A Tribute to my Sisters

I remember Erica -  again, again and again.  It is a year ago today that my sister passed away from this earth to be with the Lord.  Erica had been an integral part of my life since day one, she being two years older than I.

If Erica had seen this hydrangea bloom she could easily have started singing:  "Bloom ye in all your loveliness, cheering the wayside weariness..."

the rest of us chiming in, of course.  

I miss her.

Erica and I, with hubbies off camera, after a wonderful lunch of Greek Food at her favorite Rendezvous Restaurant, celebrating our mutual April wedding anniversaries* about one month after the fact (this photo was taken on May 17, 2009 and she passed away on June 27, about six weeks later )since Erica was undergoing chemo during this time.  Here she is smiling as usual, her hairless head covered with her hat which she was not embarrassed to whisk off on a whim.  I'll never forget the shock I received the first time I saw her whisking off her head covering.   She laughed and made light of it and treated it all in such a great healthy manner that I simply stood in awe of her.   

Through another window...the wheel of life moves on...

Just a few days ago my remaining, equally amazing  sisters, Hedy, (me), Ingrid and Herta enjoyed a wonderful lunch at a local tea house.  My sisters showered me with love and treats and prayers as they helped me celebrate my 70th birthday!  Thanks dear sisters!  You are such an integral part of who I am.  Thank you for your ongoing love and support and encouragement.  You are absolutely terrific!

After our two hour luncheon we drove out to the cemetery just a few kms from there and paid our respects at Erica's grave.  It was not a sad time...we were at peace on that glorious afternoon, remembering, singing and even bursting out in laughter at one point over something that just caught us by surprise and we knew it was okay.  We continue to be blessed.

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*This April Al and I, along with Peter, decided to revisit The Rendezvous for lunch in honor of all the many times we were blessed to have Erica with us to complete our foursome in our celebrations.

A letter to my Grandchildren...Robin in the Rain...

Dear, Dear Grandchildren,
How I wish you were here right now to observe for yourself what I am seeing through my window...

Robin in the rain
Such a saucy fellow

Robin in the rain

Mind your socks of yellow,

Running in the garden on your nimble feet,
Digging for your dinner with your long strong beak

Robin in the rain,

You don't mind the weather,

Showers always make you gay...

Bet the worms are wishing you would stay away,

Robin on a rainy day!*

Here he is:

Just a few minutes ago I was in the bedroom and I heard an unusual kind of tweaking....could that be Grampa with a new kind of snore?  No, I checked...he was snoozing away with his usual snores!  I looked out the window and there nearby was a momma robin with her little baby robin in tow.  I scurried to get my camera and sat at my kitchen window to catch some shots.  Baby robin didn't like the rain...it hopped underneath the overhanging cedar boughs and waited for momma to bring its lunch.   Can you see how excited the little fellow is...his little wings are just flapping so fast!  (try to enlarge the picture by clicking on it-sometimes it works)

Over and over she hopped further onto the lawn and in no time had a juicy worm which she hurried over to her chubby little fellow sitting ever so patiently, making no peep at all.  When I carefully opened the door though, to get a better picture, she flew away and left the little fellow unattended...
Here he is...

I waited about ten minutes and then stepped back inside...in no time Momma Robin swooped down from the opposite direction to comfort her little one but then immediately flew off again.  I'll go check to see what's going on now...
baby robin's still patiently sitting there waiting for his momma...I don't think he can really fly yet.  Can you see the spots on this tummy and the reddish color starting to develop?  He's ever so patient and soooo quiet...and he blends right into his surroundings, a great camouflage.  Here's momma robin with her beak in the ground getting another fat worm for her baby.

I have a feeling that robins like the rain so much not only because it makes the ground soft and the worms come closer to the surface of the grass but I really think it's safer for them- no grandmas out there trimming and fussing, no neighborhood cats on the prowl - it's just plain safer.  God also has given them an amazing raincoat which lets the water just run off their backs.  I don't think the babies have such a great raincoat yet and so the little fellow stayed where it was dry!

I hope I don't miss seeing how momma robin can get her baby back to wherever the nest might be...it won't be far away...probably right among those hedges.  I think momma is telling her baby that he'll be ok and that she'll be right back!

Oh no! I should have checked two minutes ago...I'm hearing twittering and chirping outside my computer room window and as I stopped and hurried to my kitchen window, guess what...right...no sign of momma or baby...gone... but I do hear quite a bit of chirping...maybe everyone's happy to be home in the nest safe and sound again.  But how did momma get baby robin to fly up, up and away into its nest?  And where is the nest?  I can hear them...they must be in the neighbor's yard.

This whole little drama took place within 45 minutes this afternoon!  It's just so wonderful to see how life works in every place where there is life...in nests, in woods, in ditches and in our homes.  Doesn't it always feel good when everyone's home safe and sound and you're altogether, a happy family?  I love that feeling.

I remember when I was a young pre-teen and upwards, that I was often given the task of looking after my younger "Geschwister" - that's a great German word for brothers and sisters or siblings...I never like the word siblings very much...it doesn't have a nice ring to it like its German counter part.  I always waited eagerly for my parents' car to turn into the driveway and then I could heave a sigh of relief as my responsibilities ran away just like the water runs off the momma robin's back.

I'll keep watching...Grampa's already seen a momma robin right near our deck with her mouth brimming over with many worms in it!  What a tasty snack... for a robin, that is.

(Do you know this Raffi song?  I sang it a lot with my school children.  Check it out and listen at:
http://www.metrolyrics.com/robin-in-the-rain-lyrics-raffi.html)

A letter to my Grandchildren....continued...

Dear Grandchildren,
In my last letter to you, I showed pictures and told a few stories about the olden days when Grampa Al was a young boy in Saskatchewan.  Today I want to continue that just a bit.
Here are two pictures of Grampa with his "pony", Kit.

How old do you think Gramps is on this picture?  Can you tell that it is still quite cold outside by looking at this picture?

Here Gramps is a bit older...about as old as Nathan is right now...11 going on 12.  It is probably the spring before the family moved off the farm to BC.  Gramps chuckled when he saw this picture...riding his horse with his best clothes on.  It probably was Sunday.  Everyone always dressed in their best clothes on Sundays.

Grampa wanted me to let you know that Kit really was his brother Henry's horse.  When Uncle Henry left the farm at 14 years of age to go work for other farmers to earn some money, Gramps was entrusted with this horse.  He was thrilled!  Kit was a Morgan and not a work horse.  He never was used for working in the fields.  He was a special horse for riding only.  Can you see Kit's one white sock?  Many years later I got a little brown porcelain horse with one white sock which I gave to Grampa as a gift on his 40th birthday because I knew how much he had loved his horse, Kit.   But it was not quite the same...Grampa noticed immediately that the white sock of this ornamental horse was on the front hoof and not on the hind one as Kit's had been.

These are your great-grandparents, your Gramps parents, who you will meet in heaven...

Abram Willms 1901-1964 and Maria Unger Willms 1904-1982

...and here is the whole family shortly before moving away from Saskatchewan and settling on 123St in Surrey, BC-the very same place your parents visited and spent many good times playing around in the barn and the large yard and in GG Maria's house.  Your parents never met Gramps' Daddy though.  He had gone to be with Jesus when he was only 63 years old.  I'm also sad that I never got to meet this wonderful man, the father of your wonderful Grampa Al.

Can you find Grampa Al in this picture?  

Do you think you might look a little bit like him?  

Get your parents to tell you the names of the other family members...three have already left to join their parents but you all know and love Auntie Olga and Auntie Linda so much, just as your parents always have and will.

So till next time, my beloved grandchildren, I'll say "Aufwiedersehen"...that's German for Good-Bye until next time!  We love you so much...and like my mom always added... and Jesus loves you even sooo much more!

A letter to my Grandchildren....

Dear Sweet Grandchildren,

This is something about the "Olden Days"which we were thinking about when we drove to Winnipeg and back just a short time ago...

When Grandpa Al was a little boy he grew up in Saskatchewan, one of the provinces of Canada.  That's where his parents were settled in 1926 by people who organized the immigration of those, the Mennonite people in this case, who arrived from Russia during that time.  They were settled south of the TransCanada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway.  These roads and rails were very important, especially in the last century when so much of the land was explored and developed.  I found an interesting website about some of this early history.  Ask your parents to help you find this site by clicking on the the title below for helpful information about our country:

 The Story of the Canadian Pacific Railway

But today we are focusing on just a small part of Saskatchewan along the TransCanada Highway:  Ernfold, Morse and Herbert.

These pictures tell a story about a little town or village that seems like a "ghost town" today, with it sitting right in between the two freeways - one heading east and the other west - compared to the busy little center it was when Grampa Al was a little boy your age. 

He remembers very clearly that when his family was ready to move to BC his Daddy, your great-grandpa Willms, needed to get all the horses into Ernfold which was about 11 miles north from their farm, to be sold.  So GG got his 12-year old son, Albert -your Grampa Al, to help ride those horses into Ernfold to be sold.  Grandpa was used to riding horses.  After all, he was able to take the wagon full of grain to the elevators in Kelstern, west of their farm, during harvest times where it was unloaded and sent away to be made into flour perhaps, so surely he could help with the horses...and he did.  He also loved to ride his pony, Kit.   Grandpa was so sad to leave him behind.

It was right here along this little main street where they sold the horses...

Which one of these buildings-no one seems to be using them anymore-do you think might have been the "horse" building?  Grandpa doesn't remember...but he does remember that it happened in October, 1947. 

There must have been a street beside this old red brick building.  Can you tell why?  It looks like there's an old stop sign still there in the ground, doesn't it.

Can you imagine what kind of things Eagle's Nest General Contracting might have built or made?  There are quite a few interesting old things still lying around the yard.

Just west of Ernfold lies Morse.  The Welcome to Morse sign and the two elevators seem to say that there's a big community of people living and working here.  But Morse is another one of those almost "ghost towns" of the prairies.  There still are a few people living here and farmers still bring their grain into these storage elevators but not by horse and wagon like Grandpa did.  

It seems a little sad to us...I always loved to see the towering elevators in every little town.*  Now we don't see very many of them any more.  It was so important for the farmers to be able to bring their grain to these storage places.  What's especially interesting about these particular elevators is that Grandpa Al's Daddy helped build one of these "skyscrapers"!  Can you imagine?  That would be very high.  Would you be scared to put the roof on this building?  He must have been a bit scared too I think but he knew he had to get extra work to provide for his family and so he did, trusting God to protect him...and He always did!

The little Town of Herbert is still further west along the highway.  It is getting smaller all the time too and it used to be a very busy center especially for the Mennonite community.  Here was a large church where people in the area would gather on Sundays and during the week for worship services.  A Bible School was also built where Grandpa Al's sister, Helen, attended for several years.  Later she became a teacher and a vice-principal in the Calgary School system.

Grandpa called one of his friends from many years ago, who still lives in this little town and we paid him a visit.  It was fun.

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On our last day of travelling home to BC from Winnipeg I asked Grandpa to pull over so I could take a picture of this quaint old building in Squilax, BC.  I look for it every time we drive by and one of these years it may not be there anymore.  We peeked into the window and it seemed the store might still be in use although it wasn't open now.

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*On one of my early birthdays, I probably was 7 that day, a big beautiful red elevator caught fire and burned to the ground in our little prairie town of Winkler, Manitoba.  We lived only a few blocks away from the terrible blaze and I can remember volunteers running through the streets checking to make sure that no big chunks of burning debris from the building were spreading fires as the wind came up and made it difficult for the small volunteer fire brigade to keep the town safe.  Again, God protected us all.

A Trip to Winnipeg

It was time to take a trip over the stunning Rockies, across the expansive Prairies, right into the capital city of Manitoba.  I knew the rhodos, at home,  would have bloomed their loveliest while we were gone and so snapped a photo just before we left in our all-purpose van, which has served us so well over the last six years when we first took a road trip in it to Winnipeg. 

The pansies, I knew, would just develop and expand while we were gone.

It was a beautiful day and the weather held brilliantly until our trip back two weeks later. 

As we entered Alberta, we decided we'd better spend some time in Banff since it was clear and beautiful.  Good choice since the Rockies were completely enshrouded on our return trip.

Stunning Mt. Rundle

But in no time we left the mountains behind us and entered the vast open prairies.  Big sky country...loved watching the grazing cattle...

And then...

We veered off the Transcanada at Highway 19, leading to the area where Al's family lived from 1927-1947.  His parents, emigrating from Russia in 1926 with their one small son, settled near the Flowing Well MB Church about 14 kms south on #19, where only a small cemetery now marks the spot.

Our anticipation was great as we headed east from there,  hoping that the original "cabin" that the senior Willms' called home for ten years would still be there.  About 10kms down the dusty country road and over the rolling hills it greeted us, standing over these many years as a humble monument to God's blessing and provision.  Truly an "Ebenezer " moment..."hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1Samuel7:12.)

Each year or so the parents added yet another child to their fold.  Three daughters and two more sons, including Al,  were added to this young family.  Here they lived together in those early years, a tiny one-roomed cabin called, "Home".  Far away from the dreaded experience of WW1, where Al's father served the Russian army as an orderly in the Medical Corps, and the ravages of the Revolution that ensued, the Willms' were so grateful to arrive and live in a beautiful new country called Canada!
Here, the first little dwelling in this free world which the family always refers to as "The Teske" place, Al is thrilled to revisit the site and give thanks. 

  Just a few kms west from here stands the "Doner" place, which the family was able to purchase in 1937, a farm of one section-640 acres.  This farm boasted a two storey house with a cellar and a big barn for the horses, cows, pigs and a chicken coop.

Another amazing tribute to the faithfulness of God and to the sturdiness and hardiness with which the buildings were constructed in those early years, is evident in this photo taken two weeks ago today...

Here the Willms' family enjoyed expanded living conditions and this is where the last of the children, a daughter, was born and where they lived another ten years until the devastating hail destroyed their anticipated bumper crop, after chronic years of drought and disappointing harvests, drove them to move to British Columbia - a great move.

Of course we had to drive down to the "big coulee" south of the farm which is off in the distance to the right.  Many adventures were experienced around here in the growing up years of the Willms' kids.

 As we were heading back from the Teske place we noticed the land Al's family owned so many years ago being worked by a huge tractor combo.  This property which Al's Dad had painstakingly worked with Clydesdale horses and later a second-hand tractor, was now being looked after in no time with this advanced  farm machinery.  

 Waiting for the tractor to approach, we knew the driver would stop and come over to chat.  

Al was delighted to learn that local people who his family remembered from living there sixty years ago, now owned the land and the handsome young farmer was a grandson.  In the distance the farm buildings can be seen from this northeast side of the land.

But our primary purpose on this trip was to get to...

I almost missed this "Welcome to Manitoba" sign as we whizzed by.   We were in Manitoba, my childhood stomping grounds...but that's another story.

 With every kilometer we were getting more excited to see and spend time with an important segment of our precious family, Andrew, Dana, Eva, Micah and Joshie! We were not disappointed... 

This picture was taken at Gimli beach on Lake Winnipeg a week ago today!
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This weekend Winnipeg was experiencing much different weather-check it out at:
http://andrewwillmsphotography.squarespace.com/

Skipping - Letter to my Grandchildren

Dear Grandchildren,

Today I was thinking about the things you like to do outside when you're playing with your friends.  Something that my friends and I did a lot of at recess time when spring rolled around was skip rope.  Some flowers in our backyard made me think about skipping rope when I was a bit older than some of you. These flowers called "Bluebells" made me think about some of the skipping songs we sang:

   Can you see the little bell-shaped flowers on each stem?  They are one of the earliest spring flowers to bloom and they fill lots of space against the wall in our back yard with their lovely blue color.  These pretty flowers reminded me of the skipping song I used to play with my sisters and friends when I was in elementary school.  Do kids still play skipping games at school?  Skipping was so much fun but I never was good at Double Dutch.  I don't think the boys ever played these skipping games! 

Here is one of the songs we sang:

Bluebells, cockle shells,

Eevy, ivy over!

(Here we just turned the rope half-way back and forth until we came to the word, "over" when we turned the rope over the top of the person skipping.)

My mother sent me to the store

And this is what she sent me for:

Salt

Vinegar

Pepper!

 The girls who were turning the rope went very fast on the word "Pepper" to see who could skip the longest.  I always tried so hard to jump fast when it was my turn.

Another fun skipping song: 

On a mountain stands a lady,

  Who she is I do not know,  

All she wants is Gold and Silver, 
All she wants is a fine young man,  
So come on dear ________, dear _________, dear__________,
  So come on dear__________,  While I go out to play.

(The girl skipping calls her friend's name where the blank is and she jumps in when the first girl says, "play!")

Here was another fun one:

Teddy bear, Teddy bear, turn around,

Teddy bear, Teddy bear touch the ground,

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, show your shoe,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, that will do.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, brush your hair,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, climb the stairs.

Teddy bear, teddy bear, turn out the light,

Teddy bear, teddy bear, say "Good Night".

 We did the actions to the words and on the words, "Good Night" would jump out without stepping on the rope if we were lucky!

And now I'll say "Good night to you, my dear, dear grandchildren!"

Word for the Day

I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols

(things you esteem higher than God). 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you.

I will take out your stony, stubborn heart,

and give you a tender, responsive heart. 

I will put My Spirit within you.

Ezekiel 36-25-27

My eyes caught sight of this column in today's local paper written by Alice Maryniuk, someone I've quoted before.  I have high regard for this woman and not because we happen to share the same name, but because I value her insights and applications.  The Scripture impacted me immediately since I'd memorized it years ago and still keep praying for a tender heart.
To see her column find it at:
http://www2.canada.com/abbotsfordtimes/index.html
In the left column click on Faith-her's is the second title listed today.