Willow by Grenadier Pond

30 x 30 Acrylic on Canvas

November 2016

“It was the summer of 1983. High Park was quieter then. It felt like the whole park was ours, to do what we wanted. This was an unfamiliar feeling for me. We had recently moved to Canada from Hungary. My nagymama (pronounced nodge-mama and which means grandma in Hungarian) would spend the day with my cousin and me once a week. Sometimes we would go to the Island, to the Ex or to High Park, but my favourite was High Park.

I didn’t know my grandmother well before this. She came to Canada from Hungary in 1966 and I had only met her a few times before. It was on those days that I began to know my nagymama. She was hard working and quiet with a unexpected sense of humour.

At the park our routine was always the same. We would go swimming, then we would have hamburgers at the restaurant, then we would go paddle boating in Grenadier pond.

It felt like we were building a family tradition.”

Story by Leslie N