The Church My Mother Attended in Her Youth...

I was going through some of my mother's papers... (Like me, she collected a lot of travel brochures, wedding invitations - and other souvenirs.)

I came across a program handed out  at the re-dedication service of a church she had attended in her youth: St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church on Ellerslie Road in Edmonton. There was a renovation followed by a rededication in 1985. Had she attended? Or had her brother Erhardt picked up a copy for her? I don't know...

It obviously meant something to my mother - but is this something I want to keep? I wondered, putting it aside...

Not long afterwards, I flew to Edmonton for my Aunt Zilla's 95th birthday. While there, my cousin Dave and his wife Cathy took me out for a drive. Suddenly, I recognized... the church in the brochure!

I really want to get a picture of that church, I told them... My mom and your dad were confirmed there...

So we stopped and looked around...

Is this what it looked like when they attended in the 1930's and 1940's? I wondered.

When I got home, I checked the brochure again, and saw pictures of the church as it had been back then...

Later, I discovered that several of my mother's siblings had been baptized there.

Now I definitely want to keep the program... It's an important part of my mother's family history.