Mothers, Grandmothers and Great-Grandmothers

I returned safe and sound from my "little" vacation to Brandon, Manitoba. My visit with Uncle Merv and Aunt Georgina "Cookie" Wilson was lovely. Georgina and I drove out on Thursday afternoon after lunch to Newdale, Manitoba to see the tea house and gift boutique. They had an open house this weekend which would allow visitors to enter the proprietor's private home to tour their multitude of crafts such as quilts, pottery, art etcetera. When we arrived at the tea house at 2 PM we were asked if we had a reservation (of course we did not phone ahead) but we were able to sit down right away before a reserved group would be arriving later. I thoroughly enjoyed a pot of peach tea and an absolutely scrumptious saskatoon crisp with vanilla ice cream served in a tall baby blue colored cup! Georgina enjoyed a pot of mixed berry tea and lime tart. We both agreed our choices were delicious. I neglected to take a photo before we finished our snack (Krista could give me pointers for sure on this!). I did however take a picture of the charming yellow character home which entertains as a tea room. I also did get a few ideas for what to do with my silly old wood windows still sitting around from my renovation. If you are ever out this way you can't miss the tea room!

On Friday we took a planned trip out to Killarney, to visit Linda who is an old friend of Merv and Georgina, and whose sister had passed away the week before. She was spending some alone time out at her trailer which was parked for the season at the camp site in Killarney near the lake. On the way to Killarney the plan was to stop in Elgin and visit the cemetery where my grandmother, Merv's mother was buried 53 years ago. Unfortunately when she died in 1953, Merv could only afford the funeral and so a stone was never placed. He was unaware that she was buried next to her parents and, being that he had never met his grandparents, was unaware of their names. I had come across an old picture of my mother standing next to a newly planted grave site and recognized Elgin cemetery from my first visit about 2 years ago. Following detailed review of the picture we surmised the exact location of my grandmother. Merv was so happy to be able to locate his mother's resting place and will start making plans to have a stone placed where it should have been so many years ago. We contacted the person responsible for the cemetery and he was quite happy to accommodate our request to place a stone. As you can see from the picture of myself that we took that day, the cemetery has not changed too much in 53 years except the trees are a bit taller. Thank goodness for old pictures! This was a fruitful day all around. Okay, I'm having trouble uploading pictures today. I have tried 4 times to upload the 53 year old picture with absolutely no luck. I'm getting the message that it is uploaded but.... no way. There has to be a better way to do this so that I can have the effect I want. Frustratin'. One more time... I give up!

Here is a picture of Uncle Mervyn Wilson and his wife Georgina "Cookie" Wilson. He will be 78 years young come October 9th and she is so much younger than her husband being 70. She had a nasty fall this spring and fractured her wrist and ankle but has done so well in pushing herself to get mobilized. Good on ya Cookie! Will add the missing picture on another post (if it works).