the last of Canada

Parting is such sweet sorrow and in this case a long drive too! Ivan was eating breakfast in the van the morning of our departure, with obvious bed- ummmm- I should say "carseat head".

Aunt Mary came the last day we were in Canada. This is my dad's 1st cousin and she loves to share life's stories. I would have recorded her all night if my memory stick hadn't run out of space! My grandmother- who she talks about in some of these videos, passed away when dad was in high school, so I obviously never met her, but would love to know about her more. I knew grandpa Hector (dad's dad), who even lived with us, but then again, I feel like I never really knew him. He got Alzheimer's pretty early on and wasn't himself, nor could he share his history with us. He did tell lots of stories, but we weren't ever sure if they were really from his past or from his imagination. It was so wonderful to hear about some of my history and to have a sense of what it was like during their lives. Dad- be warned- these will bring tears!!


She gave the translation of the first song after this: there was a dear old lady, who didn't have any children, so she wrapped up the little goat and sang to it "oh, sulalula long legged, long eared somebody/something". She then caught herself as she started to say that she'd have to get her dad to write down the words for her. Uncle Cecil (her dad) passed away not so long ago which made it all the more poignant to hear these words and stories that can fade away into oblivion so easily if not shared, treasured and passed on to the next generation. We told her to check the internet, but she explained that even the language and words may be different from region or hill in Norway, that since people could not visit and communicated like now, that each area had their own particular speech and renditions to songs.

For reference- Uncle Hector was my grandpa, Signe, my grandmother, and Mary (the storyteller)'s dad was Cecil (my jokester uncle).



At the beginning, aunt Mary was saying how uncle Hector- my grandpa seemed so stern- but this story showed how he enjoyed humor.



Right before I started recording this one, aunt Mary explained that she had asked my grandpa Hector to do the toast at her wedding, the she had had a special connection with him and that it was so soon after that that my grandma Signe (her aunt) became very sick and was dying.


Who is in your past that you wish you had been able to meet?