IWSG 91: Inspired By My Roots

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This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group where we share our encouragement or insecurities on the first Wednesday of the month, to join the group or find out more click here.

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co-hosts

Joylene Nowell Butler | Jacqui Murray | Sandra Cox | Lee Lowery

OPTIONAL IWSG DAY QUESTION:

February 2 question – Is there someone who supported or influenced you that perhaps isn’t around anymore? Anyone you miss?

 I’m really looking forward to the posts this month. I have a feeling there will be more than a few posts about the makers/writers of creative works.

The person that inspired me, not that she knew it, was my grandmother. Some knew her as Elsie. Many others as Elizabeth Sookochoff. She’s been gone almost thirty years and will always be Baba to me.

But I feel her impact every day.

Her skill set, cooking, raising children and love of animals, came from growing up in a doukhobor commune outside Buchanan, Saskatchewan, Canada. They knew farming and living off the land.

She brought that skill set with her when her family moved across country on a wagon. Very Little House on the Prairie if Baba played Mrs. Ingalls. They settled in Grand Forks where I grew up.

She couldn’t read a word then, but she knew the best butter was churned in June, that fresh food meant buy it from a local farmer, or grow it yourself. And, and this one still kills me, cooking on a wood stove was the only way to make borsch, and the rest of her Russian delicacies.

She’d warm up her food on the electric stove like we use a microwave.

So adorable.

She was stronger than anyone I’ve ever known. Baba held on to her traditions and heritage all her life and when I lost her, I lost more than the support of a wonderful woman. I lost that heritage she held dear because she was my only link to my roots.

Baba inspires me every day, and not just with writing.

My Question to You

How do the people you love reflect in your writing?