The main reason we came west this year was to visit my
Mother's side of the family, most importantly my Uncle. We managed to visit him
three times and catch up with other family. It was very important to me because
we've been separated by thousands of kms for most of my life, and he's getting on in age.
Even though he is doing well in his retirement lodge, some
of his family is struggling from the results of stress, accident and other misfortune.
Knowing the information wasn't going to be good, I found it hard to probe and
find out more without ruining the visits.
In the past century, a number of family members have gone
through difficult times even though they did their best with the cards they
were dealt. One story that's easily told is about my Grandparents. When they
were young newly weds in the 1920s, they established a general store in
northern Saskatchewan. Being in the right place at the right time, it flourished
with a lot of hard work, and they became quite wealthy. Taking that success, they
moved into the Okanagan Valley and tried to repeat the process, but this time
lost everything. They went on to work their whole life in the retail industry,
some I remember first hand as a kid visiting the store my Grandfather managed
like his own.
A more current difficult family story is related to a career
in the oil industry. The story goes beyond oil to mental illness, family
breakdown, a debilitating accident, drug abuse and more. But of course in boom
and bust high stress industries and family dynamics over generations, sorrow is
all too common place.
On a brighter note, visiting the Okanagan Valley was sweet
for us. The fruit trees were in bloom which reminded me of my Mother's love for
cherries. She developed her taste for fresh cherries in her teen years while there.
Every year, when I was growing up, and the cherries appeared in the grocery
store, she would buy them at any price and tell stories about growing up in
Penticton.
So as we've travelled here in the West, going from place to
place, many had special meaning, some involving sweet family memories while
others, there was sorrow.
Click here for the next story in this series:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2018/04/kudos-and-other-things-west.html
Click here for the next story in this series:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2018/04/kudos-and-other-things-west.html
