September Birthday!

Today is the birthday of one of my favourite aunts, who lived well into her 90s.

Here she is with her husband, my mother’s older brother.

I was the flower girl at their wedding in 1950, a few months after my brother was born... a detail she remembered fondly.

She was born in 1922 in Poland, and later became a refugee of World War II. She once related the story of how they had to flee their family farm.

She ended up living in Edmonton near my mother’s family - where she met and married my mother’s brother, Erhardt - whose birthday is tomorrow!

They went on to have three children. 

She was the matriarch of a loving, hospitable family. Their home was the family gathering place after my grandmother died. Their house was the first one we headed to whenever we visited Edmonton - the family meeting place. It felt like “home.” I have so many great memories of spending time there with her and my mother’s relatives whenever we returned.