FAMILY SECRETS:HUSH HUSH

Have you ever looked back on your family and wondered who kept things quiet; who let them all out?

Maybe there are rumors about Uncle what’s his name who got away with money that wasn’t his. Or the aunt who had affairs on the side putting it down to being restless? Or she enjoyed a change of scenery. Who knows?

Others enjoyed life from one end of it to the other and died with smiles on their faces.

There were those who faced abrupt changes that would turn their lives around.

Take my family. They left Scotland because of national unrest and settled in Ireland. I take it things didn’t turn out much better. They piled as much baggage as they could manage and set sail for Canada. Around 1847, if I got it right.

They settled in Woodbridge where one of my grandfathers became head of the Orange Lodge of North America. Another a Federal Member of Parliament in Ottawa and became Minister of Customs.

Author’s comment: I hear family members shouting loud and clear, ‘Clarke the author’ never keeps to facts. My defense? There is a heck of a lot more non-fiction in fiction that you can imagine. I'll stick to that.

100 years?

How often does it happen you go to a party where it celebrates someone’s 100th birthday? One hundred. Mon Dieu!

Helen Crane and her family sailed from Glasgow, Scotland in 1929 aboard the Canadian Pacific steamship, Minnedosa. They arrived in Montreal during the annual Santa Claus parade to face a depressing depression.

They would settle in Woodbridge, Ontario and opened Crane Hardware on the main street. It remained there for many years.

Helen wore a three-piece blue cotton outfit for this celebration looking all but half her age. She sat with a glass of sparkling wine openly enjoining such a gathering of close friends and family.

Joan Crane, her daughter, began to arrange this special event a year earlier. The date was firmly set when Helen plied Joan many times with “When is my farewell party?”

“It’s not your farewell party, mother,” Joan told her. “We’re toasting your 100th birthday.”

It became a ‘Celebration of Life” which included Steve Turner, aka the Wedding Piper, who guided the party through the afternoon and into the evening with songs and a dash of humor.

Author’s comment: What helps someone reaching the ripe old age of 100? Experts tell us having a ‘sheer streak of stubbornness, resilience’ and ‘a profound adapting to change’.