My Impulsive Trip to Alberta

I hadn't been planning on flying to Alberta...

But, a few days after returning from Quebec City, Terry and I received an invitation to my aunt Zilla's 95th birthday party in Edmonton.

I knew I had to go!

Both my parents had lived in Alberta for many years. Both had dozens of relatives there. I wanted to see the ones I'd been close to during my growing up years. 

I got to see a few: My dad's niece, my cousin Margaret - on the left - who is a great-grandmother of eight! She's the daughter of my dad's sister Elsie.

Maria, on the right is a retired teacher, like me. She's the daughter of my dad's brother, Walter.

Margaret's younger sister, Eleanor, daughter of Elsie, had been the flower girl at my parents' wedding.

(Her sister Margaret had been a bridesmaid for my Aunt Zilla.)

When my cousin Dave (my mother's nephew) and his wife Cathy drove me over to see Eleanor (my dad's niece) and her husband, I discovered that both Dave and Cathy knew them well. Dave had been their paper boy in his youth - and Cathy was a distant relative to Eleanor, my cousin! Their fathers were related...

Small world!!

Aunt Zilla came along. She knows them well, too. (She really doesn't look 95!)