Agnes Remme (April 7, 1924 – June 15, 2016) also known as Mom, Grandma, Great-Grandma and Aunt Agnes, was born Agnes Agatha Niedzwiecki in 1924 to Polish immigrants on their farm in Huntsville, Ontario. They’d come to Canada from Krakow as Homesteaders to build a new life with their growing family – Mary, Frank, John, Agnes, Albert and Mac. Of the six siblings, Mary and Mac are still with us.
Agnes was always a beautiful woman with a great, inviting smile and easy laugh. In recent years, she’d retreated into an inner world, partially triggered by the unexpected death of her husband in a ski accident in 1995.
Around 1941, she was named the “Snow Queen” in her hometown, a local beauty pageant and shortly afterwards made her way to Toronto with big sister, Mary, to find office work in the city. It was there that she met Arild Remme on a visit to “Little Norway”, the Norwegian Airforce base on the Toronto Islands. Arild was standing guard and was immediately taken with Agnes. Flirting and then dating led to marriage on November 18, 1942 with their first child, Ola arriving in the summer of 1943. Irene was born in 1944 and then Sandra in 1955.
Agnes was very social, loved to dance and was always fastidious in her appearance and how she kept her home. She worked many jobs over the years to help support her family, including restaurants and a ladies’ fashion store.
Agnes and Arild built their homes, first in Alderwood (the Lakeshore area of Toronto) where they hosted many friends and extended family, and then their cottage which later became their home for many years, in Huntsville. Agnes had a kind, motherly spirit and took great care of her children. She was not the strict disciplinarian in the family although sometimes she had to chase her rebellious son with a flyswatter to keep him in line. It didn’t work, of course.
In addition to her 3 children, Agnes had 7 grandchildren (Eden, Randy, Rebecca, Ryan, Cory, Elissa) and 3 step-grandchildren (Heather, Judy, Pam). Sadly Heather and Cory predeceased her. She had 10 great grandchildren (Jordan, Perry, Tyler, Ryley, Veronica, Austen, Jasper, Mya, Cole, Noah) and many nieces and nephews.
Agnes and Arild enjoyed people and adventure, travelling with their trailer south (Ft Myers) and west (Banff, Victoria) and later spent time in Norway, visiting with family. They maintained close contact with their Norwegian relatives, with visits on both sides of the Atlantic.
We remember Agnes’ vivacious, cheerful, motherly spirit, her beautiful smile, and the legacy she has left behind in all of us.
en snapshots and photographs; picture takers and photographers. My creative journey began with writing novels in the late 90’s and now encompasses photography, videography and screenwriting (despite a career in information technology). I jumped on the photography bandwagon in the digital age (along with millions of others) and got hooked. It is so much easier to share a well-crafted image than a 100,000 word novel. And through the lens, I discovered a renewed fascination with the natural world. At times, I’ve questioned my obsessive creative pursuits – am I crazy? Maybe so but I believe this quotation from Thomas Merton provides one possible explanation for my behaviour: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”. I hope you enjoy these images. They represent both my personal journey and a desire to share my experiences and unique view of the world which I believe is a motivation for many artists.