Remember Ma's Diner?
This poem is about Ma, who was Bob Bartlett's neighbour on Fraser St., several years ago..
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MA’S PLACE
Ma Woodward was my neighbor,
And owned a diner on Fraser Street;
She served nutritious, low priced meals,
With lots of veggies and meat.
Ma’s diner was in North Bay,
She fed the weak, the weary and poor;
Lawyers and judges and police officers,
And whoever walked in through her door.
Ma’s real name was Violet,
And she was born across the pond;
She was the war bride of a Canadian soldier,
Who was big and friendly and blond.
And Ma was a lady wrestler,
When she was just a very young girl;
Apparently she could hold her own,
In that game of tumble and twirl.
Her husband was a man of very few words
And a few words would suffice;
All he had to do was give you that look,
With those eyes of cold blue ice.
Ma also owned a rooming house,
Just adjacent to her back door;
She rented to the mentally challenged,
Who were sometimes sickly and poor.
Ma loved to play the lotteries,
And she won big a couple of times;
She spent it all to help the helpless,
Who often had just nickels and dimes.
Ma had a new building named for her,
It would be where Ma’s friends would live;
These are the ones she loved to help,
As she was on a mission to give.
I ran a store just up the street,
I sold furniture and appliances and things;
Ma would drop in to say hello,
In the winter, summer, fall and the spring.
And Ma knew how to negotiate,
She bought merchandise from me;
And when she decided on a fair price,
That’s exactly what the price would be.
Premier Harris used to bring her chocolates,
And at Christmas a poinsettia plant;
Mike Harris respected Ma very much,
As did his colleagues in parliament.
Ma has children and grand kids,
I know most of her family too;
Sheila and Joyce and Richard
And Kenny, just to name a few.
Ma passed away several years ago,
At the age of eighty-two;
After helping others all of her life,
It’s the thing she wanted to do.
‘Her heart was just too big’, said her son,
‘For just our one family’;
So she adopted the people of North Bay,
And was the ‘Favorite Ma’ of the city.
Ma was one in a million,
And was a diamond in the rough;
She could sometimes be a real softie,
And other times real tough.
Ma is still serving her meals,
In that big diner in the sky;
Holding court for all who will listen,
Forever in the sweet by and by!
Bob Bartlett,
North Bay
