Nana Patchet

This, my friends, is the beauty of the internet.

I was contacted last week by a second cousin named Cynthia Adams, who was looking up information on her grandfather, George Adams. Years ago, I did a post on my blog about my great-uncle whose diaries and letters are now in the War Museum in Ottawa. When Cynthia looked up her grandfather, my blog post came up and she contacted me. We may have met once when we were children, at a big family party to celebrate my grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary, but neither of us remember clearly.

It also turns out that there were members of her family attending the same high school in Quebec as that of my husband and his brothers. Small world, indeed. We're still sorting that out.

Today Cynthia sent me this photo of our great-aunt Edie (on the left) and my grandmother (and Cythia's great-aunt) Nora on the right.

I can't tell you how overcome I was to receive this. I have precious few family photos, and only a couple of my grandmother. We were very close. My dad was her youngest child, and we had many Sunday dinners at their home in Toronto, on Glen Manor Dr. in the beach. In those days, it was cobblestones, and as children, my sisters and I would climb the hill and run down the sidewalk before climbing into the car to go home.

It's amazing that I got this photo this morning, of all mornings, because today is my grandmother Nora's birthday. She was born November 24th, 1889 in England. When she her older sister Edie were practically babies, their mother died at the age of 32. Their father remarried, and George was born, then they boarded a ship and left England behind to settle in Toronto. My cousin Cythia is from George's line, and I'm from Nora's line.

What a wonderful treat to receive this today.