Our family received some very sad news this past week. My 97-year-old mother-in-law Katherine Kelemen (Katalin in Hungarian) passed away peacefully in her sleep. Her last years were spent in long term care and the past year and a half was especially difficult for all because of Covid restrictions. She had a long life and my husband is very grateful for the care she received at the long term care home, Markhaven in Markham. My sister-in-law Agi has been the best daughter anyone could hope for and lovingly visited her mother and was a tremendous caregiver to her. My mother-in-law had a difficult life from the war years in Hungary where she grew up in an agricultural community, to becoming an immigrant after the war. She and George’s father worked hard to establish themselves in a new country and with a new language. Sadly George’s father (whom he is named after) died of a stroke at the age of 49 leaving her a young widow. She met George’s stepfather a few years later who was also widowed and they lived happily until he passed away shortly after he retired. She lived alone in her Scarborough house until she decided to move to a condo apartment closer to her daughter Agi. A few years later she opted to move to a retirement home and then after a series of small strokes she went into long term care. She was always hard working and independent, looking after her own finances until advancing age and illness finally disabled her. She leaves behind an adoring family of three children and spouses, 4 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren.
It has been unusually hot and sunny this past week, but I somehow managed to sneak in some screen time and have a few suggestions for you:
Amazon Prime
Invincible (12 episodes) I watched this on my son Jon’s recommendation. If you liked The Boys, you may like this adult animated series based on the Skybound/Image comic about a teenager whose father is the most powerful superhero on the planet. It features an amazing cast of voice actors including Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons, Sandra Oh, Walton Goggins, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells and many more. Darkly humorous!
Modern Love (Season 2, 8 episodes) Anthology TV series based on the NYTimes’ column that explores relationships, love and the human connection. Great cast includes Minnie Driver, Tom Burke, Zoe Chao, Kit Harington, Lucy Boynton, Miranda Richardson, Garrett Hedlund, Anna Paquin, Sophie Okonedo, Tobias Menzies. Very sweet and sometimes sad series.
AMC
The Beast Must Die (made for Britbox, 6 episodes) Following the death of her son in a hit and run, all Frances Cairnes wants is to hunt down and kill the man she believes is responsible. When she finally tracks him down, she tricks her way into his house and plots his murder fro within. Very suspenseful with terrific performances from Cush Jumbo, Billy Howle, and Jared Harris.
Apple TV
Ted Lasso (Season 2, 12 episodes) The sweetest soccer coach returns with 12 new episodes. A sports psychologist joins the team.
CODA (1 h 51 m) As a CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) Ruby is the only hearing person in her deaf family. When the family’s fishing business is threatened, Ruby finds herself torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. Very sweet film for family viewing.
Schmigadoon (6 episodes) A couple on a backpacking trip discovers a magical town in which everyone acts like they’re in a musical from the 1940’s. Of course, I loved this tribute to Brigadoon, Oklahoma, Carousel, The Music Man, etc. Delightful performances from Keegan-Michael Key, Cecily Strong, Fred Armisen, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Jane Krakowski, Martin Short, Aaron Tveit and many others.
CBC Gem
Ghosts (19 episodes) A group of spirits restlessly squabble in an abandoned country home. Hilarious!!! I laughed out loud.
Ladhood (12 episodes) A coming-of-age comedy from the BAFTA nominated comedian, Liam Williams explores the roots of modern-day masculinity, by delving into the memories of his own misspent adolescence. If you’re not from the North of England (my parents were from Manchester), you might appreciate this one better with subtitles. I really enjoyed this show.
CBS
Jeopardy (30 minutes)Simply the most enjoyable show on TV these days! In comparison with much of today’s dark programming, this show stands out as a beacon of hope in a pandemic world. Informative and exciting! Matt Amodio is now the 3rd highest earning contestant ever, and he will continue in the Fall, when Mike Richards assumes the host position. Mayim Bialik will host special prime time editions of the show (college competitions, etc.) I was rooting for both of them when they guest hosted, so I am thrilled.
CTV
Surreal Estate (10 episodes) Realtor Nck Roman and an elite team of specialists handle the cases that no one else can: haunted and possessed houses that literally scare would-be buyers away. I am cheering for this little Canadian supernatural series as I love tales of the occult when they are well done.
Animal Kingdom (5 seasons) The Codys are forced to tie up loose ends with the cousins and learn what life is like without Smurf. Ahh, Ellen Barkin, I will miss her!! Scariest grandma ever.
HBO
The White Lotus (6 episodes) Set in a tropical resort, it follows the exploits of various guests and employees over the span of a week. The great cast includes Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge and Steve Zahn. Intriguing, humorous, well acted are all great adjectives for this show. I loved it!
Netflix
Gunpowder Milkshake (1 h 54 m) Three generations of women fight back against those who could take everything from them. Great cast includes Lena Headey, Carla Gugino, Michelle Yeoh, Paul Giamatti, Ralph Ineson, Angela Bassett, Michael Smiley. Very enjoyable rockem, sockem action. Kind of like a female John Wick. I loved it!
Hit & Run (from Israel with English subtitles, 9 episodes) A happily married man’s life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a mysterious hit-and-run accident in Tel Aviv. Stars Lior Raz (Fauda) who goes on a rampage in NYC to solve his wife’s murder. I’m hooked by this extremely entertaining espionage thriller! It did run out of gas in the last episode, but worth watching anyway. Sets up for a second season at the end.
Fallet (8 episodes) British and Swedish police join forces to solve a case. This is a parody of all the British and Scandi Noir series you have ever seen. I did laugh out loud at the antics of the trigger happy Swedish detective and the sadly introverted British detective with absolutely no aptitude for detecting.
Misha and the Wolves (Documentary, 1 h 30 m) Misha and the Wolves is the dramatic tale of a woman whose holocaust memoir took the world by storm, but a fallout with her publisher – who turned detective – revealed an audacious deception created to hide a darker truth. Spectacular show!! One of the most absorbing documentaries I have watched in a while.
Beckett (1 h 48 m) Following a tragic car accident in Greece, Beckett, an American tourist, finds himself at the centre of a dangerous political conspiracy and on the run for his life. Very Hitchcockian in tone, with whispers of The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor. I don’t understand why John David Washington (son of Denzel) is being used as a leading man, Alicia Vikander has a brief role as his girlfriend and Boyd Holbrook steals the show as a sleazy CIA type. The reviews were awful for this, but I kind of enjoyed it.
Gone for Good (in French with English subtitles, 5 episodes) Based on a novel by Harlan Coben. Giullaume thought he had drawn a line under the terrible tragedy which saw the two people he loved the most die. Ten years later, Judith, whose love has made his life worth living again, suddenly disappears during his mother’s funeral. I do not understand the casting of Finnegan Oldfield in this as he lacks any charisma whatsoever (one review said he looks like a goldfish devoid of any expression or emotion)! The plot is so complicated with so many subplots, that I can’t imagine watching this on a weekly basis as you would be terribly confused. Not the best Coben adaptation out there.
PBS
Unforgotten (30 episodes) From Britain’s ITV. London detectives investigate crimes from the past unravelling secrets left buried for years. Nicola Walker and Sanjeev Bhaskar star as the lead detectives. So English!
Professor T (6 episodes) Made for BritBox, this is an adaptation of a Belgian show. Professor Jasper Tempest, a genius Cambridge University criminologist with OCD and an overbearing mother, advises the police. Ben Miller, who is usually a very comic actor (Death in Paradise) is quite delightful in the lead role. We are back in Cambridge, the locale for so many great British crime shows.
Streaming
The Good Fight (CBS Paramount, Season 5, 10 episodes) They are back for a brand new season! Diane has to decide on the firm’s future, after losing two leading lawyers. A crazy combo of real-life events and issues and the fictional world of Reddick Lockhart.
The Suicide Squad (2 h 12 m) Supervillains Harley Quinn, Bloodsport, Peacemaker and a collection of nutty cons at Belle Reve prison join the super-secret, super-shady Task Force X as they are dropped off at the remote enemy-infused island of Corto Maltese. Great cast includes Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Joel Kinnaman, Michael Rooker, viola Davis, Nathan Fillion, Jai Courtney, etc. I really enjoyed this crazy film from the DC universe. Superhero movies are not my usual thing, but I had no expectations whatsoever, so I just went with it.
Vivo (Animated, 1 h 35 m) This musical adventure features all-new original songs from Lin-Manuel rind and will take audiences on an epic adventure to gorgeous and vibrant locations never before seen in animation. The voice cast includes Lin-Manuel Miranda, Zoe Saldana, Brian Tyree Henry, Gloria Estefan and Michael Rooker. You have to love Miranda’s music to love this one.
W
Fantasy Island (5 episodes) People who walk in with a desire, but end up reborn to themselves through the magical realism of Fantasy Island. I am so ashamed that I watched the first episode of this to see how they modernized this fairy tale of a show. Roselyn Sanchez replaces Ricardo Montalban as Elena Roarke, his niece. I was actually embarrassed to be watching this absolute dreck. You have been warned!
YouTube
Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2 h 52 m) The telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior’s endurance and battle of its menace. I have resisted watching this for the last 20 years because of its length, but a couple of sleepless nights this past week allowed me to watch it at my leisure. It is considered the masterpiece of Canadian filmmaking and is directed by an Inuit director in the Inuit language with an all Inuit cast. It is a demanding experience but its images will stay with you forever.
Comic Relief
Real Time with Bill Maher has returned from hiatus. We are still missing Trevor Noah and Samantha Bee, but Colbert returned from holidays this past week. I catch up with Seth Meyers, and James Corden on You Tube. John Oliver has returned to HBO! We are finding things to laugh about again that aren’t all about Trump or Covid!!!
Closing Words
The week ahead features lots of friends time with Mahjong and golf on the schedule. We are off to a fundraiser for Theatre Collingwood this afternoon. A long-time high school friend is coming to Thornbury this week for her holidays so I hope to spend some time with her. We shall see if the weather cooperates as it has been amazingly dry lately. Of course, all plans may be altered as my mother-in-law’s funeral arrangements are determined
My niece Karen has written some heartfelt words about her grandmother (my mother-in-law), so I attach them here for you to give you a sense of what a wonderful woman she was and the life she lived:
Katherine Kelemen was a woman of great character. She taught me so much and I admire the woman she was. She always welcomed anyone who came to her door, her words were always: “Come in, come in! Are you hungry?!” I’m not kidding, she always had good food to feed anyone and it’s like she was always ready for a visitor! She doted on her family, always available to help look after grandkids, serve a family meal, she served always, with a grateful heart.
My grandmother did not have it easy, she got married at the age of 19 and my memory of this story is blurry but at some point she was separated from her husband due to the war and tried to find him leaving Hungary and travelied to Austria pregnant with my mom where she was born. She battled tuberculosis and many other struggles, but the one that amazed me was she escaped Hungary, and if you’ve seen The Sound of Music, she escaped through those same mountains with my mom at the age of 4/5 on her back and minimal belongings. She could never watch the end of that movie due to the memories it would stir.
I used to stay with my grandparents during Christmas break and I remember one year she was fixing up an old winter coat, getting it all cleaned, along with some boots and hat and scarf she knit (she was an amazing knitter too), and I asked her what she was doing but she just quietly set to work as she put it all together in a bag. We went to church and I saw her walk over to a woman and gave her the bag. With the looks exchanged between these women, my ten year old self realized this woman was homeless and my grandmother knew her as she came each week to service. Her giving heart impacted me in ways I could not describe.
My grandma was a huge gardener and had a green thumb, I remember so many beautiful roses in her backyard, a large vegetable garden and a raspberry bush that was my favorite! She was a hard worker and tended to those gardens daily. Even to the day she moved to a condo, she had beautiful plants and red geraniums were her favorite! She could cut off a stem and root it to make a new plant!
Her Hungarian baking… I will just leave it there. Always had something in the freezer to take out ready to serve any visitor. Her gift of knitting was an art, she could knit without the pattern. The very particular detailed kid I was asked for a ski sweater that I saw in a magazine, but I wanted some changes of course! Well she set to the task and went above and beyond! I still have all my sweaters she knit me! When my parents went away, I was left home alone at the age of 15 for a week or so. She offered to come visit and cook for me. I think I hurt her feelings by saying I had food in the freezer that my mom prepared and that she didn’t need to come. (I was happy having the house to myself!) I think back now and wish she came. I talked to her daily on the phone, no joke, it was everyday! If I missed a day, she actually missed me!
My grandma was very dear to my heart and has been an inspiration in my life. She taught me A LOT! The past few years her health declined, she had some mini strokes and dementia and that was tough. That’s when my grief started as I felt I lost her. I am so thankful that we still had our visits and as hard as covid lockdowns were, I was thankful for FaceTime and I was blessed to be able to pray over her in those visits. When my grandma had moved into Markhaven home, she would ask “where am I?” We would answer “Markhaven”, the look of shock and wonder in her eyes with the reply “I’m in heaven???” “Not yet Oma, God will call you when he’s ready for you”
Well at the age of 97, God called Oma home August 14, 2021. A great woman she was, and I thank the Lord that she is home with Him, dancing, and she has a sound mind once again! I look forward to the day I will see her again in heaven. I love you so much Nagymama. Thank you for looking after me.
What's Lorraine watching? 