Family Observations ~ Section 2

When my children were being raised, I exposed them to various activities within the community, church and home. ...musicals and stage plays...to sports and church he attended a few years ago.

The Merry Widow: It is a bit of twisted irony that by sheer coincidence to select at one time this musical. I did see it once before with you, so, today, I share the following experience.

“A large pastoral family with nine children visited my church a few years ago. They had seven children then: five daughters and had two sons. Now it is seven daughters and two sons. Their oldest child, now nineteen years old, just recently married in June this year.

“Six weeks later, on her nineteenth birthday at the end of July, she drove her husband to the hospital with dizziness and a splitting headache, Turned out, he had an advanced brain tumor. They saw a specialist and on September 3, he had brain surgery to remove the tumor. Two weeks later, they were told it was malignant..He has brain cancer. This month he has started six weeks of daily radiation therapy on his brain.

“Meanwhile, the nineteen-year-old bride is struggling with the frightening thought that he may not make it to Christmas ~ and it will be a miracle if he makes it to their first anniversary.

Her mother started an online fundraiser to help pay their living expenses, when neither is working
and having to stay in downtown Toronto for daily treatment at Princess Margaret. The $10,000 goal was met in under 48 hours ...and the fund now has over $13,000. I'm not asking you to contribute to the campaign, ~ as it is well funded ~ but just showing you : that this lovely young bride may very well be a teenage widow within a few months. When I read that news, with great pathos which preyed on my mind ... I couldn't help thinking about this musical. I'm like that!”

Northwest Passage: A recent conversation we had was about this highly contested development in Canada’s Northland with many responses. Due to climate change, all this is now possible. For the past couple years, passengers have enjoyed cruising from the Pacific to Atlantic Ocean. Further, to our conversation, my son wrote Here's a little article I submitted to a political page...which you might like.

“Recently, I viewed an interesting video about Canada becoming a 'world trade hub' by virtue of controlling the Northwest Passage. Most marine traffic between Europe and Asia uses Panama. It's convenient , but it's expensive. It's cheaper than going around South America. And because it requires locks over land, it is a bottleneck. The summer months make the Northwest Passage navigable..and ships stay close to land.

Canada is in a position to build shipping ports on the north coast to service this trade route. The upside is that it is a shorter sea route between Europe and Asia ...open salt water...all the way (no locks)..and politically that it could become a major trade route. As this becomes viable , it will greatly advance mainland northern development requiring road and rail access to seaports. For example, there is a permanent road access to Inuvik, and now to Tuktoyakuk. This area could become a northern seaport. I would like to hear a politician comment on this future development.”

Assembled July 19, 2020
by Merle Baird-Kerr