Hi Paula,
This is from your
"brother" Chris. Jeez, what to tell you, so many years we have spent
together and yet so many years apart. I remember the many, many nights at your
place, sharing a borreltje downstairs in your house in Beaconsfield, shooting
the breeze. The family ups and downs, yours and mine. Jumping in an
airplane dragging back one of your adventuresome daughters from Western Canada.
My own heartaches with my own daughter, Jennifer, and you convincing her mother
to let me see her again, the pains and joys of being a family. And here we are
thousands of miles apart and yet so close. Grandparents, me having married
again, silly old coot that I am, and thinking of you and your family.
It somehow seems like another
life that we lived so long ago. I do remember visiting you and Carl in Cornwall
and Carl still renovating the place and do you remember visiting my old place
in Ste Marguerite? Well, we can think about all the aches and pains of
being older now but there is one thing that we are so incredibly lucky about
and that is having our kids. Having experienced your family life with you, with
its ups and downs, always made me want to have my own family.
Yes, our children have given us our
worries and sometimes our sorrows, but I look at my kids and realize how lucky
I am of having them and I know that you must do the same. If there is one thing
that your kids do well, that is organizing a party in honor of their parents
that is when they come together. Particularly Brenda. I remember the first time
that I saw her doing that, Jeez that used to be this little girl and look how
businesslike she has become, poems here, speeches there, everything organized.
Amazing how serious your kids get when it gets to organizing something special
for their parents. Not a kid anymore, she is still good at that and you can be
so proud of her, so lucky you are!
Anyway, Paula, and Carl of course, have a great birthday. You will always have a special place of love in my heart and I wish you all the happiness in the world on this very special day for you.
Love you always.
Chris
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