Dr. Jean Chamberlain Froese

MUKONO, UGANDA ✦ This column is about UCU’s new, yet-to-be-named vice- chancellor. But first let me tell you about the Ugandan who was happy to tell me about his recent marriage.“ Congratulations,” I said, before asking, “How old are you?” “Thirty.” I said congratulations again. “That’s a good age.” Then, like a good counsellor

So I'm in the middle of Africa dining with a colleague and he declares, "That's great news about Jean. Congratulations!" Out comes his phone and all the details and I'm in the dark and feeling rather sheepish about it. My bride, the children's mother, in her natural humility, hadn't told me of her recent recognition as a Canadian

Today’s rumination is about the flags of the world and the hope of the world and the fears of the world, (or at least some fears in Canada), even as it’s about how the children’s mother helped me get over some of my own fears. We live in a world that’s somehow naturally saddled with fear

Sixteen years ago today, The Children’s Mother and I got engaged. Of course, at the time she was not The Children’s Mother. She was My Babe. I thought the world should know of the good news, so I blasted it all on the front page ...

(The Hamilton Spectator - Friday, July 29, 2016) HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It's a warm and ordinary day, warm and ordinary enough to run around in shorts and bare feet. The children's mother, your babe, that is your bride, is playing your song. The cats are in front and the dog's in back and the kids are doing homework and nothing much is happening, except this song from the piano in the other room, the piece that makes your blood jump every time.

The one thing that always helps us as a family re-acclimatize to life back in Canada is Save the Mothers’ annual Steps for Change walk. It unfolded in 15 municipalities across North America on Saturday. The kids’ roller blades and bikes and whatever else is needed, after being in Canadian storage for eight months, have […]

Before you read today’s post, please set aside a few minutes to view this remarkable link. It’s on the war (and it is a war) of maternal death in places like sub-Saharan Africa. Then take a few minutes to read the rest of this post, and, if you’re inclined, you’ll need a minute or two […]

It’s the other day in Pittsburgh and a friend emails with the news … “Hey, you’re on TV!” A couple of nights later I got around to watching online. I wanted to see this brief interview, quite honestly, by myself. TV is not my thing. I felt somewhat embarrassed about it all. My Bride, some […]

There’s little left to say about the theft of My Bride’s and my computers while in Ottawa, except that, as we all know, things can always be worse. Yesterday we learned that friends who work in Thailand had not only their laptops, but their passports (with critical visas), ID, wallets and anything else of any […]

Some days I wish I was more musical, at least as musical as the rest of the family. I think the dog wishes the same for himself. Sensing this, yesterday I let Zack listen to Handel on my i-pod. It was Handel’s Concerti Grossi Op 3. I held the buds in his big German Shepherd dog ears. He […]

It was last evening. “Dad,” she said. “Can I hold the leash?” “No.” “Please,” she said. “No.” Zack, our big-as-a house German Shepherd, has been a little disobedient on his walks lately, chasing the monkeys and whatnot. Liz wouldn’t be able to hold him. “Zack has given even Mum a hard time lately,” I said. “You […]

The highlight of the week was seeing a buddy from ye olde boyhood years. I hadn’t seen him for more than three decades. He and his wife came the other evening for dinner. “This is my son, Jon,” I said, at one moment. “And this is my friend …” “Yeah, yeah, I know,” said Jon. “This is your friend […]

(The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, July 19, 2014) HAMILTON, CANADA ✦ It was in the whirlpool at the Les Chater Y when I was congratulated for My Bride’s recent naming into the Order of Canada. The woman, another early-morning swimmer, had read the news in this publication. “Let’s face it,” she said. “You’ve had a role to play in this all. Any woman who wins something like this has to be married to a certain sort of man. If Madame Curie hadn’t been married to Pierre, she’d have been forced to be home barefoot, baking bread.”

We’re in the van on a long drive and we’re talking about being loved and just what on earth this means. Liz is only 11, but she’s there, she can talk about it and engage and we get on the topic of Mom, who we both love and who is also, if you didn’t know, […]

The country knows when a mother loses one child for a short while during an outrageous hospital abduction. And the entire world knows when an airliner leaves Malaysia and then vanishes mysteriously. But what about when mother upon mother lose their newborns? Or an airliner full of mothers goes down? It happened yesterday. Did you hear? And today. […]