This has been a week of saying farewell to two members of my Dad’s family who passed away in different places on the same night.   My Dad’s 89 year old cousin, Ruth, passed away in Winnipeg at midnight  April 9th and Dad’s sister, Rita, who would have been 90 this June, passed away in Russell the morning of April 10th.  They had grown up together on the farm, went to school together and always were very close -  I would like to think they might have been going through those Pearly Gates hand in hand together!  My aunt’s husband predeceased her, but Ruth’s elderly husband, Uncle Herb, is left on his own.  I am sure he will not be far behind them…   We have spent quite a bit of time with Herb and Ruth at Ken’s farm in Langenburg over the years (especially during threshing seasons), so they felt like our aunt and uncle as well.  We are looking forward to seeing all the remaining cousins and their families at the funeral.  Aunt Rita had 7 girls, the oldest of which, Brenda, passed away suddenly at the age of 31, leaving a husband and three young children.  I trust we will be reuniting with the remaining 6 girls and their families, along with Brenda’s family, all of whom we have not seen for quite a few years!  My aunt Shirley is the only remaining sibling from our grandparents.  Ken and Jackie are in Winnipeg right now, as they were very close to Aunt Ruth and her husband, but will be back in time for the “Mack” funeral.  I am thinking this will be the closest we will get to a family reunion.

We were delighted to attend the Heritage Senior Centre this past week and help Bill and Mary celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary!  It was a lovely surprise for the couple, especially to see some of their family there who they did not expect at all.  The afternoon was a joint celebration of their anniversary and the regular monthly birthday party.  What a wonderful sight to see the hall filled to capacity with family and friends!  My husband still isn’t “up to dancing” but the music was wonderful and it was great to see everyone else enjoy the dancing!  And it is always very rewarding to have friends and even strangers come up to me and tell me how much they enjoy reading our article in the Shopper!

All this recent snow is certainly causing havoc at our house!  It is piled up on every roof over two feet deep.   Our first clue of a problem was having water dripping on the stairway to the basement…  Although our house roof is quite “elaborate”, it is obviously not conducive to allowing the snow to slide off.  Underneath the snow on the roof is a thick layer of ICE!  And of course, all the eaves trough is full of leaves so as not to allow any snow that melts to flow freely.  Time to bring out the extension ladders and get up there to alleviate the situation – makes the “old man” wish he was 20 years younger for sure!   There is a good two feet of snow on the flat part of the garden shed as well.  He went out and “cut off” the 3 foot overhang of snow and the rest is just sitting there now waiting to melt.  Now the snow is hanging down on the side of the garage as well.  It should be quite an avalanche when it lets go.  Hard to believe it is almost the end of March, and still more snow forecast… 

It is just about time to start going through our “stuff” and see what we can get rid of.  The accumulation of what we thought we needed has become overwhelming and there are so many things that we stop and look at and say “why are we KEEPING THIS?”   Thirty-two years of accumulation since we moved here.

Where have the years gone???  It has been 50 years on March 15th since I first met John in Calgary!  As the saying goes:  “How did we get this darn old this darn quick???”  My younger sister and I were living together in an apartment in Calgary and went to a party with a group of friends from a nearby apartment.  There were a lot of people there and John and I were sitting under a table getting acquainted while his roommate, Bob, and my sister, Joyce, were happy to mingle.   The guys wanted to go to the White Spot before taking us home, but I asked to go home instead.  My sister, on the other hand, decided to go with them.  When she got home, she told me:  “You won’t like that guy – he eats his steak RAW!”