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.