Englehart - Timmins

Sept 27^th : Mom has adjusted well to apartment living. Unfortunately she has macular degeneration, but still has a very active social life. She cooks good meals for herself, does her own laundry and walks every day. She has lots of friends and is doing very well. It is comforting to see.

Here she is with her grand daughter Molly

My brother Daryl is doing well and was working a lot so did not see too much of him. Lynne, my sister-in-law is a gem and very generous with her time in terms of making sure Mom gets to her appts and takes her for her big grocery shop.

Lynne has officially

retired after retiring five years ago. She will have more time now for herself and to do her quilting, baking, etc. Always love going home.

This trip to Englehart was quite quiet in terms of meeting up with my many friends still in the area.  The weather was superb and most people were at their cottage for one last weekend.
Can’t say that I blame them.

We did have a nice visit with Sharon & Cal. Unfortunately, Sharon suffered a very bad leg break in July and still in Sept she was not able to put weight on it. Playing with young grandkids can be dangerous!!   She was in good spirits though. Cal was handling his new role of chief cook and bottle washer with pride and Sharon said he was doing a great job!

Brenda & Richard treated us to dinner. They are usually at our house in Coquitlam, BC when we are away, so it was especially nice to both be in same town at the same time.










My talented cousin Shirley was part of an Art Tour throughout the Englehart area.  
 
  Dennis, Shirley & John

When we arrived, John, Christine, and friends Betty and Duncan were playing music and singing. It was so nice that we ended up just staying at Shirley’s. She very generously insisted that I chose one of her paintings to take with us. Keith & I chose one of birch trees losing their bark.  Reminds me of home and my Dad. He had loved working in the woods.
It will hang in a very special place when we move back to my condo in Vancouver next year.

Shirley and her family have always been special to me as I used to babysit her kids way back when. They are all grown up with grown kids of their own now. Was nice to see John and also nice that Dennis dropped in for a few minutes.
I had a WONDERFUL time!!
Left thinking I should go back to guitar lessons. Singing makes one feel so good from the inside out!  Will see if guitar lessons materialize.

Marion & Roy cooked us breakfast and we had a really nice visit. It has been a long time since I have seen them so we had lots to catch up on.  Poor Roy was

busy putting on a new roof and with such a bad hip. He wasn’t complaining although I imagine it was pretty sore.
So nice to see them and I will do a better job of staying in touch.

It was nice to catch up with my cousins Joyce & Merv. We went for a nice walk with them. Their son owns the local pharmacy in town.

Oct 1st we travelled from Englehart to Timmins where we visited with my teacher friends.
Stayed with Les Humphrey one night. She took us all over Timmins. It had been 13 years since I was last there. Good memories.

This is  Les at Porcupine Lake Park. Les & I taught together at Mattagami School and became very close friends. She & her husband Len took me in and treated me as very close family....there were nights when they had to send me home as I was quite comfortable staying for longer....we have often laughed about those times. They were GREAT!!! I was so lucky and still am to have her in my life.
Her son, Daryl & his family now lives in Campbell River so I get a chance to see her now & then! And I get to see Jody her daughter once in a while also. Really special people.

Bears are everywhere and here is one just helping

itself to the garbage in someone's yard. A little close for comfort!

 

Margie & Brian Tees hosted us the next afternoon & we stayed over with them.  They graciously invited some of my teacher friends that I used to work with many, many years ago to join us for a few hours. 


Margie & I met at Bertha Shaw school in S. Porcupine. They took a trip out to  the west coast several years ago and I was lucky to have them stay for a few nights.
 

It was so nice to see George Stefanic who was so supportive of me when I needed it most at Mattagami School in Timmins.

 

Sandra Richter who I taught with at Bertha Shaw. We have remained in contact which is so wonderful.  











Sue Sorochan, my good friend who drove out to BC with me and then flew off to Phoenix to visit another friends and then back home.. It was so nice to have a super travel companion. I remember when she left Vancouver....I was so sad and lonely!! 
Sue & decided we needed to stay in closer touch and have a wine telephone date every once in a while!

I am so lucky to still be connected after all these years. A few others were not able to attend, but we have emailed or spoken and will connect again soon.







 

Brian’s sister, Brenda arrived with her friend Ina. It was really cool to meet Brenda and she had followed us on our world trip blog!



We had a great time and appreciated everyone making time for us.