If I were to choose one day to remember the year 2022, I’d choose the 30th of September. Rose came from somewhere in Ohio, or Kentucky, somewhere in the middle of the Turtle Island, to see me. She made it sound like not a big deal, like she was just dropping by on her way to somewhere, like she had other reasons. That’s what I believed at first. It was after she left that I realized she came to me. That I was the reason she flew to Montreal.

I took a day off work. I met her downtown, on Square Victoria that wasn’t as pretty as I remembered it. Rose, on the contrary, was the same, she didn’t even look older than I remembered her, fifteen years ago. She was wearing the same makeup and it made me realize I wasn’t wearing any and probably looked tired. Still, she said I hadn’t changed.

Rose asked me what it was like to be a mother. I had not expected this question. I didn’t know what to say. No one ever asked me that before. That’s the thing about living far away from home: everyone who can ask you what it’s like to be you now is so far away, you barely get to talk to them. Also, they have their own problems.

I haven’t answered Rose’s question, but I think of it in the moments I feel most present in my life.

The most remarkable thing about Rose is her voice. It’s a storytelling voice. It rises and falls with the rhythm of the story, fills with anger, with laughter, with the hilarity of life situations, with smells of her home. It is so loud – I am certain everyone in the coffee house is listening in, but no one dares to interrupt. At some point of the story it rises to its climax, followed by a burst of laughter. Rose’s laughter sounds like an explosion.

If I were to remember one face from the year 2022, it would be Rose’s face, her smooth brown skin, her blue eye shadow and red lipstick, her smile against the backdrop of the yellow wallpaper with pink flowers.

I hadn’t told Rose that 30th of September was my father’s birthday, as well as my Saint’s day. In the Ukrainian Orthodox tradition, four Saints are celebrated on this day, a mother and her three daughters:

Sophia – Wisdom

Vira – Faith

Nadia – Hope

Lyubov – Love