Chapter 19

BACK TO CANADA

Reg died on December 11 ^th 2016, so all the various organisations that normally kept me so busy were in abeyance for the Christmas holidays. This was a good thing in one way as it gave me a lot of time to myself but not so good in another as there were no distractions. I knew that I had to work out a schedule to keep myself busy, otherwise there would be too much time spent sitting round feeling sorry for myself, so as much as possible I followed my normal routine, first working out in the gym at RBL, then a walk to the beach and a good long swim. I tried also to eat properly even though there was not much incentive to cook with nobody else at the table telling me how delicious the food was and entertaining me with funny stories from whatever Reg had been reading or doing that day.

It wasn’t an easy period of my life but I knew how disappointed Reg would be in me if I didn’t make the most of whatever time I had left. I had plenty to do cancelling Reg’s overseas pension, closing his accounts, changing the name on utilities bills, remaking my will to reflect my changed circumstances, having documents witnessed by a JP and so on. One day while driving I had a blackout and fortunately there was no damage other than two blown tyres when I bounced up onto the footpath but when I came to, I said that I would never drive again and I never have. A battery of tests showed absolutely nothing wrong with me – perhaps stress? said the neurologist. I managed perfectly well using public transport and have done ever since, I’ve probably saved a lot of money too!

It was back to all my old activities when they resumed in the new year and the process of getting used to a different life. Meanwhile Celene and Blain were starting an interesting project. Several years previously they had bought 90 acres in New Brunswick in eastern Canada and they had decided to retire from their jobs in Boston and live there. There was already an adequate living area in a converted stable, but they were going to build a house and offered to include a granny flat for me. I had loved living in Canada so accepted enthusiastically. In April 2017 I packed and freighted all the things I wanted to keep; not much really besides my market china which I’ve always loved (on the right), some clothes, a few books and some photos. It amounted to 10 cardboard packing boxes and was picked up and taken to a ship. I knew it would take months to reach Canada and it did but in my carryon luggage I packed my bedding, a towel, a plate, one set of cutlery and my favourite old brown glass cup so I knew that I could survive anywhere.

So it was travelling again for another big move but this time with a few stops on the way, first to Cardiff as a most exciting event was about to take place – the birth of my first great grandchild, Casper Reginald Kirkwood Davies. On the right I am arriving at Heathrow Airport to spend a week with the family in Cardiff. Great excitement when Casper arrived, a few days late but fortunately in time for me to greet him and have a cuddle of that beautiful baby (right).

Then it was off to Canada by a route I hadn’t flown before, over the North Pole with a stop in Reykjavik. That was exciting and I had a little adventure there because it was getting close to boarding time and all the toilets were occupied but I could see that were new washrooms downstairs in a recently finished extension so down I went. When I came to leave, I found the door had jammed shut as securely as if it had been nailed closed. Nothing I did would budge it. I shouted, banged on the door, did everything I could to shift it but all in vain until another passenger came downstairs and heard me. She threw all her weight against the door, it burst open and I was released from my prison. That’s Reykjavik Airport on the right.

Next to visit my dear friend Gill Kanachowski in Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. I flew first to Vancouver and then to Victoria where I was met by Gill’s daughter Rosemary, with whom I stayed the night, before Gill and I flew to Whitehorse in the Yukon to stay with Danusia, another of Gill’s daughters. We spent a week there and had a wonderful time. Danusia’s house backed onto woods where we walked every morning and where we often saw bear poo so when we were hiking we always carried bear spray, that’s it hanging round my neck on the right. The scenery in the Yukon is magnificent, with lakes and mountains everywhere you look. That’s me with Gill on the right.

After that it was back to Nanaimo for a few more days with Gill and then on to the Greyhound bus for the long drive through the Rockies to Calgary where I was met by dear friends Sylvia and Igor Lozynsky who took me back to their home in Red Deer, the city where we had lived for 20 years so a real homecoming as I still have a lot of friends there. Lovely to revisit all my old haunts, there’s City Hall Park on the right still looking just as it did when we first saw it back in 1968.

Next I flew to Toronto to take part in a conference run by the International Federation of the Ageing, together with other members of CPAAC from Hobart. I had a free day before the conference began so I went on a tour of the city which included a ferry trip around the islands of Lake Ontario. The conference was excellent with interesting speakers from all over the world and some thought-provoking ideas on stimulation being provided for dementia sufferers by robots and recent research on the longevity of residents on the Japanese island of Okinawa.

Meanwhile in Sussex New Brunswick Celene and Blain’s new house was taking shape. I learned to do drywalling and there was plenty of painting to be done so it was all hands to work. I ordered all my furniture from Ikea, flatpack (on the right) and Celene and I assembled it, I was a novice but Celene had done it so often that it all went together smoothly under her direction.

Then my freight arrived and I was able to settle in to my lovely apartment with windows on three sides so always bright and sunny. There’s my freight on the right, all the way from Hobart, a couple of boxes were a bit squashed but nothing broken, excellent!

The house was finished after a lot of hard work and it was beautiful, Celene and Blain upstairs, me downstairs and behind my apartment was the basement with a music/TV room, cold room for food storage and room for the treadmill which I used every morning. I also went for an outside walk every day, only 30 acres of the property was cleared and the other 60 acres was all woods with cleared walking tracks and several streams. I used Nordic poles to avoid tripping over roots and rocks and also to ward off the bears should I meet one. I never did but one ran across the track in front of Blain when he and Celene were riding their quads.

I became the shepherd of our free range turkeys and used to take them for a long walk every morning to the end of the hayfield, they came when I called them and liked nothing more than to have a little explore in the woods but I never let them go in too far, being well aware of the fact that there were plenty of predators in there that would relish a turkey meal!

Another of my jobs was to provide hot mash every morning for the chickens once the days got cold. They loved it and rewarded us with eggs even in the winter, more than we could use so Celene used to donate the extras to the Food Bank in town when we went in to do our shopping.

Towards the end of that year, I flew back to Cardiff to see the family there, especially my lovely great grandson Casper who was growing up so quickly. Most mornings I took him in the pram for long walks along the river. He was a happy contented baby and sometimes we would all go out to lunch together, four generations on the right. That year Casper had his first train ride, Madeline was speaking at the University and Camille and I wanted to hear her so we went to London for the night and next day we went to the British Museum and Casper slept all the way round, good boy!

Then it was back to the farm and Fall had well and truly arrived but the cold weather never kept us inside, I still went for a long walk every day with my trusty Nordic Poles. There was always plenty of snow but Blain would get out with his snow blower and clear tracks, the all-important one for me being one down to the henhouse so that I could give the hens their hot breakfast, they were always waiting anxiously inside the gate for me to appear with their breakfast. Here’s Blain with his snow blower, the snow used to blow back on him and by the time he finished he was plastered with it.

There seemed to be more snow than usual in our last winter there and on many days we got up to see that there had been a fresh fall during the night so it would be all hands to the shovels. That’s Celene’s car and my deck on the right.

Then Spring would come and the snow would melt and the deer would come out to the hayfield to enjoy the first of the new green grass and the groundhog would be out with her babies (right).

The wild turkeys would come for a visit with their babies (on the right) and we would get the new season’s crop of day old chicks, and the vegetable garden would be planted and there would be new life everywhere.

We had the most amazing vegetable gardens there because although the season is short the days are so long that we could almost see the plants growing. The flowers were beautiful too, lupins grow wild along the sides of the road in that area and one year Blain dug up a few roots for my flower garden and they just took off.

Here are a few photos of the farm in summer – so beautiful!