Thursday September 18, 2025 RIP Denis B.

 

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Thursday September 18, 2025

 Our hotel in Falher was named the Honeycomb Inn, and Falher is home to "The World's Largest Bee" which we had missed seeing last evening but we spotted it easily enough today, and it was quite impressive.

One thing about the family in Falher, they made sure that nobody went hungry...  After last evening's meal, we had to come back for a brunch at the Club Alouette before heading 60 odd kms to Tangent for the funeral itself.

The officiating priest in the program was supposed to be Fr Hansel Nwachukwuoji (that's a mouthful)... but apparently he missed a plane back from a Nigerian holiday, so a retired Fr Bouchard officiated and did a great job.  

The urn was impressively carved with a moose scene.  One of the sons needed a very long reach to place it in the deep hole dug at the gravesite.

And the huge metal gate at the cemetery was apparently constructed by Denis himself.

This day we encountered many more cousins we had not seen since 1967...  And I simply do not have the memory to remember every name of every younger person there...  Sorry.

Then we had a long afternoon lunch back at the Club Alouette in Falher that was magnificently catered by a local company.  We got to reminisce a lot with cousins that I did not really know at all, but most knew someone in my family, especially my 2 younger brothers, with lots of knowing winks about hidden misdeeds, lol.

And I ended up again being the semi-official photographer, so I will be sharing this Blog with some of those long-lost cousins.  Hugs to all. 

So that was my second celebration of life in a week and I will apparently have another upcoming Oct 4, all 3 along that same highway northwest...

Friday we drove back in the Regal, a 5-hour trip each way...

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

Al

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© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.  

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE  that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

 

World's Biggest Bee, Falher, AB

Loretta & Harvey

Lunch at the Club Alouette

Surprising flat farm country up here

Pigeon's roost?

Rosalie, Hector, and widow Annette

Loretta & Harvey

Family and Fr Bouchard

Granddaughter

Grandson

Many mourners

Well done eulogy

Gorgeous urn!

We meet again....

Showing the slideshow.

Annette, Juliette, Hector, Rosalie, Harvey

 

 

Wednesday September 17, 2025 Family @ Falher

 

PLEASE bookmark this page and check daily.

Older Blog:  https://cuencaupdates.blogspot.com/ 

Please see my best artworks for sale at my websites:

 http://souvenirphotostudio.neocities.org/

or https://pixels.com/profiles/al-bourassa

******

Wednesday September 17, 2025

 So my cousind from Saskatoon, Harvey and Loretta, showed up 2 hours late, at dusk.  I had ordered my usual heavy meat-lovers XL pizza to time it close to their arrival.  

I had received the key to the room at Manoit St Thomas earlier, so I drove them there in their car for 2 reasons.  One, I didn't want them to fight the road system to get back to my place in the morning alone, and Two, I wanted to check out the roadworthiness of their peppy little Chevy Cruz..

So the guest suite at St Thomas was more than adequate for them to get a good sleep after their long ride.

I also determined that we would feel cramped in the Cruz, and it was pretty dirty, and only one headlight was not working.... etc, etc...

So I picked them up in the Regal and we found a McDonald's on the way for XL triple-triple coffees and away we went, stopping at McDonald's in Whitecourt for a break.

The ride was beautiful and uneventful, and the only negative is that we saw zero wildlife.... seriously!!  That was unexpected and disappointing..  I had my heart set on a moose sighting!

I had guestimated out arrival around 3pm and I was bang-on-the money.  Relatives guided us by phone to the Club Alouette and we renewed acqaintances with a few relatives from as far away as Weyburn and Moose Jaw, their kids and grandkids...  Most I had not seen in 58 years....  I found some new relatives that knew other old friends, girlfriends, and schoolmates from that long ago era....  

We slipped out to check in to the Honeycomb Inn where we had booked rooms by phone, despite many sketchy reviews found on Booking.com.  While the comments about the taciturn Manager were true, the rooms far exceeded our expectations...  My room has a king bed, AC, fireplace, fridge, microwave, desk, free wifi, etc, etc,....  My only negative comment is that the usual soap/shampoo, etc appears to be only available from a single wall dispenser..

Upon our return to the hall, the local family made a huge meal for us all, and many of the women played some special games while us guys talked about a lot of old experiences.

We are ordered to return at 11:30am tomorrow for lunch because there are many leftovers to be devoured yet...  Then we will head for the funeral a further 60 kms away.

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

Al

******

© All my work is COPYRIGHT protected and may not be used in any way without purchase, or without my permission.  

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE  that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

 

Decorations for tomorrow, hand-made.

Reacquainting with cousins

Very new cousins

Rosalie and Juliette