An Interesting Edmonton Church

When I was in Edmonton recently, I attended a church where my Aunt Zilla's nephew is an assistant pastor.

They serve free breakfast every Sunday, Zilla told me.

How did you start this? I later asked the pastor's wife.

We were renting space in a church and had to leave the main floor by a certain time. We served coffee downstairs, but it was still hard to get people to move... until we started serving breakfast.

One of the parishioners, who loves to cook, volunteered to organize a full, hot breakfast every Sunday. Fortunately, he is also a good organizer, and he has trained others to help - and take over if he's away.

Now that we have our own building, it continues to be a church tradition.

I noticed that there was an efficient clean-up crew, too. By the time we left, everything - including chairs and tables had been cleared away, leaving a large open space for weekday activities.

I left, totally impressed!

Visiting the Sisterhood of Mary in Millet, Alberta

One place in Alberta that I wanted to visit - time permitting - was the Canadian branch house of the Sisterhood of Mary, near Edmonton.

This order of protestant sisters was established in Germany after World War II.

My original connection with the sisterhood was through a friend I met in Israel who went on to join the order.

For several years, I attended their national conference in Ottawa.

It was lovely to walk through their prayer garden...

They invited us in for coffee afterwards...

An interesting, welcoming place to visit!

Visiting Hay Lakes, My Old Home Town

My first home town was a quiet village of 300 inhabitants thirty miles east of Edmonton.

On my last trip to Alberta, my cousin Elizabeth drove me back for a quick visit. I don't know anyone who lives there anymore.

But I remember the church we attended. It has been renovated with a new front entry since we lived there. My brother and I were both baptized here.

My first home was across the street. (It, too, has been renovated.)

It only had two or three rooms when my parents lived there - and probably no indoor plumbing.

A few years later, we moved to an apartment on the top floor of a garage my father owned. The garage burned down a few years after we moved away, but nothing has been built in its place... I wonder if they fear finding toxins, like oil, in the soil.

I'm standing on an old cement slab - a part of the original garage floor - with my aunt Evelyn (my mother's youngest sister). She remembers coming to visit and staying with us above the garage when she was thirteen years old.

The two-room school where my mother taught is no longer there.

The only buildings that I remember that remain the same are an insurance office that hasn't been used in years It looked the same when I was last here five years ago.

Also a boarded-up dairy, the Hay Lakes Creamery, where I remember watching workers separate the cream from the milk. I don't know if they ever made cheese or ice cream...

Also an old farm at the edge of town, where I used  to play with a little girl about my age.

Going back brings back childhood memories... I'm glad not everything I knew is gone!

Back in Alberta...

A few weeks ago, when I was in Alberta, my cousin Dave and his wife Cathy asked if I was interested in taking a drive into the country.

I was!

We headed off to see the farm where Cathy grew up...

I never lived on a farm, but the Alberta village I grew up in was surrounded by farms and wheat fields.

It felt great to be back!

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!)