Oh, life.

Some would say I am a very intelligent person. Others will say I’m a good critical thinker and then there is my daughter who reminds me how embarrassing I can be.

While I did well in school I wasn’t “book smart” per se. I was actually bored in many subjects but the ones that interested me, I excelled in. World religions, World politics and Business administration were my favourites. Any class I could debate with someone, I was all in!

My mom was a supply teacher so, not at least trying in the other subjects, that was non negotiable.

I went to Greek school every Saturday for 8 years and then when it was offered as an elective in night school? Sign me up!

To be fair, yes I spoke Greek fluently but Greek School taught us how to read and write in Greek properly.

Anyhow, now that I look back at what interested me in high school I realize that the path I followed in life are the same as the subjects I excelled in.

World religions was about spirituality that we all have. While we may all not believe in the same God, we all believe in something. Even an atheist believes there’s no God, therefore he believes.

Truth is, I wanted to believe there was something beyond this life because it gave me comfort even though it wasn’t proven, that there was more after this life once my mom is gone.

My mom was pretty religious growing up, or so I thought. We went to church every Sunday, I was president of our Youth group and we avoided meat on Wednesdays and Fridays like any perfect Greek Orthodox.

My Yiayia to this day tells us she wish she became a nun so that she could spend her entire day with God. She was a bit overkill at times but she never pushed us and we loved challenging her at family dinners on why our religion was better than others. The best part was when she would deflect and say, “Ask your mother, she knows.”

Then, one night during foot rubs and conversation (a thing I did with mom in her past few months of life) we were talking about death and she asked me if I was starting to accept that she will move on. It sparked my attention because she wallets would refer to Heaven when she spoke about passing, and yet that night she used the words, “move on”.

“Mom, are you scared to die?” I asked her with a quiver in my voice and eyes welled with tears

“Of course I am. I don’t know what’s out there. I want to believe there is a Heaven because it gives me comfort but what if there isn’t?” She replied with her head tilted to one side as if she was looking to me for guidance.

I was shocked.

My mother, who was raised by my Yiayia who was so religious that she reminded my poor Papou every day that the only reason she married him was because his father offered two goats to her father (apparently never delivering on the promise of the goats) and was told by her father that she was not to be a nun because she was to marry. My Yiayia who does air crosses over your head before you leave the house to go anywhere, yes that Yiayia, raised my mom and here we were questioning if there was a Heaven?!

I panicked internally. How would I respond so that mom would feel comfort rather than fear?

The room was dead quiet as I finished putting the lotion on her feet.

I stood up, walked over to the side of the bed and bent over to expose my back tattoo that she didn’t know about.

“Oh my God, what is that on your back?”

she asked with her eyes popping out of her head.

I smiled and said, “See, the first person you reach out to for guidance IS God”

She started laughing. While holding onto her broken ribs (after so much chemo her bone density went to Hell)

She stopped, took a deep breathe and goes “How much is that going to cost me to have it removed?” Followed by,

“I knew. Don’t think I didn’t know.”

We never spoke about it again. Not about fear of death and not about the tattoo.

The tattoo is two small waves of water. The sign for Aquarius. Both my mom and I were Aquarius and she always said that I was literally the description to a “T”.

Then there was World Politics. Being a “fixer” I was drawn to this subject because I needed to analyze how Maria Mavridis would one day save the world (or maybe just her Municipality- google Mavridis Town Council for some horrible newspaper shots of my face in meetings)

A few years ago I realized there was a big cross over in my community events and initiatives and our local Town Hall.

Being a mother now, and thinking I could “fix” a few things for the better, I put my name in the race.

My platform? Basically to clean up loose ends.

While I was pretty well known and respected in the Town, I was close to the Mayor of the time. She was a lifetime politician, moved from the Big city of Toronto, and lead the Town for 4 years. When Covid hit, I reached out to her with questions as a local business owner and soon found out that she needed some guidance with the business community and was very open to listening and working together. While we had our coffee and chats, we would discuss other issues in our town and she was always respectful in our debates.

We hardly ever agreed on everything but we became good friends. Once she started to open up about personal life losses and struggles I realized that while she presented as a strong female leader who let things roll off her back, she had “fixer” complex like I did because of it.

Anyhow, she was running again for her position and of course, those who didn’t like her automatically labelled me for being associated/friends.

Election night was one of the most emotional nights I had that year.

It started off with the fact that my biggest supporter and campaign manager and friend didn’t come to watch as the results were coming in. However I was surrounded by many others, so I rolled my shoulders back.

I was trailing behind. With just minutes to final results, I filled the dead last spot with only 60 more votes than the candidate below me.

We also now had a new Mayor.

The first year in Council was frustrating.

It was basically cleaning up loose ends from the previous term and learning policy and procedures while opening Social media to see your name dragged through the mud. The emails I would get from residents that I had known for 30 years as friendly, were all of a sudden questioning my integrity.

I wasn’t cut out for this shit and besides if I wanted to hear someone tell me daily how much I screwed up, I could just go to the office and hang out with my dad.

But for every email or post of attack, there would be one of support.

-Keep doing what you are doing, we appreciate you.

-I knew your mom and she would be so proud of you today.

-Are you going to come to work, or just do council? Wait, sorry that was my dad.

I’m still here. Still representing to the best of my ability. Will I run for another term? Ummm…

And finally Business administration, which to be totally honest I most definitely learned more by working next to my dad all these years but it was the one class I met my friend, Paul and we have been in each other’s lives ever since.

While our parents entertained us by “letting” us go to college (which we went to the same one) they really had the expectation that we were going to be running the family business once we were done.

I’ll be honest, I don’t think I would’ve survived living that far from home had Paul not been there. While I enjoyed getting to know my roomates and meeting new people and falling asleep in class because we stayed out too late the night before for “Twoonie Tuesdays”, my anxiety was through the roof.

Paul has gone on to become a Chef (taught by some of the best in the World) and now runs the family Winery. He also went on to become my one constant in my life who picks up on the first ring and is my “fixer”.

He was there, bedside when my mom took her last breath and he will be in my life until I take mine.

We have laughed together, cried together, travelled together even divorced together. My constant.

Oh, life, it can be so crazy at times yet so simple. Our paths are drawn out for us, which ever path we choose, we will always end up in the same place at the end of it all. I would like to believe that is with a God in a heaven, where my mom is watching from and waiting but who knows?

Mom knows, she knows everything.