Remembering Neil's Mother

Neil’s mother, Gertrude, was born on January 20, 1911 in Winnipeg, the second oldest of six children.  She died in Vancouver on February 28, 1966 from cancer at the very young age of 56. 

She was very intelligent, and went to the University of Manitoba where she received her BA.  This is her University graduation picture (about 1930).  During her adult life, she was active in many organizations and often was the featured speaker where she spoke on a wide range of topics.

Neil's father, Irving, lived in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and had a large family there.  This picture is of Irving, Gertrude and Gertrude's father in 1933.

After Gertrude and Irving were married they initially lived  in various small Ontario & Manitoba mining communities where Irving had general goods stores.

Here is one example:

Neil was born in Thunder Bay in 1934 - here are the happy couple with Neil in 1939:

Fortunately for everyone, Irving worked hard and did well, enabling them to return to Thunder Bay where they built a lovely home on Summit Avenue:

In 1953 they moved to Vancouver so that the children would be close to a university. 

I didn't meet Neil until 1971 so did not have the opportunity to meet his mother.  I am told she was a wonderful woman, and that she was renowned for her brownies.  She made a pan of brownies most school days and Neil would polish off at least one row every time.

Gertrude would have been 100 years old in 2011.

 

Lilith Salon Discusses Article "Unforgettable Friendships"

Five women from our Lilith Salon discussion group met last night to discuss the article “Unforgettable Friendships” from the Winter 2010-2011 edition of Lilith magazine. 

Here is the link to the article: 

http://www.lilith.org/pdfs/Friendship_Winter20102011.pdf 

The article is comprised of essays by four women with different reflections on female friendships which each is currently in, or has been involved.  There were certain commonalities between the experiences, including in three cases where the women met and became friends at summer camp during their teenage years.

In the first essay “Balm in Gilead” by Marcia Falk, the friendship between Marcia and Beth was strengthened by visits to Beth’s 200-acre family tree farm in the Catskill mountains, called “Gilead”, which became a life-long special place of retreat.  Then, after their college years the two friends lives branched in opposite directions, including geographically, and they saw each other only sporadically.  They reconnected into their greatest closeness at the time of Beth’s final illness and goodbye.

The second essay “Click: Ignore” by Alice Alexious tells of a difficult childhood friendship where one person was unsupportive and in fact somewhat tormenting, resulting in the relationship being terminated.  The essay begins with Alice opening an email message from this former friend who found her on “Facebook” inviting her to correspond.  Alice relives those childhood memories and has to decide whether or not to answer this email.

One of the discussion participants reflected on how our 50-60s generation is now reconnecting with lost friends from the past through internet and social media.  But she noted that her daughter and her long term friends are regularly updating each other on their lives through social media, forming an ongoing connection regardless of geography, so such friends will never be "lost".

Dinner with Old Friends

Neil and I hosted dinner at our home last night for old friends:  Kerry (Roger couldn't make it), Linda and Cec and Janice and Jim. Such old friends in fact, that Kerry, Linda, Janice and I go back to high school days at Killarney High School and the four of us girls also belonged to Job's Daughters during our teenage years.  How we laughed and joked last night.

Here are some pictures from those early years:

L to R:  Janice, Me and Linda at a Job's Daughters Picnic in 1963

L to R:  a different Linda, me and Kerry bunkered down at Manning Park Lodge in 1966 on a Job's Daughters weekend ski trip to Manning Park.  There were 32 of us in total including parent chaperones on this trip.

Linda, entertaining us on the bus ride back from Manning Park! (1966)

Remembering my Father

Dad was born in Victoria, BC on March 20, 1922 and died in Hamilton, New Zealand, on February 19, 1979 at the age of 56 while he and Mom were on vacation.  It was three days after their 35th wedding anniversary.

This is one of the last formal pictures of him, dancing with Mom at a family wedding in 1976.

KLEZMERATA FIORENTINA - WOW! WOW! WOW!

Their West Coast premiere was tonight at the Norman Rothstein Theatre in Vancouver.  My friend Myra, very kindly treated me to this wildly wonderful performance.



Klezmerata Fiorentina is a quartet of principal players from one of the leading Italian operatic and symphonic orchestras - the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.  Formed in 2005 by Igor Polesitsky, violinist, with Riccardo Crocilla, clarinet, Francesco Furlanich, accordionist and bassonist,and Riccardo Donati, double bass player, their work is a reinterpretation of music from the southern frontier of Ukraine.  Varied and exciting, the music is influenced by Balkan, gypsy, Turkish and Yiddish traditions, which coexisted over the centuries on the vast territories along the shores of the Black Sea.

Don't miss the music streaming on their website:

Klezmerata Fiorentina

I bought their CD "Fifteen Variations on the Theme of Life" and look forward to playing it for our friends!

Mom & Dad's Anniversary

Mom and Dad were married at the Metropolitan United Church in Victoria, BC on February 16, 1944.  Mom was an infants practical nurse at St. Joseph's Hospital and Dad was in the Royal Canadian Navy serving on corvettes on the Transatlantic run during WWII providing Britain with important supplies.  They met in April, 1942 at a dance for servicemen held at the Crystal Gardens in Victoria. 

He proposed to her by letter, suggesting they get married on his next leave (which would be in a few months of the letter).  They first lived in apartments around the Beaconhill Park area of Victoria.

Dad had signed up for the RCN on his 18th birthday for seven years of service, and was discharged in the spring of 1947.  He got a job in Vancouver at R. Angus & Sons, through connections in the RCN, and they moved to Vancouver in November 1947.  Here is their first home in Vancouver, in the Collingwood area.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I found the following old Valentine's cards among my Mother's possessions when we were clearing out her apartment. The first is a card I made and addressed to my brother, "Bobby" (later change of name to "Bruce"), probably in 1953 or 1954.  The second is a card addressed to Mom and Dad from me probably around 1956, or 1957.  How touching that Mom saved them.

Whistler - February 6 - 8

We had a lovely three days in Whistler with our friends, Myra and Jan. Some photos:
River of Golden Dreams on the trail to Rainbow Park

Myra cross country skiing

Above: View of partly frozen Alta Lake from Rainbow Park

Above:  Neil snow shoeing at Lost Lake

Above: View of Chateau Whistler Golf Course in Winter

Petula Clark at the River Rock Casino Theatre

Went tonight with Linda, Shelly & Neil to the River Rock Theatre to see Petula Clark.  We remembered her for her hit songs from the 60s, "I Know a Place", "My Love", "A Sign of the Times", I Couldn't Live without Your Love", Don't Sleep in the Subway Darling" and of course "Downtown". 

She sang all of those tonight to much acclaim.  But we found her stage presence weak and her singing poor.  But I realized as the evening progressed that I didn't know anything about her beyond those hit songs.  In reviewing her wiki bio when I got home, I see that she was a child star, and was actually born in 1932 which makes her going on 79 - 80 years old.  Absolutely amazing! 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petula_Clark  
Her hit songs from the 60s were made when she was in her 30s and of course I still imagined her that way.  Here she is today -

Ellen's "Eat, Pray, Love" Year

My very dear friend, Ellen, left Vancouver on January 9 to begin her "Eat, Pray, Love" year.  Her first destination is New Zealand, and she is at the moment based in Nelson on the South Island.  She has been attending classes on various forms of fabric arts, and learning about the many different kinds of sheep in New Zealand! 

She has also been touring the northern part of the South Island.  She made a trip to Farewell Spit, which is the northernmost point on the South Island, stretching into Tasman Bay.  It is a nature reserve that is a bird sanctuary and wetlands.  Here is one of her pictures from this area. 

Ellen also went on a boat mail run which is part of the postal service. Having tourists come along makes the boat run more financially viable.  They travelled along the Polorus Sound and there are mussel farms all through this area.  They could observe the farms and how the mussels were harvested and taken to market.  Here is one of her pictures:

Enjoy yourself Ellen!  I miss you.