Piece of Mind: When Thanksgiving carries extra-special meaning

For me for the last 52 years Thanksgiving has been a special holiday.

On Thursday, Oct. 9, 1969, my two daughters and I emigrated to Canada from the United Kingdom. Helen was almost two months and Alison two years old. Canada House in London had been promoting emigration to Canada among upcoming business executives and my husband met the requirements.

Since I was pregnant and at that time you had to be resident in Canada for several months before you could qualify for OHIP, the three of us stayed in the U.K until after Helen’s birth and benefited from the free coverage of the National Health Service.

My husband had arrived in Canada three months earlier, joined a sailing club then bought a house close to the club in the Beaches area of Toronto. Friends of his from the sailing club invited the four of us to celebrate the tradition with them.

I knew nothing about Thanksgiving. The closest tradition we had in the U.K. was Harvest Festival which was mostly a religious tradition. I learned in Canada in 1957 it was declared a day that should be celebrated annually, the second Monday of October. What a pleasure to discover this holiday with all the traditional trimmings, over a meal shared with new friends. Turkey, cranberry sauce and all the trimmings and my first ever pumpkin pie, which I grew to love. It certainly gave us something for which to be to thankful.

I later learned that prior to 1957 Thanksgiving had run sporadically since 1578. Accordingly in 1606 it was declared by Samuel de Champlain (the founder of Quebec in 1604) to be a day to give general Thanksgiving for a bountiful harvest at which the traditional foods should be served. 

Every year since my arrival it has always been a holiday for our family to share with other family members or those less fortunate. Until the pandemic changed many of our family gatherings, then last year the two of us chose to stay home and be thankful that our family were safe. This year again it may be a little different, pandemic restrictions will be with us for some time to come and “normal” as we knew it will not be the same.

A week today is the Thanksgiving holiday. No matter how tough your life is, how far apart family or friends are, try to find something for which you are grateful, something to be thankful for, no matter how small. Many of us have not seen our family or some of our closest friends for a long time.

Having a roof over our head, clothes on our back and food on the table is a good start. Living here in a southern Ontario is another, a much safer, kinder and more stable area than much of the world. Rather than comparing our life to those who have more, give a thought to those who have less.

So at home we will decorate the table appropriately, wild flowers, autumn leaves, a few gourds and trimmings. We will, for the first time in two years, share a Thanksgiving meal with my daughter Helen and her husband Mark who is an excellent cook, at their home. Just the four of us rather than a large family gathering. That gives us a lot for which to be thankful.

It has been more difficult to think positively since COVID affected all of us, but we will each verbally share our blessings at the start of our meal. For 52 years I have done this and encouraged others to do likewise. Somehow expressing thanks out loud to others is a positive endorsement and acknowledgement of our feelings. Another great way of expressing thanks, recently seen on Facebook (yes I admit I’m a Facebook junkie) was to take a large pumpkin and with marker pen write messages of thanks and things you are grateful for on the pumpkin. Family members and guests can add to it.

Wishing all of you as Happy a Thanksgiving as possible, no matter what your circumstances, and I hope you may find something positive for which to be be thankful.