A Memorial and a Reunion

Airdrie cemetary

My Dad died on June 20th. The obituary can be found here. The memorial was held in Calgary, our home town, on August 7th at our former church. This date was chosen so that my boys could attend and the church was available that day. My cousin Allan was the officiant. Dad had picked some hymns which was helpful. It was challenging planning an event from far away. The administrator at the church (Wendy O) is a gal that I've know since I was 12 so that was also nice. Mom wasn't able to make the trip.

My hubby drove to Calgary with my boys. I flew. We stayed in a rented house in northeast Calgary in a new neighbourhood (close to the airport) that is overwhelmingly Indian. The house was very comfortable. Three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and two living rooms. 

On Wednesday we went to Heritage Park for some family time. 

I enjoyed Heritage Park since it had been a long time since I had been there. I'll do a separate blog post with photos from there. I was wishing that Dad was with me as I walked around.

I wanted to get a steak while in Calgary. We ate at The Guild which is on 8th Avenue in the former Bay building. As we walked from the car, I pointed out the Plus 15 walkways to the boys. I had a delicious tenderloin 6 ounce steak.

On Thursday morning we had a graveside service at the Airdrie cemetary. It was a simple service. Allan read some scripture that I selected. I led the group in singing Abide With Me. My uncle John's children and their spouses attended this service. 

I wanted to keep it small. Allan brought some dirt from our former farm and he and I sprinkled it on top of Dad's remains. I appreciated that. Alexander videotaped the service to show to my mom. We found the graves of other Pole relatives including my grandparents Thomas and Charlotte. 

My cousin Julie pointed out the graves of the Hawkey family who assisted the Pole family when they arrived from Ontario. I still need to purchase a grave marker. We looked around for ideas.

I noticed that my first elementary school was near to the cemetary so we stopped to get a photo.

We met at Boston Pizza for an early lunch. 

The waitress stood on a table to take this photo!

We were having a good visit and then realized that time was getting late. We still needed to stop at the house before going to the church. 

Our former pastor Ron was supposed to help lead the service. We found out that he had to go to Urgent Care due to a heart issue. He's fine now. Another Brentview pastor (Pete with an Irish accent) filled in for him and lead the singing. 

I hugged lots of people who were arriving at the church. I tried to get lots of photos to help remember who was there. 

Lorne Dunn

Cecil Cowie - Berean Alumni rep

Sharon Bilben, Larry Bilben, me, Harold Evans, Linda Evans

Ruth and Brian Esau

The service went smoothly. The reception was held in the gym. I didn't have a receiving line or an open mike. There were three tables displaying photos and memorabilia. Here is the photo board that I created.

left side

middle

right side

I also displayed my dad's running jacket. The tablecloths were blue which was appropriate. There was plenty of food and drink. Sandwiches, fruit, veggies, squares (including Nanaimo bars) and cookies, tea, coffee and iced tea. 

My Creighton cousins

Susan

Enarsons

Lenora (Butt) Strand

Al and Millie Benson

Harold Evans, Linda Evans, Sharon and Larry Bilben,
Daniel Numez, Helen Olhauser, Terry Olhauser

Jordan Donna Bill Cameron, Val Carleton, Gunther Eichmann, Neil Carleton, Margaret and Dwayne Janke, Pat Tennant, Marjorie Moore

I wish we had more photos of the guests and name tags! I think there were 58 guests. I haven't seen some of these people in 45 years. My cousin Julie likes to take photos so some came from her.

Cameron Pole (Laurence's son), Jerry Nation, and Julie

The surprise guest was Eunice who I've known since I was 12! She came from Grande Prairie. 

After the reception, we drove out to find the location of the farm. We were told that there is development all around it but not on the actual spot. 

We think this is very close. If I come back, it would be nice to walk around this area. There are lots of bike/walking paths. 

Next was a trip to Peters Drive In. I had a lime shake in honour of Mom.

On Friday, J and A left in the car in the morning. C and I were without a car and we didn't need to be at the airport until 5 pm. The rental house had an 11 am check out time. My friend Kathy was so hospitable. She picked us up and spent the day with us. We had an early lunch, went to a used bookstore and a thrift store. After that she took us to her house. We hung out there for a few hours. We forgot to get photos of the three of us. The used bookstore had a large Canadian section. I bought these two books. 

The book on the right was written by my Mom's cousin Nancy Millar.

As the plane was taxing down the runway, I took this photo out the window of the Calgary skyline.

I love the big skies of Alberta. It is interesting how memorials can also be reunions. I would've enjoyed talking to more people. One man who had worked for my dad was choked up talking about him. That made all the effort of coming to Calgary worth it. 

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Some Snaps

Snaps are what my mom calls photos.

My dad went into the hospital on May 30th. I went up to Victoria and stayed 5 days. Here are some photos that I took.

View from ferry to Victoria.

I asked a nurse to take our photo on June 3rd.

My hubby treated me to a stay at the Coast Hotel. I ate at the Blue Crab for dinner and breakfast. Here's the salmon.

I had a window seat with a lovely view.

Here is the sunset viewed from the hotel room balcony.

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Alexander's College Graduation

The day finally came. Alexander finished his classes in December but he had to wait until May for graduation. Our family was reunited briefly for the occasion. I flew down and J took the train. 

On Wednesday I had lunch with a mom (Riva) who has been a sort of second mom to A during his time at Biola. Her family goes to the same church as A and she has hosted him for a few holiday dinners. I gave Riva a bouquet of flowers and a thank you card. One fun thing that I found out was that she was in a Biola apologetics class with Sean McDowell taught by J. P. Moreland. Also, Riva's dad was a theology professor at Biola until 2020. 

With my free time on Thursday I went to So Cal Fullerton Botanical Garden and Arboretum. I wanted to go to this garden last summer but it was closed. I will write about that visit in a separate post.

I ate with C in the Biola cafeteria several times. The cafeteria is a good place to run into people. We ran into the English professor that C was a TA for in the fall semester - Dr. Kleist. He was also on the study abroad trip that C was on in 2024. He had lots of nice things to say about C.

On Thursday afternoon, I went to a few CMA senior theses with A. It was my first time being in the CMA production center. They are building a new building for CMA. I forgot to get a photo of the building under construction. On Thursday night, C and I picked up J from the train station in downtown Los Angeles. C's last exam was on Friday at noon so I tried not to take up too much of his time. 

A made this photo using Photoshop. He combined two photos, one of his book pile and one of him with a sword.

Torrey Honors College Commencement was on Friday morning. I think that was my favourite event.  I didn't really know what to expect of the ceremony and that was fun.  I enjoyed the hymns.

The graduates came up onto the stage and they kneeled (in groups of two or three) and one of the faculty thumped them gently on the head with a Bible.

Next they signed their names in the book of perpetual members and then they received their blue stoles.

Stoles are also called sashes. They received a ring inscribed with the College's motto: Bonum, Verum, Pulchrum, which means "The Good, The True, the Beautiful." A wasn't interested in the ring so I have it. They also received a pin to give to their families.

At both ceremonies, parents were asked to stand to acknowledge our support. Here is A with his mentor, Dr. Peters, and a friend and housemate Andrew.

A with his first roommate Tucker.

A and his cohort called Homer.

C moved out of his dorm on Friday and stayed 2 nights at the rented house. I got to meet several of C's friends. On Friday night Jonathan made salmon for the family. Happy to use this kitchen:

Our time with A was short that night since he went to Friday night's graduation ceremony where several of his friends were graduating.

On Saturday we had lunch together as a family to celebrate A's graduation and sort of for Mother's Day.  We went to Parker's Lighthouse in Long Beach. A and I both had lobster club sandwiches.

That is the Queen Mary in the background. It was fun to tell the boys that I visited the Queen Mary when I was 3 years old. The view from the restaurant was amazing. The temperature got to 100 degrees at about 3 pm on Saturday.

I got in line for seats for graduation at 5:30 pm. I think we were in line for about an hour. The ceremony is on YouTube so I don't need to give too many details. It was fun seeing the different students' personalities and the families and how they celebrated. The ceremony was almost 3 hours long. The weather cooled down when the sun went down at about 7:30 pm. This was our view.

Alexander had a prank planned for his former boss David and it was went exactly according to plan. Here is A before the prank with Dean Barry Corey.

I grabbed the image above from YouTube. 

This is the screen with his name up.

He put a photo of Sean McDowell on the top of his cap since he edited many of Sean's videos.

A graduated Summa Cum Laude which basically means perfect grades. There was a reception held after graduation for the CMA grads and their families on the lawn in front of the CMA production center.

Here is A with his editing professor Schmidt.

This is A with Nate Bell, Internship Manager for CMA.

We got back to the rented house at 11:30 pm. A stayed up even later with his housemates and they had a party on the roof. They actually got a photo of the eight of them together which had not happened before. 

J and I took A to the airport very early on Sunday morning. He is off  to his summer job. On Sunday we went to Christopher's church. His friend Zeke joined us there. Zeke also graduated from Biola in Accounting.  He lives in Huntington Beach. We went to the potluck that C's church has every Sunday. C and I flew to SeaTac. We took the light rail to Lynnwood which is a grueling trip. Next time I'll pay for an Uber.

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