Part Twenty-Nine –
Short Trips, Golden Anniversary, Graduation and Failing Health

In 1994 we thought we might tour Northern Ontario again but it didn’t happen. We set out and lost our tail pipe in Wiarton. By the time we got it fixed with a new muffler we didn’t get to Tobermory until 5:30 where we stopped for the night. We caught the ferry to Manitoulin in the morning.

We stopped at Manistaironing for coffee and booked into a motel in Little Current early in the afternoon. After lunch we set out around the island. We stopped first at Kagawoug and then on to Gore Bay. Then we went on to Providence Bay for coffee and a walk on the boardwalk. Then on to Mindemoga and Sandfield and dinner at Manitavaning. We stopped at the Indian Trading Post at Ten Mile Point and then back to the motel where we had to change rooms because of the smell.

The next morning on to Sudbury through Espanola. We drove by the big nickel at Sudbury and went on to Sturgeon Falls and North Bay where we stopped for the night, but drove to Callander for dinner. The following day we drove as far as Huntsville to the motel we had stayed at two years earlier. Did nothing third day but drove out to the “Wairgaty” for dinner. In the morning we drove to Dorset and went up to the fire tower lookout. In the afternoon went through Algonquin Park where we saw a couple of moose and looked over the visitor centre at the east end. Had dinner at Spring Lake.

Monday morning drove around Hidden Valley and stopped at Deerhurst Lodge and Great Western and picked up rate cards. After lunch we drove down to Fox Inn and then around Lake of Bays. Next day wandered around Huntsville in the morning and the afternoon drove to Rosseau and Winderous and back to Huntsville via Port Sidney.

Wednesday set off for home down Highway 11 which we left at Orillia and had lunch at Bear Lake Provincial Park. On to Penetanguciline but couldn’t find a motel there so went back to Midland. Next day went back to Penetang and visited Discovery Harbour where we rode an old fashioned wagon around the area and went aboard one of the tall ships which was guided by a man who had been in the navy. Very hot today, temperature in the thirties. We stopped for lunch in Wasaga Beach Provincial Park. Stopped at Brussels and Seaforth on way home taking back roads, and finally home.

The next two years, 1995 and 1996, we didn’t go anywhere. I was admitted to hospital in late May or early June each year and was feeling pretty rough, especially since both summers we had a lot of company. Linda was staying with us and in June of 1995, Joan and I celebrated our 50^th wedding anniversary. We received congratulations from both the Prime Minister and the Governor-General. Our children from Iceland were here; Vicki and Asgeir came with Nadia, and Geoff came with both Viktoria and Dagrun. Also Larry and Gladys with Bruce, and Carl and Cathy and their kids. We had an open house the day before and on the day we all had dinner at Hook’s.

The next year, 1996, was the year I graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelors degree in Music. It took ten years to get enough credits, and when the convocation came, I was too ill to attend. The office at Talbot College arranged to have the Dean, Geoff Stokes, and the Assistant Dean, Peter Clemens, come to the house and perform the ceremony. The faculty secretary and P.R. representative were there and I got a write up in the Alumni periodical. I also got a good write-up in the London Free Press which had the result of seeing congrats from people I went to school with 50 years ago and even got to the Universal House of Justice in Haifa. For this occasion Tim and Aglesh came down from Iqaluit and brought her three children with her. For both occasions the women decorated the house with streamers and balloons and it was quite festive.

We didn’t go anywhere either year any further than Sarnia once or twice or Port Stanley, so next year 1997, we took two holidays each a week in length.

We left on June 8 and arrived at a motel called Sanman outside Port Perry at a place called Manchester. We had arranged with Medigas to have an oxygen tank in the car. Next morning we went to Cullen Gardens in Whitby. This place has a fantastic miniature village, took two hours to walk around. After returning to the motel we went down to Port Perry park on Lake Sceegog and then out to the end of Sceegog Island. Next morning we went up to Bobcaygeon on the Trent-Scolen canal and investigated apartments overlooking the locks. After lunch we went to Petroglyph Provincial Park to see the exhibit which is quite impressive. We returned to Port Perry via Burleigh Falls and Lakefield.

The next morning we left for Huntsville stopping on the way to visit the Kirkfield Lift Lock. After lunch at Caernarvan we booked into Colonial Hotel, Huntsville for four nights. It is now under new ownership. Took it easy and next morning went into Deugal and Dorset and up to Lookout Point and around Lake of Bays, and took it easy for rest of day.

After Medigas came from Orillia next day to refill tank we took off for Windermere and Port Carling for lunch. Then on to Rosseau and back home (hotel). On Saturday we went into Huntsville and looked around after having car fixed (ran out of power steering fluid).

We left for home Sunday and got lost around Camp Borden. After stopping at park in Grand Valley, we dropped in to see Reinette before returning home.

           In September we booked into Buckeye Inn in Bobcaygeon and had Medigas from Peterborough install tank in our room. On Monday Joan walked around town and picked up a street map and after lunch drove all around the town.

On Tuesday we drove into Lindsay to get the tape deck fixed and on the way saw a field of llamas! The shop in Lindsay couldn’t fix us up but he directed us to another shop outside town on way to Peterborough. While it was being fixed we went into mall in Lindsay for lunch. On the way back tried some back roads. Next day we went to Lagoon City on Lake Simcoe via Fenelon Falls and looked for Frank Nutson, one of my relatives on my grandmother’s side. After visiting for a while returned home.

On Thursday we drove to Bancroft where we had lunch and then on to Combermere where it took about half an hour to find Terry’s place (Terry is my sister Ruth’s daughter). After visiting we had supper at Woodview on way home. Next afternoon we drove all around Pigeon Lake stopping eventually at Buckhorn for coffee. Saturday morning was Fall Fair day and watched parade go by inn. In the afternoon drove all the way up to Gooderham to see the fall colours which were quite spectacular. It was on the way home that my disabled permit flew out the window and we drove at about 10 km an hour back looking for it. After several kilometers we stopped to let some cars go by and Joan spotted it just outside the car.

We left for home on Sunday stopping for lunch at Newmarket. We stopped in to see Reinette but she wasn’t home so visited another lady who lives in the same place, then home.

During the winter (1997-8) Dr. Paterson put me in touch with a Doctor Malhaner, a thoracic surgeon who has been doing a lung volume reduction surgery to make breathing easier for people with emphysema who are in otherwise good health. This contact occupied me for most of the next year.

I was put in touch with the thoracic rehabilitation program which is an exclusive program for people with lung problems. They only take eight people at a time and it consists of daily exercise, Monday to Friday for six weeks. It took about an hour and a half each day and necessitated going to the hospital every day. It involved weights, stretches, stationery bicycle and treadmill.

Following this I had numerous tests consisting of pulmonary functions, stress tests, nuclear scans, CAT scan, ECG and echo and so on. During this time I also had to have some liquid removed from my scrotum and I have had cataract surgery on both eyes over the past couple of years.

Last fall Vicki and Nadia came over for a holiday in October and this year she and Asgeir came. We went back to Bobcaygeon for a week at the end of September.

We did other things since returning from England. The first spring after getting back we got in touch with Claude Lambert in Farmington Hills, Michigan, whom I hadn’t seen since World War II. He invited us down and we took the bus and spent a few days with him and his wife. One day we went to the Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in Dearborn which I had never seen before. Another day we went to Belle Isle where we watched some people flying kites.

We went to Niagara Falls several times. On one occasion we visited Norma Wiley at Niagara-on-the-Lake and also visited Fort George which was occupied by the Americans during the War of 1812. Another time we attended her birthday party but didn’t see much of her as there were so many people present.

On another visit we went to Queenston Heights to the Brock Monument and the historical museum on Lundy’s Lane. We drove home along the Parkway to Fort Erie and home via Highway 3.

One time we took Tim with us and visited Marineland. I was a wet day in September and we had all the rides to ourselves. Joan wouldn’t go on Dragon Mountain but Tim and I did. We went to Marineland one other time with Carl and Kathy and family but it was a hot Sunday and the place was crowded. We didn’t go on any rides but saw the whole show but that was all we had time for as it was a charter bus trip and we had to leave with the bus which broke down on the way home and it took forever.

The first eight years after returning I was elected to the LSA and was the secretary for part of the time. I was also on the teaching committee which I stayed with after leaving the Assembly. I was also for a couple of years Assistant to Auxiliary Board member Gordon Naylor and visited several nearby communities as well as meetings at Keith Greeham’s and Gordon Naylor’s place in Dundas.

While still on the LSA, I was appointed London community representative on the Multi-Faith Committee for this area. We met monthly, mostly at CPR (where the secretary’s office was). Part of our duties was to monitor inter-faith facilities at various institutions and their chaplains. I had the occasion to visit Sarnia General Hospital, North Lambton Rest Home, Woodstock Hospital, the Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre and the London Psychiatric Hospital. I was with the committee for five years.

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