BIRTHDAY

The Hope Lady Blog turns one year old this weekend. Though there will be no cake, no candles, no champagne, there will be a special tribute to Ruth Edey, the woman who made it all possible.

Ruth Elaine Edey, affectionately dubbed Ruthie Tuthie by her adoring parents, has always been a leader. She emerged into the outside world a couple of weeks before she was expected. Her choice of timing for this first little rebellion was unfortunate, since it coincided with the arrival of a record number of babies at the Edmonton General Hospital, and Dr. Boulton, our faithful obstetrician, had gone off to a conference, leaving specific instructions that she was not to arrive while he was away. I know she was delivered by somebody, but have always believed that he may have been the janitor. Fortunately for us all, Dr. Boulton, a wise physician ahead of his time, had pre-determined that she ran a slight risk of picking up an infection in the birth canal. His wisdom, leading to rapid intervention, probably saved her life since she, showing early signs of her thorough nature, picked up the infection on her way through. If she was a less-than-pleasant baby for the first few months, it may well be because she spent her debut week in the nursery with needles in her head.

After that initial show of questionable judgment, she set about applying her leaderly tendencies in more productive ways. She could read before she could talk. She could talk before she could walk. She could take a taxi to playschool, and would do so rather than miss a class for lack of transportation. She could do math before kindergarten. She could balance atop a cheerleader pyramid. She could take herself to a Thai orphanage to care for babies with HIV. She could take charge of behaviour-disordered students who were almost as big as she. She could make excellent chocolate birthday cakes. Given all this, it’s small wonder that she could figure out how to set up a blog for her mother!

Setting it up would have been enough to expect, but she did more than that. She read it—and kept on reading it. She still reads it, one whole year after she first established it. She reads it the way she reads her student journals, with little comments of encouragement and occasional corrections along the way, which is awfully nice of her—really—and may be the reason it got this far!