Yesterday was International Women’s Day. Thinking about the accomplishments of women throughout history reminded me of the strong women I have been blessed to have in my life. Today, I share some of their stories with you.

Welcome to the 104^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. In addition to strong women, this week’s edition has updates on dissolvable plastic, decline in fossil-fuelled vehicle sales, and changing our diets to save the Earth.  

On my mind this week: In praise of strong women

Yesterday, as the world honoured women and their accomplishments, I considered how blessed I am to be just one link in a chain of strong women who have shaped the person I am today.

Instead of writing about celebrities, or religious or historical figures, I decided to use today’s post to celebrate and thank the strong women in my life. Here is my top 5 list!

My mum, Frances Oram

If you’re a regular reader, you’ve already heard about my mum. We call her St. Frances of  Cambridge because she has spent her life caring for others. She recently turned 92 and is still a force to be reckoned with.

Mum left home at age 14 and moved to Dublin with her two older sisters. A few years later, she moved to England where she met my Dad. She uprooted her life again at age 40 when our family came to Canada.

Although she never had the luxury of pursuing anything beyond an elementary school education, she’s one of the wisest people I know, and is a role model of sustainable and frugal living.

My grandma, Annie Jones

Granny raised 13 children in a tiny cottage in Wexford, Ireland—with no electricity and no running water. As my mum always says, “We were poor but we had everything we needed.” She didn’t have an easy life, but she lived to age 90. If my numbers are right, she had 44 grandchildren and more great grandchildren than I could begin to count.

Because granny always lived in Ireland, I only met her a couple of times in my life. On our trip to Ireland last year, I loved hearing stories about granny from my cousins. I wish I had known her better, but it’s interesting to see how her influence shaped my mum’s life and—in turn—my life too.

My nanna, Alice Oram

Nanna was born in 1896. She married at what was considered the “old” age of 26, and moved across the world to Australia where she lived for a few years before returning to England when she was pregnant with my Dad in 1929 (Read about her travels in the 1920s this post.)

My older sisters often say that Nanna was mean. She was definitely a no nonsense lady, but I saw a different side of her. She used to babysit me while mum was at work and my sisters were in school. One of my earliest memories is of singing Irish songs with Nanna while she ironed. The song I always think of when I think of Nanna is an Irish folk song, “The Stone Outside Dan Murphy’s Door”.

Nanna passed away in 1994, at the age of 97.

Here’s to the next generation of strong women

Of course, I can’t ignore the next generation in my lineup of strong women who have influenced my life—my daughters Laura and Colleen. I’m so proud of these intelligent and hard-working young women who have boldly overcome many challenges as they make their way in this messed-up world we live in.

My daughter Laura

Laura made me a mom when she was born 25 years ago. She is creative and talented…and she inherited her love of music from her mom!

Laura persevered with online classes at college and completed her degree during the pandemic.

Two years ago, she was brave enough to move 4,000 kilometres to the other side of Canada to take a job at a university residence where it’s her job to deal with unruly students.

I admire her adventurous spirit and her willingness to pick up and travel, by herself, if there’s a concert she wants to see.

My daughter Colleen

Colleen completed our family when she was born 22 years ago. I love her sense of humour, her no-nonsense attitude, and her determined nature.

Colleen always excelled academically, but she had enough self-awareness to know that university wasn’t the right path for her and chose the apprenticeship route instead. She’s boldly making her way in the male-dominated field of skilled trades.

Colleen has a strong sense of right and wrong, and is accepting of diversity and individual differences—qualities that are often undervalued in our world these days. I hope she never changes!

I am grateful to all of these strong women for the contribution they have made to my life. Although my grandmothers are no longer with us, I still feel their presence every day.

Finally, happy International Women’s Day to all the wonderful ladies reading this. So many of you are doing amazing things in your own world—showing strength, compassion, love and kindness. Keep the faith, ladies! The world needs female leadership now more than ever.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• We had a little glimpse of spring at the beginning of the week with some milder temperature. But the snowbanks at the end of our driveway are still about 3 feet high. It will be a while before the snow all melts.
• Earlier this week, I received confirmation that a presentation proposal I put together for a conference in April has been approved. I’ll be speaking about the work I’m doing with retirement lifestyle planning. As an added bonus, the conference is in Kelowna, BC—just a couple of hours drive from where Laura lives so I’ll extend my trip to spend some time with her.
• It was terrific having Colleen home for a few days. On Tuesday, we went to visit my Mum. Colleen is now safely back in PEI again until the end of the month.

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Japanese researchers develop dissolvable plastic

Researchers at the University of Tokyo have developed a new type of plastic that dissolves completely in seawater.

In their testing, they saw that the plastic begins to break down within hours in seawater. And, it decomposes completely in soil within ten days, releasing nutrients similar to fertilizer that benefit plant life.

(Source: Sustainability Magazine)

Fossil-fueled car sales decline in USA

Electric vehicle adoption is gaining momentum. In the first half of 2024, internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle market share declined by 2.3%, the largest decrease among all vehicle categories. Electrified vehicles now represent 9.7% of the US light vehicle market.

(Source: Happy Eco News)

Changing our diets to save the Earth

We often hear that eating a vegetarian diet is one of the best ways to save the Earth. But a book I’m reading this week says that while vegan diets have a big environmental impact, vegetarian diets that include eggs and dairy aren’t much better than a diet that includes pork or chicken.

If you’re not ready to go vegan, the book suggests that cutting beef and lamb from our diets is an important first step, along with cutting food waste and food loss, eating more plant-based foods, and reducing portion sizes. 

(Source: Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle, Lloyd Alter)

This week’s simple living challenge – Consolidate accounts

Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.

This week’s challenge is to consolidate banking and other financial accounts. I’ve been working on that this week. Getting it done is a pain, but it will be worth it.

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I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.