My Grammy passed in April. I went up to Saint John, NB to stay with my Grampy, and I saw my Aunts, Uncles, and my mother for the first time in a while. It was wierd. I ended up with some photos though, and my Grammy’s knitting needles, which is really nice.
What was really strange is seeing all the distant relatives. I remember visiting Saint John as a kid and meeting everyone, but after many, many years, they all look like their parents looked to me 20 years ago. I could tell who was who, because I remembered what their Moms looked like, and could match them up.
There was a neighbor of my Grandparents whose dad built a rocketship treehouse in the back yard. His mom came to the viewing, and was so surprised to see me, she told her son and then later on he came too. I was so wierded out about my Grammy that I didn’t get to talk to him and after I returned home I felt really bad that I hadn’t been able to carry on a normal conversation. Here’s a pic of the rocketship. I scanned an old yellowed photo and tried to balance the color, but it came out a bit tile-y in the sky. I am not a graphic artist, so I am not worried about it.

Yeah, that’s me in the front, in the yellow space suit. 😉 I just thought that was the coolest treehouse I had ever heard of in my life. I still do. I can’t wait to build one for my kids, if they ever appear.
Since returning from Canada, I have poked around on Ancestry.com and found lots of info on my Grampy’s side of the family, back to the 1740s. What really surprised me is that most of the people were born in Canada until the really early years, and even they were born in NY. I always thought they had migrated more recently than that. That’s the maternal side of the family. On the paternal side, I’ve got nothing.