Simone Tielesh (granddaughter)
Entered
October 23, 2017
from Yellowknife, NWT
My Grandma Tielesh passed away Sunday at 91. She was the most happy and loving person - the quintessential grandmother. She lived through very hard times, growing up in rural Latvia my Grandma lost her mother, father and brother during the war, then she and her sister were held in a prisoner of war camp for 2 years until the war ended. She was relocated to England to make a new life for herself and met my Grandpa a Belarusian soldier, quite a bit her senior. They had two children in England and then decided to immigrate to Canada, landing by ship at Pier 21 in 1952. My dad, Roland, was born in Toronto shortly thereafter. Then later they had my aunt Anita. They taught themselves English, Grandpa opened a tailor shop in their front parlour and grandma raised the children and later worked at a chocolate factory. My grandparents always retained their accents and Grandma would say to me growing up "Seeemone! Eat! Eat more! You're too skinny!" No matter what my weight was lol. Grandma was affectionate and warm and gave hugs ferociously and often. She cooked cabbage rolls, and the most delicious pereshkis, she always had a bowl of Polish "cow candy" in the living room. Food was love. Grandma was an animal lover, she fed all the neighbour stray cats (and probably some that weren't) and loved petting and talking to her cats, overfeeding her portly black lab. She lost grandpa in 1993 and never loved another after. She lost my aunt Christina in 2002. Then she lost her memory to Alzheimer Disease. When she was still able to answer her phone I would call every week and we'd talk about the same things... the weather, the fluffy white cat who lived at her care home, and then I'd tell her I just gotten engaged. She would be absolutely thrilled. Every week. She'd ask me about him and I'd say he was an artist and she would exclaim "how lovely! Such an important job!" Every week. Eventually she wasn't able to answer her phone anymore but in 2015 she met Aidan and although she didn't know who we were my Aunt Rita said "mum, this is your granddaughter, Roland's girl Simone, and her husband Aidan" and then she lit up "Ohohoh! How nice!" And we took these pictures - look at the love she showed us moments after being introduced to us again... ♡ But grandma has always been full of love. My favourite grandma story is from when she was first being diagnosed with Alzheimers. The doctor asked her to remember three simple words "Apple, orange, banana" she said "Apple, orange, banana - no problem" and the doctor continued the test and asked other questions, at the end of the test he asked "now what were those three special words I asked you to remember?" And she thought about it, didn't remember, but hazarded a guess at what three special words would be "...I love you?" Bless my Grandma's dear and loving heart ♡
Simone
