Visiting P.E.I., August 1-5, 2022

 My second cousin Marian White (my maternal grandmother was her great aunt on her father's side) invited me to visit. For reading during quiet times I brought along my Kindle as well as a book titled Life Is Messy by Matthew Kelly. I also had a brand new iPhone, my first, so I could check e-mails. I'm still getting used to it.

I was met at Charlottetown airport by Marian's nephew Darby White-Myers. After supper at her place in Tracadie Cross, he drove me around to see the old family farm, where new owners have demolished the old house, the cemetery where Marian's parents and Darby's mother are buried, and the apple orchard which Marian's brother Ed has begun.

On Tuesday, I went to Mass at the parish church which is less than 1/10 of a mile from Marian's place. Later, we were joined by her niece Natasha (daughter of her brother Maurice), for a drive to Georgetown at the east end of the island, where we had lunch. In the evening we were joined by Darby and his prospective fiancée Marlee for supper.

On Wednesday, August 3, after breakfast we drove to Tracadie Harbour to a mussel processing plant which is operated by John MacKinnon, a cousin of Marian's on her mother's side. She bought a $10 bag of mussels, which was way more than we could eat. She gave most of them to Ed. Back at Tracadie, we drove down a dirt path to Glenaladale. The estate was founded as a haven for Jacobite Catholic Scottish highlanders who were vicims of the "clearances" following the defeat of "Bonnie Prince Charlie" at Culloden. Eventually, the owners also facilitated the relocation of people from Ireland, among whom were my White ancestors about 1840 (before the potato famine).

In the afternoon we had a visit from cousin Ed and his 14 year old son Levi and their dog. After supper we went to say hello to another of Marian's cousins on her mother's side, Robert Hughes. Robert raises cattle and pigs, and he rents four fields adjacent to the path from Marian's to Glenaladale. He raises fodder there (last year barley, this year hay).

On Thursday at Mass, Marian's aunt Edna Kelly introduced herself to me, having guessed that the stranger would be the cousin from the States whom Marian said would visit. In mid-afternoon we drove to Charlottetown, where Marian had errands. As a hostess gift, I bought a gift certificate from Cow's, a popular ice cream and souvenir shop. I also got myself an oven mitt with an image of a sombrero wearing cow and the legend "Mooey caliente." The we met with Ed, Levi, and Ed's wife Janice for my "gala farewell dinner" — my treat.

Friday morning we went to the airport to pick up an Aussie woman who would stay at Marian's as part of the Workaway program — 5 hours of work 5 days per week in exchange for room and board. Then in the afternoon Marian drove me to the airport, U.S. Customs and Immigration procedures in Montréal were time-consuming and annoying, but I got home with no real difficulties.

Longing on PEI

My mother's mother, the youngest of ten siblings, came with two of her sisters from the family farm on Prince Edward Island to Massachusetts some time around 1900. My mother visited the farm and relatives there several times as a girl. She remembered it fondly and would say that we should visit sometime, but we never actually did so. She did, however exchange Christmas cards with a cousin there until her increasing dementia ended the exchange a few years before she died.

A few days before my mother's death, a letter arrived for her from a daughter of the other cousin on the island. It asked my mother to share any memories of her visits as well as any information which might help the writer track down the descendants of the other sisters who had come with my grandmother. We couldn't give any information my second cousin had requested, but the family was reconnected, and my brothers, sister-in-law,  nephew, and I visited the island that summer and met the relatives: two cousins of my mother and their spouses, our second cousins, and several of their children.

In the course of our visit, we took a guided walking tour of downtown Charlottetown, the capital. The guide, a college age man, was in 19th century costume, and I found him quite attractive. The following year, my brother, sister-in-law, and I returned. She had arranged to give an organ concert in Charlottetown and another in Tignish about two hours away. After the first concert they went to Tignish to prepare for the concert there. I didn't need to go with them, and I decided to stay in Charlottetown and take another of the walking tours which were offered.

To my delight, the guide happened to be the one from a year earlier. It also turned out that I was the only person signed up for the tour. So in addition to the tour, the guide also gave some information about himself. His name was John — I've forgotten his last name — and he lived in one of the suburbs of Charlottetown. He said that he and the other guides stayed in the Delta hotel during the season, and he told me several times that they gathered every evening in the lounge of the hotel. It seemed clear to me that in effect he was inviting, encouraging, me to join the group there. I told him that I had to join my family members in Tignish that evening.

I would have liked to see him that evening. Of course, my imagination developed a scenario in which I fantasized that after a couple of drinks he would invite me to his room, and make advances toward me. I would refuse to engage in sex, but there would be innocent displays of affection. Certainly there we would exchange contact information, and we would stay in touch. None of that could actually happen because of my family commitment, but I definitely wished it were possible to get to know him better and to develop a friendship. We have had no contact since then, and I wonder how he has done in the dozen or more years since those encounters. I hope all is well.

I wonder if he had known that I would be the only participant on the tour that afternoon and if he had arranged to be the guide for that reason. The guides used to get tips, and a tour with only one tourist would not have been very desirable. I can imagine that it could have been cancelled because of insufficient participation, but it wasn't. Maybe he had noticed my interest in him on the earlier tour (I took several pics of sites with him in them)  and somehow learned my name. Or maybe it was pure coincidence that he drew the assignment. Of course, I had signed up for it because the area to be covered  — the Lieutenant Governor's Mansion and the area between there and the edge of downtown — was of interest, and I'd have enjoyed it in a group or with a different guide, but being alone with him made it even more enjoyable.

Some people might consider this sad because of what didn't happen. On the other hand, the actual experience was pleasant, and it is an instance of chance encounters being able to produce good results. There was nothing lasting, like what came from a chance encounter in Rothenburg, but it was good while it lasted.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 3: End of Visit & Going Home

Marian had planned to take the young nephew to a show in Crapaud titled "The Mermaid and the Droplets." It was a combination of dance and offstage voicing presenting the concept of the water cycle(s) — water to vapor to clouds to rain, rivers, oceans, underground aquifers. The concept came from a 4th grade class, and this was the last show of the second summer of performances. It was scheduled for 1:00, and since it was on the way to the bridge, I decided to go along.

So after Mass, I packed, while Marian had some activity to go to. We were to meet at Ed's at noon to pick up the nephew and head off to Crapaud. On the way to Ed's I stopped to fill up my gas tank. Then I thought of going downtown to get a hostess gift for Ed's wife Janice, but time was a bit tight, so I went straight to Ed's, arriving about 11:50. Marian was ready to leave immediately, because she was worried that the show would sell out (it didn't). It was performed by teenagers and was actually pretty good.

When the show was over, I left for Fredericton, NB — about a 3 hour drive. To prevent drowsiness, I stopped for a cola in Moncton, and got to Fredericton about 5:30. It's really a charming little city, and I recommend a visit to anyone traveling in New Brunswick. I decided to stay in the fancy hotel downtown. The exterior has been renovated and the lobby is modern, but the corridors are old-fashioned elegant, which I liked a lot.

On Friday, I got under way about 10:00 and reached the border about 11:15 (10:15 Eastern Time). I refueled in Bangor, had lunch at a McDonalds in Waterville, and as on Thursday, stopped for some caffeine and a break — in Kittery, ME. It didn't look practicable to get right back on Rte. I-95, so I drove via Rte. 1 across to Portsmouth, NH, and through the city to get back on the superhighway. Then I got home without further stops or incident, arriving home about 4:45. With the time zone difference, I had been on the road slightly under 8 hours (including breaks) and was pretty frazzled. Maybe that's why I forgot to put water in the pot when I started steaming the salmon. Eventually I realized, and put water in the pot for the second half of the cooking time. It was still good, if a little drier than usual.

There was a lot of time in transit for the actual time on the Island, and it ended up costing more for gas and food and lodging than I had imagined, but it was good to see the family and the shows. So I'm glad I made the trip, and I'd have liked to spend more time there if I hadn't had to get back for Race Committee duty.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 2: Two Days on the Island

Marian likes to plan activities, and she had several items planned for my visit. She knew that I'd like to go to Mass, so she informed me that there would be Mass in the church just up the street on Tuesday and Thursday at 9:00 am. Shee didn't go to it, but I did. After her yoga class we headed off to her mother's apartment (assisted living?). The mother is 90ish, sometimes uses a walker, and is still in excellent shape mentally. Marian prepared a nice lunch for us. As we were finishing, a brother of hers showed up for a visit and ate the leftovers that could have been the mother's lunch the next day.

Next we visited the graveyard where her father and other ancestors are buried, picked raspberries (2 pints at $3.00 each, which I paid for since she was short of cash), and got a half gallon of ice cream for the berries (again I paid). I also bought 500g of Island honey to bring home. Back at her house, I heard an interview on the radio with two of the actors in the Watermark Theatre Company of North Rustico's production of "The Lion in Winter," and decided to go. Marian had wanted to have me go with her to Dalvay-by-the-Sea to enjoy some of their sticky date pudding. By rushing through supper, we were able to leave in time to get to Dalvay and have the pudding — very tasty — pick up a friend of hers in Rustico, and get to the theatre in good time for the show. The friend's birthday was the next day, so Marian paid for his ticket as a present, while I picked up our two. I thought the show was well acted, but the play never explained why the 12th century Plantagenets were constantly intriguing against one another as the author imagines them. Maybe it's just the desire of each to be in control. One interesting bit was the indication of a homosexual liaison between Richard Lionheart and the King Philip of France, when Philip was 15 (a few years before the action of the play).

On Wednesday she planned for me to visit her Aunt Mary's widower at a seniors' home in the morning and to meet her in mid-afternoon for a visit to one of Mary's lifelong friends. (It had been Mary who had kept in contact with my mother for many years and had supplied our address to Marian just before Mom died.) The visits both went well. Mary's husband was drowsy and kept nodding off, but seemed happy to have my visit. The friend was even sharper than Marian's mother, and had a lot of reminiscences of history of our family and friends.

Between those visits, I went to Mass at St. Dunstan's Basilica, bought a ticket for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," had a lunch of fish and chips, and bought a couple of souvenir magnets at Province House, where the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 took place. After the visit with the family friend, I was invited to dinner at Cousin Ed's. He's the one whom I just missed seeing the evening I arrived. So I had a nice visit with him and his wife and their 6-year-old son.

After dinner, I went to the theater for "1864: The Tall Hat Chronicles," (links to video and audio) which was, surprisingly, the only thing I could find which directly dealt with the 1864 conference — and it did so in a zany and often risqué manner. It was really funny. The show began at 9:00 p.m., and when it was over shortly after 11:00 it was raining. I checked the map to be sure how to get to the route back to Marian's. As I drove through the rain in the dark, I was amazed at how blurry everything was. After I missed a turn about ½ mile from Marian's, I checked the map again, and as I did so I realized that I had been wearing my reading glasses. Things became much clearer once I changed to my driving glasses.


Still to come: Thursday on the Island, and then going home.

My Trip to PEI, August 2014 — Part 1: Getting There

I've posted earlier about visiting the cousins on Prince Edward Island. (Click on the label PEI to see earlier posts.) It's been several years since I went there, but this year the Province is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference, which the was first step toward confederation: the unification of Canada, which until then had been separate colonies. I figured there would be activities, exhibits, and the like that would be worth seeing. It turned out there wasn't much alone those lines, but there were various performances in various venues in celebration of the event.

The dates of August 4-8 were open on my calendar, so I asked my cousin Marian, my principal contact with the family, if it would be a good time for me to visit, and she said nobody else had reserved the time. She is very hospitable, and will pack relatives and friends into her house very willingly. She also gladly takes care of nephews and nieces when their parents need someone to look after them for a while.

It's something over a 600 mile drive to her place, and I decided to drive to Bangor — about ⅓ of the distance — on Sunday, and do the rest of the drive on Monday. It worked out pretty well, except I missed a turn in Charlottetown (because I thought I needed to be taking the route from C'town to the west, but I needed to go eastbound — I always think east and west on the Island are the opposite of what they are), and then I missed another turn near her place. So I only got there a couple of minutes before she had to leave for a nearby event, and it turned out I had just missed seeing the cousin whose sons I stayed with in 2010. He was taking his third son and a nephew to a soccer match. Marian had prepared a pot of mussels for me and an old friend of hers who was visiting the Island and staying a few miles away. She told me to eat half of them, and I had all I wanted, along with some rolls and butter. There were leftovers after the friend and I had all we wanted.

Another Trip Next Week

I'd been hoping to post something more substantial (Still might), but I want to let you know that I'll be heading up to PEI to visit the cousins. I'll leave sometime Sunday afternoon and be back on Friday the 8th in the p.m.

As usual, I'll be leaving the internet behind, and I have Race Committee duty on the 9th. So don't be alarmed unless I don't even show up on twitter by the 11th. Hopefully, I'll get around to blogging about the trip fairly soon after I get back.

Meanwhile, have fun, and don't do anything I wouldn't do.

Catching Up

Actually, there haven't been a lot of events to write about since I did my post on February 8.

I went to the theater in Boston on February 13 to see "Red Eye to Havre de Grace," a play with music about the last days of Edgar Allan Poe (who, I was surprised to learn, was born and raised in Boston, the son of actors who had immigrated from England). It showed his impecuniousness, and his attempts to present his latest ideas about the origin and destiny of the universe, which he had spelled out in a book titled "Eureka." While there is, as the playwrights note, some slight foreshadowing of the Big Bang theory, mostly it came across as incomprehensible. On the lecture circuit, where he tried to present his theory, audiences were more interested in hearing him recite "The Raven," which he found very frustrating. All the while, he was haunted by the death of his wife. After a lecture in Philadelphia, he was supposed to go to New York, but he was seen headed south on the train going to Havre de Grace. Several days later he died in a hospital in Baltimore. It was fascinating to see the depiction of this unfold.

Amazingly, perhaps, I've only been to one concert during this time: the Boston Symphony on February 20. But the BSO has only given one other on a Thursday in that time, namely, "Salome" on March 6. I had a ticket for it but exchanged it for the concert on March 18, when they'll play Beethoven piano concertos and one of the Leonore overtures — part of a series which will include all 5 piano concertos, all 3 Leonore overtures, and the triple concerto. I'll get to all of them. As for the Harvard Musical Association, they had a concert on March 7, but I forgot about it until it would have been difficult to get there.

But I have been making plans. My 50th college reunion will be May 29-June 1 in D.C. I've registered for it and made my flight and hotel reservations. I've also made arrangements to spend June 23-27 at the monastery I thought of joining shortly after college. It will partly be a spiritual retreat, and partly a visit with my old friends. At some point in the summer, I'll go to PEI to visit my cousins and see some of the festivities marking the 150th anniversary of the Charlottetown Conference. And I'm very much looking forward to meeting (former?) fellow blogger Peter when he visits Boston for a Pops concert conducted by John Williams.

I went to the movies a couple of days ago and saw "12 Years a Slave." It's a powerful depiction of the evils of slavery in the pre Civil War South.

As I watched videos of Pete Seeger after his death, I came across a couple with Johnny Cash in them. Following links from those, I was reminded of the Carter Family. (Johnny Cash had married Maybelle Carter's daughter June.)I had first encountered the Carters' music through recordings of some of their songs by Joan Baez early in her career, and I had bought a couple of LP compilations of some of their songs. I started listening to videos of that music (audio, mostly, accompanied by pictures) and became really fascinated by them — so much so that I went to Amazon and bought three books about them, a set of 5 CD's of their earliest recordings, and a CD and vinyl LP of Sara and Maybelle. I even toyed with the idea of going to Virginia early in August to attend a couple of performances at the Carter Family Fold, but I don't think I can afford it this year, with all the other trips I have planned.

If you're interested in hearing what the Carter Family actually sounded like, here are some links.

Bury Me under the Weeping Willow, the first song they recorded. This may be a later recording of the song, but it gives the full flavor of what they could do. (Some of the accompanying photos, with children, are for a spread that was made for Life magazine in the fall of 1941. It was preempted by the attack on Pearl Harbor and never got published.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCniFuHlPG0

Wildwood Flower, which became one of the signature tunes for Maybelle and her daughters. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4xjqpARrHM

The Storms Are on the Ocean, the fourth song recorded the first day in Bristol, Tenn. (That's Jimmie Rodgers at the left in the photo, which dates from several years later.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-iXemfEkFw

The Poor Orphan Child, third song they recorded. I hadn't heard it until this year, and it became an earworm for me. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-EkYhJR3gs

When the World's on Fire, with a tune that Woddy Guthrie later used for This Land Is Your Land. The Carters also used it for Little Darling Pal of Mine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxo-zayI6tE

Farther On, sung by Sara in about 1966-7 on a reunion album with Maybelle (but this is a solo by Sara, at age 69), nearly 40 years after the original recordings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OSxpkNHshw

You'll see links to lots of other videos. God Gave Noah (pron. Noay) the Rainbow Sign contains the line, "the fire next time." The later ones with Sara and Maybelle have their own interest. I find the 8 minute one especially interesting — it contains some reminiscences by Sara along with footage of the two performing.

Back

I drove to Prince Edward Island for the funeral of the last of my mother's cousins. Martin died as a teenager, Walter died a year ago, and Mary, who had been the one who kept in touch with Mom, died a week ago at the age of 85. She and her husband had no children, but Walter had ten, of whom nine are still alive and six still live on the Island. (They are my second cousins.) Cousin Ed and his wife were in Turkey with their baby, and their daughter Olivia was in Toronto. That left 19 year old Noah and 16(?) year old Gabe, baching it. Cousin Marian was looking in on them when she e-mailed me about the funeral. When I said I'd be there if I could, Noah said, "Joe can stay with us." So that's what I did.

I left late on Monday, spent the night in Augusta, Maine, and arrived in Charlottetown in time for the evening part of the wake on Tuesday. The funeral was Wednesday morning. There was a family gathering afterwards at Noah and Gabe's home. Then in the evening I had dinner at a nice restaurant with Noah and Gabe. Thursday I visited Walter's widow and Mary's widower and left for home. After spending the night in Bangor, Maine, I got home about 2:00 p.m. on Friday.

Of course, there is now a ton of stuff that I could have handled if I had stayed home — not least my income taxes, for which we have an extension to May 11 because of flooding in this area in early April. So although I'm back and catching up on the blogs, I'll probably be posting and commenting less than usual for several more days.

Merry Christmas

     Warmest best wishes for a very Merry Christmas to all who read this post. Even if you aren't a Christian I hope you will have a great day. And for Christians, we have the added joy of remembering the birth of the one who came to bring us eternal life by uniting humanity with God in his own person and redeeming us from our sinfulness.

     I've already helped out at my parish's 4:00 Mass, and I plan to be at the Midnight Mass and at the 11:00 a.m. one. My brother who is visiting from Boston and I will exchange presents, and open a few from outside the house, around 7:30 a.m. At 2:00 p.m. we'll join our aunt and three of her friends for dinner. Since I won't have any leftover turkey, I'll cook a rib roast for dinner for my brother and me on the second day of Christmas, aka Boxing Day, aka St. Stephen's Day.

     Here are a few views of the decorations at the Naturgesetz place.

Wreath beside side door.

Wreath on front door.

My Christmas tree on the mantel. Including the base, it's about 21 inches tall. You can see a portrait of my dad reflected in the mirror. It was painted when he was about 45 for my grandfather. We got it when Gramps died. If the place looks a bit cluttered, that's because it is.

Quilt on the side door.

Japanese picture from brother and sister-in-law, hung on wall scroll in entry hall.

This one's in the living room. You can see that it is thirty years old. It's homemade. I like thistles. If I were entitled to a floral badge, I think I'd choose the thistle. You can see the straps at the corners that hold the picture on the scroll.

Creche on top of TV.  Photo is one of my great grandmothers. She's working on a piece of embroidery which is framed on the wall above and to the right of this scene. The photo is in a frame made by my grandfather (her son-in-law). The vase is from Prince Edward Island, and I cut the roses a couple of months ago. (This great grandmother was not one of my PEI ancestors.)

Poinsettia from church.

Painting by fellow blogger Dean Grey , titled "Christmas Apple." Strictly speaking, it's not a Christmas decoration, since I'll have it visible all year. But I decided to include it because of the title and because it arrived in the mail today, December 24. In the picture, it is in a small wall niche. To the right is a bronze piece depicting St. Boniface which I probably got in Fulda in 2005. Since I took this picture, I have put the painting in a frame and moved it to my bedroom.

     Again, Merry Christmas to all.

PEI Family Visit/Ball Game with Bob and Mark/Commenter's Block

Last week I went to Prince Edward Island for a brief visit. I flew there by plane and was on the ground for just over 72 hours. The first evening I had dinner with the family of the youngest of my second cousins. He and his wife have four children —one starting his second year at university, teen-aged girl, teen-aged boy, and a 14 month old son. After dinner, another cousin (I'll call her "Marian") took me to her place, and later we attended a singer's performance in a rural restaurant.

The next day, I visited the widow of my mother's first cousin (the mother of the second cousins) at the ancestral farm, and my mother's remaining first cousin in the city. Marian had me peel onions that were going to become part of a chow that some of her siblings and their mother would make the next day. We were visited for supper by a friend of hers and the two autistic boys the friend is caring for. Next another cousin dropped off her 12 and 10 year old sons for an overnight. We all went to a ceilidh (pronounced kaylee), a performance of traditional music with fiddling, singing, and step dancing. We met the friend and the autistic boys there. Marian says her nephews' regular bedtime is 7:30, but they were up until about 11:00 that evening.

The boys played in the yard in the morning and we all took a walk along a trail in the woods at before lunch. Then the mother picked the boys up.

My last morning there, Marian sent me to the Premier's office to pick up an item he was donating to her organization's auction.

What struck me from the visit is the sense of family and community — people taking care of each other, doing things especially for family members as a matter of course. This is not something I experienced growing up. Most of the family was too far away for easy contact. One grandmother and an uncle lived 15-20 minutes away, but I didn't observe a lot of back-and-forth. So I learned to be pretty much on my own, not expecting to be called on by relatives for help nor expecting to get much from them, resenting interferences in my routine. Coming to know these cousins as I have over the past four years has reminded me how self-centered I have become — something I need to work on if the second great commandment is to love others as I love myself.

Yesterday (Wednesday) evening I went to a Red Sox baseball game with Bob, who organized it, and Mark. I hadn't been to a major league baseball game for decades. It was thoroughly delightful. We met in Kenmore Square and went to a restaurant nearby (where I was recognized by the past commodore of my yacht club, who was with a group at the adjacent table). Our seats were high above left field, with a good view of everything except a corner of left field.

It was great meeting Bob and Mark, both nice guys. And we had such a lively conversation that I actually paid less attention to the game than if I had been at home in front of my TV. Of course, at the park, there's a lot more to look at than the small pice being shown on TV at any moment. And the experience of being there, just being part of the event (including singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the 7th inning stretch), felt exciting.

I sometimes wonder if I would like some bloggers I really like over the internet if I were to meet them irl. Well, with Bob and Mark, I was not disappointed. I like them just as much in person as I did in cyberspace and I'm sure I'd enjoy seeing each of them again.

I wouldn't recommend people under 18 meeting with adult bloggers, but for adults who have built up some degree of acquaintance and cyber-friendship, it can be worthwhile. Of course there is always an element of risk, as there is in any first encounter. The other guy could be an axe-murderer, someone who wants to out you if you're closeted, or just a jerk. And it's always wise to meet in a public setting for starters. But when you like what you know of someone from the internet, it can be worth a try, IMO. It certainly worked out very well for me. Just a wonderful evening with friends. And the Red Sox won!

Since I got back from PEI, I seem to be experiencing some commenter's block. I'll look at new posts on blogs I like and just not be able to come up with a worthwhile comment. There probably aren't many of you who notice when I don't comment on your blog, but if you have been missing my comments, let me assure you, it's not that I've stopped liking you or your blog. My feelings haven't changed since last month. But I have been thinking that I should cut down the time I spoend on the internet, and I should spend a bit more time at some websites I was a regular at before I discovered blogging. So maybe I won't have as many comments. But I'll be following you as I have been.

Walter White: RIP

Walter was my mother's first cousin. Until a couple of years ago he lived on the property his great-grandfather had acquired when he emigrated from Ireland to Prince Edward Island in the early 1840's. Walter was born October 9, 1921. Recently he was living in a seniors' lodge in Charlottetown, and he died Monday of pneumonia, having suffered a stroke in mid March.

As a girl, my mother visited the family home on PEI several times and remembered it fondly. We often said we should visit some time, but never did. About three days before she died, a letter came from one of Walter's daughters, Marian, asking for any reminiscences my mother could supply. At that point Mom's memory was pretty much gone, but my brothers and I kept in touch with Marian, and through her reconnected with the family.

In August of 2005, my brothers, sister-in-law, nephew, and I visited Walter and his wife in their ten year old home across the street from the original family home where my mother would have stayed on her visits. Various of their ten children and some grandchildren were also there. I got to spend a night in the old house. At that time, Walter was still rising early each morning to work in his vegetable garden. I visited the family again in 2006 and 2007. By the summer of 2007, Walter had suffered a stroke and was living in the seniors' lodge, but he had planted tomatoes in a couple of available spots adjacent to the driveway.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, nine of their ten children, numerous grandchildren, and his sister Mary.

I'll be flying to PEI on Wednesday to attend the funeral on Thursday. I'll be staying with Mary, who had exchanged Christmas cards with my mother for years, until Mom's dementia became too debilitating. I'll be back Friday evening.

So I won't be blogging during that time. I'll catch up with you when I get back.

Change of Plans: Edited March 28, 11:45 a.m.

I don't think I had told you, but my pastor planned a trip to Italy for members of the parish this October. It was going to Rome, Siena, Assisi, Florence, and a couple of other places where I've never been, but always figured would be worth seeing. It would also go to Venice and Milan, where I have been. So I signed up.

But I learned a couple of days ago that with the troubles in the economy a lot of people withdrew and the trip was cancelled. So now I'm "all dressed up with no place to go." Actually, I'm thinking of a couple of possibilities. One would be to go to Prince Edward Island to visit the cousins. Another would be to go to Ireland to see where the maternal ancestors came from. A third possibility would be to go to Germany to visit my friend "Stefan" and his family and see him perform the leading role in the local festival play. This year is the 25th anniversary of our original meeting (which I still need to blog about sometime). Of course, PEI is cheap enough to get to from here (and I'd be staying with the rellies), that I could probably do that even if I also hop across the pond.

Edited to add: And I remembered this morning that my kid brother has been after me to visit him and my sister-in-law in Japan. I haven't been there since New Year's 1986.

Well, whatever I do, there should be some language study in my future. Kid brother also wants me to learn some Japanese, sent me a CD a couple of years ago for Christmas. And if I decide to go to Ireland, I'll want to know at least some basic Irish. I tried studying it some years ago and found it really wild, although at least the spelling's pretty regular, once you get the hang of it. And if I go to Germany, I'd want to brush up my German so it was back to at least the level of a stupid three-year old.