"Thanks Mom"

My Mom, through all the turmoil and heartbreak she endured, made everyday a gift for others. I learned a lot from my Father but I learned gratitude, love and giving back from my Mom. Thanks Mom and I miss you..

Growing up in the small town of Hershey My Mom always said “you can be anything you want Duane”. She reminded me to have fun when I played Hockey and not take it too seriously. She was always Social, a Vivian Woodard Rep and a great entertainer at our home. She was an excellent pianist playing on Milton Hershey’s Grand piano my Dad found her. She was a Hostess at a Local Italian restaurant called D’Angelos. She was an incredible cook. She prepared Borcsht, Standing Rib Roasts with Yorkshire Pudding, cooked fresh fish like trout, tuna, swordfish and she taught me how to cook when I was a little boy. She could cook anything and every bit of it was excellent. She played little jokes on me all the time. One morning I went into my garden, I was about 10, and I found a cold 12 inch, dew covered cucumber. Did that magically grow overnight? I took pictures of it to go along with her prank and she always thought I believed that that cucumber grew in my garden even thought it wasn’t ever attached to the vine. LOL.

No one would have ever known that My Mom found out at the age of 22 she had MS. Throughout her Life she had remissions and struggled. Many ups and downs. No one knew because she was always smiling, laughing and living life happy. No one knew but me. I was very close to my Mom and had to make a big decision on her behalf when I was a teenager. I remember calling up our Family Doctor and having to ask Dr. Raham to do something for my Mom and it saved her Life. That decision added 27 years to her Life. My Mom spent the last 6 years of her life bed stricken but you’d have never known. Janet Mary Chrabascz was a Saint, a Joker and the warmest person I’d ever know. Anyone who ever had come in contact with her would agree… my Mom was something special for all of us.

In 1981 my Mom, after raising 4 children, returned to Canada. In Canada, especially in Saskatchewan, healthcare was cheap and her “pure oxygen” treatments ( as I understood it ) were $30k a treatment here in the USA. In 1996 I saw 60 Minutes segment on MS. They featured a “one room schoolhouse” in the Prairies. 9 out of the 10 children that went to that school had MS. My Mom was one of those 10 kids. She was also an incredible listener and was always there even if she was 1,978 Miles away.

https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS

I hope others will embrace everyday like my Mom because she did and had so many reasons not to but still did out of the strength within her.

Thank you for spending some time with me on Mother’s Day and if you’re a Mother… Thank you and have the best of days and a beautiful life filled with Joy.

Yours truly,

Chef Keller