{"id":1343,"date":"2013-03-29T15:55:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-29T22:55:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=1343"},"modified":"2013-11-08T20:55:45","modified_gmt":"2013-11-09T04:55:45","slug":"a-generous-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/life\/a-generous-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A Generous Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a tough week. I lost a dear cousin to cancer a week ago. It happened so fast, too fast.<\/p>\n

My earliest memories of my cousin, Nina, are of a girl with brown pigtails, herding the cows on a farm near Stonewall, Manitoba. Her two dogs dancing around her slim legs; me, a city kid, struggling to keep up.<\/p>\n

She grew up, moved to the city, and got a job at Manitoba Telephone, where she was a constant and loyal worker. We continued to see one another over the years, at family dinners, but since there were so many of us, we didn’t get a chance to really get to know one another.<\/p>\n

\"sunset\"

Sunset on Lake Winnipeg<\/p><\/div>\n

But in the last decade or so, we became much closer. Nina was like an angel to me, visiting my mother over the years, because I ended up living too far away. Sure, I went to see my mother four times a year, and there were daily phone calls, but if it wasn\u2019t for my cousin\u2019s generosity of spirit and time, I don\u2019t know what I would\u2019ve done. She was my eyes and ears, and believe me, when you have a parent in a personal care home, you need and want someone to keep an eye on their care.<\/p>\n

And it wasn\u2019t just my mother she looked in on, she was the kind of person who volunteered her time and love to help make this world a better place. She was a Big Sister for a time and she helped in other ways through her volunteering, much I didn\u2019t know about, as she wasn\u2019t one to talk about the gifts of time she gave or to look for compliments.<\/p>\n

Hers was a generous life. She kept things simple, but her values centered on family (her nephews and nieces), my daughter (whose godmother she was) and community. She worked hard, and played the same way; an inspiration to us all. She never asked for much; she gave instead.<\/p>\n

The sun may have set on her life, but she left a lot of warmth, love, and beautiful memories behind. What more could one ask for at the end of the road?<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a tough week. I lost a dear cousin to cancer a week ago. It happened so fast, too fast. My earliest memories of my cousin, Nina, are of… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[88],"tags":[481,78],"class_list":["post-1343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-a-generous-life","tag-diana-stevan"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-lF","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5348,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2021\/writing\/countdown-to-my-book-launch\/","url_meta":{"origin":1343,"position":0},"title":"Countdown to my Book Launch","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"10 \u0422\u0440\u0430\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The countdown to my book launch has begun. 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