Loreena Mc Kennitt : "A Tribute Message"

I would like to share with you with true affection this recent special message from Loreena Mc Kennitt. Mothers are secure foundations, filled with love and fond appreciation. They always make us feel protected; sheltered by their care. Kind Loreena, I am sure your mother will always have a place of honor deep within your heart.

"A Message from Loreena" (Official Press June 2011) To everything there is a season and so it is that our lives come and go. It is with sadness that I relay that my mother has recently passed away. Although this truly lies on the more private side of my life, I feel compelled to share this note as a tribute to her, rather than for seeking condolences.

She was a remarkable woman in many respects, a nurse in her own right and in relation to my career, she would always point out to anyone within ear shot that “ SHE was the FIRST PRODUCER.” Ah, my mother, she was never short on a bit of dry wit.

On another level, it can safely be said, that my career would not have occurred at all without her. Both of my parents were proud of what I did (on the most part) and were greatly supportive. My mother in particular, lugged her young, tom -boyish red haired daughter to any and every musical, or theatrical production within driving distance of Morden Manitoba . She enrolled me in piano lessons at the age of 5 and in some years, travelled with me every week 80 miles to Winnipeg as I followed my music teacher there. She brought my brother and I regularly each summer to an outdoor musical theatre called Rainbow Stage where I briefly performed in my late teens, and then traipsed across the wide provinces of Manitoba and Ontario when I moved to Stratford to work in the theatre there.

She advanced me a loan for my first recording ( Elemental) in 1985, after I had packed in the notion of becoming a veterinarean and saved any concerns or objections to this uncertain musical career path for her more private conversations with trusted friends ( I am proud to say I DID pay her back!)

For those of us who have been blessed with getting to know our mothers, particularly in our adult hood, one can attest to continued love and appreciation ( and even some exasperation!)of them on different and evolving levels…as a friend, a confident, a fellow traveler and later as roles change, as someone who may come to depend on you.

It has been an incredible privilege to have cared for my mother in these past years and I can honestly say I never stopped learning from her and I expect I will continue to yet as more layers of who she was become revealed through family and friends in our reminiscences. She could be as fierce an advocate as you could find and never hesitated to question things. Growing up in the depression, she respected the value of things and the hard work it took to acquire or achieve something. And although she did not wear many of her personal thoughts on her sleeve, she was who she was, in the way she lived her life and how she did things, many for the communities of which she became a part.

As sad as this occasion is, it is truly one for celebration. On the occasion of her passing, I would like to raise a toast to all parents, grandparents and friends who have played and continue to play fundamental roles in the shaping of their children’s, grandchildren’s and all our lives and the incredible interwoven legacies they leave with us, legacies for which we must be truly thankful.