Bill's Blog

Canadian Cousins

We flew to Red Deer, Alberta, to see the cousin of Betty’s father. I believe that Dan McCann is the last living cousin of Betty’s father. Betty and her siblings had vague memories of meeting the Canadian cousins, and hearing stories about them. When Betty asked me to do her family tree, I uncovered the reality. Betty’s grandmother Lizzy had a brother Tom who immigrated to Saskatchewan in 1903. He had a dozen children. One of whom was Dan McCann. Dan is almost 86. He was a wonderful gentleman. He had lots of great stories for us about his life in Yorkton, and his job as a Canadian Air Force engineer. His wife passed some ten years ago. His children are living in Calgary and Moose Jaw. He is legally blind now, but he has a car that his neighbor, Joy, was good enough to drive us to a couple of restaurants and the airport. She is a good friend of Dan’s and great help to him. We spent all of Sunday with him. It was a good visit. We learned a lot about his family that I will eventually add to my internet family tree file.

On Monday morning, we took off over the Rocky Mountains. They are an awesome, spectacular and fearful sight. They are incredibly rugged looking, with many peaks rising to the 12,000 foot level. They were snow covered and we saw the occasional glacier. Less than two hours after leaving Red Deer, we were in Salmon Arm. If we had driven, the journey would have taken more than twelve hours.

Mountain Photographs

Birgit and Me

Charlie, Margit, Birgit and Me

We came to Salmon Arm, so that I could visit a wonderful lady, Birgit MacPherson, and her sister, Margit Commings. Birgit and Margit are my dad’s cousins. And I had not seen them since our last visit to British Columbia in the mid-1990’s. I love visiting with Birgit. She reminds me a lot of my grandmother Anna, who was Birgit’s aunt. We talked all day long. I told her about this BLOG and she was interested enough in it to go to the library, get a library card and try using the internet for the first time. I hope she keeps the interest up enough to go back and read my old entries. In the evening Margit and her husband, Charlie, joined for a wonderful roast beef dinner at Birgit’s apartment. The food was great and so was the red wine. After a good breakfast in the morning, we headed back to the Salmon Arm airport.

Homeland Welcome

Mount Adams

Our flight to Portland was good. The mountains to the south were not as brutal looking as those Canadian Rockies. Betty seems to be really enjoying the flying. She loves looking out on the landscapes below. We did pass by a couple of magnificent mountains on the way to Portland.

We will be here through the weekend. Or next report will be about our Oregonian nephews: Bjorn, Shelby and Lenin. Well, Lenin is a kind of adopted nephew.