Chipmunks from a Georgetown childhood and my wife as a chipmunk today

Chipmunks from a Georgetown childhood and my wife as a chipmunk today

As I’ve written elsewhere, when I was a small child growing up in Georgetown, Ontario, I had the gooiest of soft spots for all animal creatures, fictional or otherwise. Every night before bed, my dad would read me a story featuring the little forest and meadow people of Thornton W. Burgess, including Grandfather Frog, Jimmy Skunk, Johnny Chuck, Jerry Muskrat, Paddy the Beaver, and my all-time favourite, the saucy Sammy Jay. (My mom constantly bawled me out for being saucy, but I took that reproach as a compliment.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thornton_W._Burgess

Reigning cats…and dogs – Robert McBryde

In Thornton Burgess’s “The Burgess Animal Book for Children,” the Striped Chipmunk is a prominent character alongside other beloved creatures, including Happy Jack Squirrel and Peter Rabbit. The Chipmunk is known for his handsome stripes, which are explained in the “Old Mother West Wind \”Why\” Stories” as a result of him saving Mr. Meadow Mouse from Mr. Bob Cat. Burgess also wrote about the chipmunk’s pride in his striped coat and his chipper good nature.

I grew to love chipmunks, which skittered through my childhood, leaving a trail of memories etched with fragile paws.

And I love them still.

My wife Anne, who is afflicted with an incurable form of brain cancer called glioblastoma, has become something of an adorable chipmunk herself, ever since this terrible scourge befell her, out of the blue, a few short weeks ago.

The operation performed in extremis to remove the tumour, along with the disease itself, altered her faculties of smell and taste and triggered all manner of delightful cravings, including for nuts, lots of nuts.

Always a gentle soul, my Anne has become the human incarnation of this beloved creature, her ephemeral beauty and chipmunkish charm being all the more precious and extraordinary for its imminent evanescence.