Aunt Orva

Aunt Orva passed away on Oct 19 so I am glad we made the effort to see her when we did.

Thursday July 7, 2022

My Aunt Orva is 93 years old and we can’t count on her living too much longer. She is now in an assisted living center in Raymond so we decided we should make a trip down there to see here while we were in Canada.

We were hopeful that we’d also be able to see two of her daughters Marsha and Sharla while we were there since they live in the area but I was sad that I wouldn’t be able to see Jennifer. I think Jennifer might be my favorite cousin. I got to know Jennifer well when we were teenagers. As I remember it, once a week she had piano lessons from someone who lived near us so she came home with me after school and hung around the house for an hour or so until her lessons. She was a cool girl and I imagine she has become a cool woman.

We got to the home and as were walking down the hallway to where Aunt Orva was with her daughters out pops this woman from the room and ran and gave me a huge hug. To my surprise it was Jennifer who had driven all the way down from Northern Albert to see me.  I was thrilled. Jennifer is on my right, Marsha is on my left and Sharla is left of Marsha. We had a wonderful visit.

While Aunt Orva was having lunch Marsha took us into her room to show us something she’d found stuck in a book. It was Mom and Dads wedding invitation. Mom and her sister had a double wedding because Grandpa and Grandma couldn’t afford two weddings. I don’t think anyone in either of our families has seen this. It is pretty cool.

While we were there we rooted through her pictures and I came across this picture in a book that some one had written about her. I’ve see this picture before and I love it. I’m glad I now have this but I’d love to get a better copy. I don’t think I could name everyone in the picture but it is my family and Aunt Orva’s family with Greg on the right (oldest) and Lester on the left (youngest). I am the kid with the big ears, the third from the left. 

While we were in town we wanted to see Nadine Livingston. Lisa just recently made contact with her. We knew her in Rosemary but she’s been living the longest time in BC. She just moved to Raymond. 

On the way to Nadines we stopped at Snow’s pharmacy. To see Todd and Loni Snow. Loni grew up in Rosemary and was Loni Norton. She was our babysitter until she grew up and married Todd. It was good to see her.

We had a great visit with Nadine and then headed to Lethbridge where we then had a wonderful visit with Pat & Gary Norton. They recently retired and moved to an apartment in Lethbridge. It must have been pretty rough for them to leave Rosemary after having lived there for their entire lives.

Al

Wednesday July 6, 2022  

Today Lisa and I went to meet her long lost cousins. A few years ago some one who had matched up with Lisa on an Ancestry DNA test asked Lisa to help her find her birth father. After some pretty fancy sleuthing she found Al. Al had also found a half sister named Kylie.

Kylie lives in Calgary and Al lives in BC. Al has stayed in touch with Lisa and as soon as he found out that we were going to be in Calgary he bought a plane ticket and then asked if we could get together. We figured it was pretty brazen of him to buy the ticket before talking to us but it worked out and we had lunch this afternoon. Al was two hours late because he got lost but we had a wonderful visit with Kylie while we waited. Al has had a pretty colorful life. 

When I was a teenager me and my brothers and brothers in law would stay up all night acting as security gaurds at the motels on the long weekends. The parties would get quite wild. As it turns out, Al was probably one of the guys giving us grief. 

After we got home we spent the rest of the day helping Kira finish getting her house packed up. Justin had bought a truck and a trailer to help move stuff south. The excuse was that he could sell both the truck and the trailer in the states and come out ahead. He may sell the trailer but I’m betting the truck will remain. He does like to have fun and the truck will be fun.