Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Saturday March 19, 2022 Visits

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Saturday March 19, 2022

The day was a marvel! I was up early washing clothes so I would have something decent to wear for a series of visits planned today. I had Danai's cute Nissan Juke for transportation and it was fun to drive.

I started off going to the Youville Home in central St. Albert to meet cousin Cecile and Auntie Celine who is 96 years young and one of the remaining four in Mom's family. (I hope to see 3 of them on this trip!) Auntie looks amazingly well and her mind is still quite sharp, helped by word puzzles with the bi-weekly encouragement of Cecile. Her room is adorned with many family pictures and my visit just happened to land on the third anniversary of the loss of her husband Chris. Thank you Cecile for helping arrange that wonderful visit.

Next I went further north to Legal, Alberta to meet with Alice Bilodeau, a dear friend since my late teens. She has a lovely home on the edge of town and she had made fresh buns for lunch with scrumptious egg salad. A surprise was to see her youngest son Troy there as well. I was reminded that we had met them (Alice and husband Norm who was my second Best Man) a few years ago at a restaurant as so many of those encounters get blurred in my poor memory. I am amazed at how little everyone has changed in the last 50 years!

Then it was back into north Edmonton to visit with my buddy Tony with whom I roomed with briefly in 1999-2000. Tony and his home are unchanged since then, literally! He is minus his red mustache but otherwise is the same intelligent and funny guy who used to play wallyball with Keith and I many moons ago. We had many fun stories to recall and laugh about. Good friends like this are irreplaceable.

While at Tony's I got a FaceTime call from Kevin Graham in Calgary who was visiting with his mother Betty Graham Morgan Treadgold. Betty and Tom Morgan were dear co-workers and fast friends in Edmonton until Tom passed away suddenly and Betty remarried an older fellow from Okotoks, of all coincidences. Several years ago, Betty suffered a massive stroke and she is still recovering her speech, etc to this day in a home in Calgary. It was so heartwarming to see her face and to hear her utter a few words and to see that she still remembers me. It is our hope to see her when we get to Calgary.

As I was leaving, I got a call from Dawn in Leduc inviting me to go down there.. Since I had rare available transportation there was no decision to make. The Henday ring road sure made it easy to get there from north Edmonton. We went to Dairy Queen for an early supper (another comfort food ticked off the list) before going to Dollarama in the same shopping center. Dawn had been insisting that this store had a selection of "Canada" souvenirs, including clothing, and she was right. I came out of there with 4 red Tanktops and t-shirts like Cristina wanted.

Then Dawn remembered that I had a cousin that lived in Leduc and I looked up the address I had. Dawn said that it was just over the fence! So we decided to just knock on the door and see if they were home... I rang the doorbell, I heard their dog bark and presently the door was opened by my cousin Linda, who also looks remakably well-preserved. We were quickly invited in with big smiles and her husband Bob joined us from the basement. Their dog Sky, a gorgeous Sheltie, felt so good to me to touch as I miss my dogs so much. Dawn hit it off well with both Linda and Bob as we covered a large range of subjects. It sure was a great capper for a lovely day of visiting. Then I was really ready for bed once I got back....

I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.

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