Visiting Montreal

Before I went to my training week in Ottawa, I spent the weekend in Montreal to visit with my relatives. I took the VIA Rail from Ottawa. It has been awhile since the last time I took the VIA - it is a great way to visit this country, as I remember taking the VIA from Montreal to Halifax - we do have such beautiful in my home country of Canada - how fortunate we are. One of the most familar scenes I remember to mark my arrival to Montreal is the Fabrine 5 Roses building.

This is my Uncle Alan and Aunt Dee. I had such a wonderful visit with them. So you know the connection - Uncle Alan is my mom's brother. I think this is the first time that my Aunt Dee and I haven't had a game of Scrabble during our visits. She showed me my house on Google Earth - we had a good laugh when we saw how close I am to the edge of Calgary. I left with a heirloom of my grandmother's too. My aunt Dee gave me my grandmother's hairset - the handles of the hairbrush, comb and nail filer as well as the top of the tray are of mother pearl. Last year when I was visiting with my mom, my aunt Dee gave me a photo of my Grandmother's nursing photo.

I shared with my Aunt Dee of one afternoon I had spent with my Grandmother Grace. We were in her parlour in Cornwall, just the two of us. I so wished I had a tape recorder to capture the stories she told me. She was suffering from early stages of Alzheimer's, but it is one of my most fondest memories - she would tell me stories of the boys locking the girls in the outhouse near the one-room school she taught at in Moira, Ontario. So having a little piece of hers is special to me. Thanks Aunt Dee.