Tag: family

Posted in General, Uncategorized

A Might-have-been 70th Wedding Anniversary

Posted on by Nuntius

Yes, today, 9th April 2025, might have been
My Beloved’s and my 70th anniversary.
It wasn’t to be, as she died after our 68th.

But, it is NOT a sad day! It is a day of rejoicing.

I have so many things for which to be thankful. My Beloved would not have wanted me to be be sad today: she wanted a joyful party on the day we celebrated her life and we did have a joyful time.

There are so many good and wonderful memories:

  • the day of our wedding
  • the day our first child was born
  • the many holidays towing our Olympic class dinghy and 5 kids and a collie in the back of the wagon
  • the many cruises by ourselves to hundreds of cities around the world
  • the times, sometimes with kids, we drove around Europe, Canada and the USA
  • the times we spent driving around South Africa, Australia and New Zealand
  • the many Sundays spent singing in church choirs – and the practices
  • the many 18- and 20-hour days we spent preparing a study for one or other of our clients
  • the years we spent in Spain with my sister-in-law, Margaret, and her husband
  • the almost 20 years we spent renting, for 4 or 5 months over winter, a condo in Palm Springs beside the pool and with all the friends we made at church and at daily exercises and aquacises for My Beloved
  • the marriages of all five kids and the progeny of all of them
  • the times we had many visitors over 60 or so years staying for short or long stays – each brought his or her joy and gave it to us
  • the love My Beloved showed by always looking her best when I got home from work or a business trip

It’s true that from time to time I will be looking at some TV program and I turn to her in her chair to make a comment – but she isn’t there! Maybe I will never rid myself of the actual fact she is no longer with me, but I hope not. She will for ever be with me until we meet again in Heaven. And that is one reason I can still be joyful: knowing we will meet again. Yes, the circumstances will be different, quite different, I am sure.
Love will be all around, with everybody, not just centered, as on earth, on the two of us.
I rejoice today in that knowledge!

Posted in General, humor, humour, romance, Uncategorized

You never know what’s in a box!

Posted on by Nuntius

When we downsized, this box, which had no key and none of our keys on rings fitted it, came with us. So, we had to find a locksmith.

The name Beeler came up, along with a bunch of other names.
I dropped into the store and it happened that Steve was at the counter and, after telling him that I had no idea what was in the box, though I thought it could be letters, he tried one of his many rings of keys. None fitted. I lost count of how many rings of old keys Steve tried, but none fitted. Eventually, Steve called Dad Mike from the back of the store and he could not find a key which fitted. It really had them puzzled: this had never happened before. Mike decided that if he found a key which seemed like it partly fitted, he might be able to cut it: so he did and it did! These two had already spent almost an hour trying, so when Mike eventually cried, ‘It works’ everyone was joyful. I could not thank the owners of Beeler Security Service enough for the care and time Steve and Mike took over one old writing desk and I wrote a great review on Google.

On opening it, we found out that it was an old writing desk, even equipped with an ink well. The ink was dry!

The letters were dated 1951 and 1952 and it showed that while each of us was in a different university, we wrote to each other daily. This habit continued even while I was in Canada for nearly two years, although then it became a weekly mail. But, in those days, I could write and mail a letter on a Sunday afternoon, My Beloved received it usually on a Thursday and she would respond over the weekend, so I would expect a reply about 10 days after mailing my letter. From Moose Jaw, Canada to Southampton, England and return!

Mike and Steve asked me if I wanted to open the box and, on doing so, inside were love letters written from and to my Darling wife, who died in July 2023, after 68 years of wonderful marriage, but we both knew when we were 13 that the other was THE ONE.

I made a fateful decision: I read one. I could hear her lovely voice in my head, using those silly words that lovers do, or what these two lovers did, a simple one being ‘I lub you!’ for ‘I love you.’ And there were others scattered throughout the usual 3 pages of closely written handwriting. And more when she signed off. Are you surprised I was in tears for an hour or two. Some of you know that Beryl’s parents were teachers and they wanted her to be one, but in order to be that, she could not be married. That was the law in those days. Consequently, they tried every which way to keep us apart. I must say that it was her father who was the ruler of their household and no-one dare upset him or he could go into a long sulk, speaking to no-one for days.

While in England for five weeks last September/October, Jenny, #2Daughter, joined me for the last two to three weeks and she particularly wanted to see some of the old haunts her parents used to escape ‘father’. One was the Cowherds Inn on the Southampton Common. One evening, I took My Beloved there and, after dinner, took her to a large oak tree behind the inn. As the story went in memory, and what I retold to my friends and relations in October, she leaned her back to the oak and I said, I think we should get engaged, to which, to my surprise, she said, no, we cannot because of the situation at home. So I repeated the story that she had turned me down.

BUT, on reading one of the letters today, I found a sentence which said that I should not say in a letter to someone that ‘we are engaged, even though it is a secret between us’ and she started writing in her letters to me about being my fiancée. I do not remember ever having asked her again and to which she must have said yes. WOW!

Some day I must finish reading the letters and discover more secrets, such as, when and where did I propose. Apparently, we had decided to have two children, but four if we could afford it. As it turned out, we must have made enough to have not just four, but five!


Posted in General, humour

Celebrating Wedding Anniversary – 69th

Posted on by Nuntius

You all know, of course, that My Beloved died almost a year ago. While she was still with me, we didn’t celebrate birthdays to any great extent, but we always did something special for our wedding anniversaries. So, my choice this year was to go and visit eldest child, daughter Sharleen, and her family in Montreal and do or have something on April 9th.

If you are a Facebook adherent, you may have read this issue of From Time to Time, but for those who do not use FB, this and two subsequent posts will be new.

I used to accomplish the seven hour drive from Halifax to Edmunston very easily. With my Darling wife, Beryl, by my side.
On April 1st, I did it again – just as easily, with Beryl in the passenger seat saying, “Silva (our car), I think you may be going a bit over the limit.” With the same result: a momentary decrease in speed.


I had to make three pit stops, but that’s OK for a 91-year old. And I made an atrocious error in where I was at one point. I told Karen on the phone that I was approaching Moncton and there was a huge hold up in traffic, which took 45 minutes to get through at 8kph. In actual fact we were approaching the NS-NB border, where a very large protest was going on over the new 3c/litre Carbon Tax the Fed Government implemented on April Fools’ Day.
Why I said approaching Moncton, I have no idea. I know, you are all going to say it is old age and he’s losing it. If that’s what you think, OK, but if you don’t get a Birthday card from me, it will not be because I just forgot to send you one!


On arrival at the Travelodge in Edmunston, the delightful Marium (Mari as in Mary, mother of Jesus, and ium is the Islamic ending – the two faiths can get together – neat, eh?) signed me in and recommended a couple of restaurants. The one I chose, L’Ecluse, turned out to be spectacular and I understand why she goes there often.
The setting is almost indescribably beautiful. But it’s obviously not indescribable, as I will show you. Imagine a river, a wrought iron pedestrian mini-Sydney harbour bridge, but two of them, using a mid-stream foundation to provide the fulcrum point where the two meet, painted a cheerful green and, later, as the sun sets, beautifully lighted. Your eyes then turn to the equally well-lit restaurant and you see three glass domes, each large enough for four people to sit and enjoy a meal comfortably. Unfortunately, I was not one of those persons and so, I was shown to a very pleasant table inside the restaurant, right beside a window through which I could see the bridge and the domes.
Unfortunately, my phone died at that point, so I am unable to show the inside of the restaurant or the menu. However, I asked for a glass of red 9oz (why is a glass of wine always in ounces? Why not mls?). And, after reviewing the quite extensive menu ranging from fish and chips to Gai Pad Khing, sauteed sliced chicken with mushrooms, peppers, cabbage, carrots and onions in a fresh ginger sauce, I chose the seared tuna. It was so yummy, I could not have chosen anything better for a finish to the end of the day’s journey. Based on a rice bowl, it contained sliced radish, tomatoes, black olives, a little lettuce, some watercress, which I haven’t had in a restaurant since leaving England 70 years ago, some sort of small crispy wontons and six very delicately seared tuna pieces, leaving it as sushi inside, all in a tasty aioli sauce. Some restaurant; some meal! (Nova Scotian for it’s very good.)


I told my server, I would be back when I return from Sharleen’s.
A bit of a restless night saw me looking for my shaving cream. Not! Yesterday morning’s review of Wednesday weather around Riviere du Loup, which I would have had if I left as intended on Tuesday, made me change my mind and I was then in furious packing: meds and essentials, asking Jackie for forgiveness for not being able to take her out for the dinner I had promised (she was very gracious and forgave me). The fact is, she will have gone to Newfoundland to join her husband by the time I get back and the pair of them have been such good friends since we moved into our apartment, I won’t get to say goodbye. Then I found this morning I had not packed my shaving cream, so I went to the IGA and bought a can, only to discover I had also forgotten the razor!!!
No, don’t say it again: remember I was in a great rush and also remember what I said near the start of this post about you not getting a birthday card.
Onward we go in a few minutes.