She was a remarkable woman in many ways. She had 
     
     grown up without a father in her home where her mother had to 
     
     resort to all manner of ways to keep the household going. 
     
     Grandmother ran a hotel for a while, then opened a millinery 
     
     shop and at one time the whole family moved in with my 
     
     grandmother’s brother who lived near the station in a house 
     
     later owned by Lin MacNeil. Finally my grandmother had to 
     
     sell her home when her health began to fail. My mother started 
     
     teaching school while she was quite young, then moved to 
     
     Western Canada where she taught in small Prairie communities 
     
     until she moved to the Vancouver area. 
     
    
   
   
    
     It must have been very lonely for her in those places with 
     
     the long winters, sparse population centers, and far from family 
     
     and friends. There is no doubt that she developed a strong sense 
     
     of her own strength during those years that stood her in good 
     
     stead when it came to rearing a large family. She had a respect 
     
     for others that was evident to all in her community, and a quiet 
     
     dignity that permeated her life and home. 
     
    
   
   
    
     In my father’s letter to his parents while he was enroute to 
     
     Vladivostok, he says he hopes his mother will not worry about 
     
    
   
   
    
     him: “If she knew how I have enjoyed things right along she 
     
     would not feel the least bit anxious at all.” This speaks 
     
     volumes about my fathers attitude to life and especially his 
     
     enjoyment about all the sights he saw on his trip. Everything 
     
     new was of interest and he was never so happy as when he 
     
     could see the way the natural world presented itself. This was a 
     
     man who when the geese returned over his home in the spring 
     
     would go outside in the early morning to watch their flight to 
     
    
   
   
    
     109