Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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I assume Marg is teaching creative writing in the Great Hereafter, so I’ll do my best to provide an update from our Toronto digs. The first three months of 2025 our apartment was like Grand Central Station, with PSWs coming three times per day to change Marg in her hospital bed in our bedroom, a nurse once a day to treat her bed sores (not very successfully), and occasional other visitors. Then April 1 (April Fools’ Day, if that had anything to do with it), when I took breakfast to Marg I discovered that she had slipped silently away during the night while I slept in the bed next to hers, as if she did not want to bother anyone. The next day or two were a flurry of activity as people came to remove her body, the hospital bed, boxes of medical supplies, etc. That week the Amaryllis and the Christmas Cactus in our kitchen both bloomed, the only time I have seen that happen. Then no more Grand Central Station. Daughter Heather and hubby John Hubbell still live in a rented house in Jersey, Channel Islands. Heather is now the chair of the Tax Tribunal of Jersey, and also teaches business classes, mostly on-line, so she keeps pretty busy. John also keeps busy with his financial business. They are coming to Toronto on Boxing Day to visit family and friends for a week or two. Their daughter Raya and hubby Will Usher live in the house in Farncombe, with space for Will’s two pre-teens and Heather and John when they go to visit. Raya hurt her back last summer trying to help an athlete get from his wheel chair into the water. It has been diagnosed as a slipped disc, but surgery is not yet possible because she is expecting a baby boy in mid April, 2026. So I’ll become a great grandfather to a girl and a boy. Too bad Marg could not have that experience. Will keeps the coaching business going, with administrative type help from Raya. Heather and John’s son Jason and better half Sarah are now learning the joys of raising almost-two-year-old daughter Harper in their home in Cambridge, Ontario. Jason works mostly from home, and Sarah is now creating her own business, not wishing to return to Bell in Ottawa. Son Brian lives with Iris Häussler in Toronto part time and at their farm west of Owen Sound part time. Brian does some consulting on the software that he sold some years ago. He also paints (artistically), and does considerable maintenance work on the Toronto house and the farm. Brian usually visits me on Wednesday afternoons to do some walking, solve the world’s problems and snack at Tim Horton’s. Iris is making a name for herself with her imagino-sculpturic art. Ex-daughter-in-law Janet Fryer lives in the house on Broadview in Toronto with son Ben, who is studying aircraft manufacturing at Centennial College on the grounds of the old Downsview airport. Reminds me that I landed at Downsview 65 years ago in a T-33 with almost no fuel, after a trip from Chatham, N.B. against strong headwinds. Janet and Brian's other son Julian is studying to be a teacher at Nipissing University in North Bay. Janet gives music lessons, some at home and some at the student’s home. Brings memories of Janet and Julian playing flute duets at our house in Lachine many years ago, and of seeing Ben play the trumpet with the Hannaford Silver Band after we moved to Toronto. My sister Elizabeth (Sue) Foot lives in a seniors’ apartment about ten minutes drive from me. We sometimes go together to events at Jubilee United Church, about ten minutes from her place, and to visit her daughter Erin and family about 15 minutes away. 1807-35 Wynford Heights Crescent, Toronto, Ontario, M3C 1L1 Email: wblynn@wblynn.ca, Cell: 1-437-990-2288, Home; 1-416-441-2134 Website:www.wblynn.ca |