Norm's Other Honey
Norm's Family
Norm’s first honey and Queen Bee, Polly, is his wife of thirty-eight years and counting. Polly is retired from S.N.E.T., and is an ovarian cancer survivor. She sometimes credits the longevity of her marriage to the fact that Norm spent two nights a week for thirty-one years in that firehouse where he built his first hives. Whatever the reasons for it, Norm and Polly have known each other since before they were teenagers and have dated since then, and they are very sweet on one another. Polly has also helped out with the bees from time to time, but mostly serves behind the scenes rather than behind a veil. She did assist in capturing a swarm of bees that settled in a neighbor’s tree a few years ago by very deftly holding the ladder for Norm. Her bee skills and expertise also includes hive painting and baking with honey. (The WEBMASTER apologizes that there is no picture of Polly up at this time, but rest assured, it will be here very, very soon!!)
Norm’s first son Michael has been a police officer for over fifteen years. He helps his father hive the new bees every year and also helps periodically throughout the year with various hive issues. He dreams of retiring to keep bees, but that dream is far off with his two young children, Patrick and Megan, vying for his attention and his thinking about their college tuitions.
Norm’s
younger son, Andrew, is a full-time assistant professor of English and
English as a Second Language at a community college. With his father’s
tutelage, like his brother Michael, he aspires to retire to beekeeping. When he
is around, Andrew also assists his father with the bees, mostly asking strange
questions and showing a great aptitude for getting stung.
Aldea Coté is Norm’s mother. She is 89 years old and on some days, she accompanies Norm to do rounds of his hives. She loves honey, and her father used to keep honeybees, though Norm never knew that until years after he began to keep his own bees. She is bright, and has a great sense of humor. Despite decades in the United States, Aldea speaks English with a thick Quebequois accent, making just about anything she says charming. She has six children and four stepchildren whom she also raised. All told, she also has mothered ten children, has twenty-one grandchildren, twenty-four great-grandchildren, and one great-great grandson.
Patrick
is Norm’s first grandchild and only grandson. He is currently seven years old.
He enjoys playing baseball, making a lot of noise and playing with toy trucks.
He is also a good reader and likes to demonstrate his prowess with books.
Patrick too is interested in beekeeping and a few times has “helped” his
grandfather (“Papa”) with the hives. Patrick was a little nervous when he first
encountered the bees in their lair, but he acclimated very quickly to the open
hive, and now enjoys the experience. Perhaps most of all, he enjoys putting on
the protective bee suit, specially made for his diminutive stature.
Megan is Norm’s second grandchild, and only granddaughter. She is four years old and takes great pleasure in taunting her big brother, screaming and running around, and being Papa’s little girl. Besides Shrek and Dora the Explorer, she enjoys spending the night with her grandparents, who cater to her every whim. Much to her grandfather’s chagrin, she also takes enormous pleasure in stomping insects.
If you would like to contact Norm with any question, please do so at beekeeperc@aol.com