbyes to my much-loved mother-in-law. But to me, Helen was never just my mother-in-law\u2014she was my second mom.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
When I joined the Teeter family 35 years ago, I was welcomed with open arms. From the very beginning, I was made to feel like one of their own\u2014another Teeter child, loved equally and completely. I was Helen\u2019s \u201cfirst daughter\u201d in a house full of sons, and I truly could not have been loved more.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Five years after joining John\u2019s family, my world shattered when I lost my own mum at just 21 years old. In my grief, Helen never tried to replace her\u2014she never overstepped. But with quiet strength and unwavering love, she supported me through the darkest time of my life. The Teeter family took in a broken university student and helped me find my way back to life.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
In the last 18 months, our family has had to say goodbye to three of the most important people in our lives: our big brother Greg, our father Doug, and now, our mom, Helen.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We hope we made you proud. We hope you felt how deeply you were loved. It brings us peace to know that we were there by your side, holding your hand, telling you\u2014again and again\u2014how much you meant to us.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
We will miss you forever, Mom. Thank you for being my second mother. I will love you always. And your grandbaby Emelia will carry forward your legacy with grace and pride. She will do everything in her life to make you proud.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
Our lives will never be the same without you, but we are all better\u2014stronger, kinder, and more loved\u2014because you were our mom and grandmother.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Love you forever, Helen.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grandma, I will miss you forever and hope that I always make you proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[745,122,229],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14401"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14406,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14401\/revisions\/14406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/teeterpod3.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}