Robert was named after his father and was an interesting combination of his mother's quick thinking and his father's quest for new things. After dropping out of school at grade ten he worked as a farm labourer for Hamilton's right in Kelso and soon married Ruth Fisk in the summer of 1944. Of his siblings Robert, whom everyone called Bert, would have three children all who would go to and graduate from college. He went to work on the Canadian National Railway and worked as a section man, foreman, roadmaster, Divisional Engineer and project manager. Hard working, skilled and creative Bert stayed with the railway until he retired. Ruth, after raising their three children entered the work force with a variety of jobs until Bert retired and together they traveled and enjoyed their family until her death after Christmas in 1993 from cancer. With Beatrice and her husband on their farm, Bert and his wife living in Kelso, Bob and Edith had Jean still living at home and the baby of the family Roy. Bob had not been feeling well for almost two years, complaining of stomach discomfort and the doctors in Wawota would see a lot of this man who seemed to be aging very quickly. It was discovered that he had cancer in his digestive tract and in 1948 it was a relief when his suffering ended. I am the little boy on the right aboard my wheels of the time and it is at that age that I remember Bob, my grandfather. He was not in my mind a very nice fellow, he was not feeling well and my endless questions did not always get answers, but it was still better to have talked to him, even though he was not well, then to never have met him. My brother Allan was born almost three years later, never having met his grandfather. The summer of 1948 was when Jean married a brilliant young man from a farm only a mile way from home. John and Jean Porter's wedding was the first wedding I can remember and it was their car that is imprinted on my memory. John is a skilled man, one of those guys who not only could make and fix things but knew how and why they worked. The car they drove away from their wedding that sunny day was one that he had made. It was a red roadster, like one you would see in a magazine only it was real, decorated with tin cans and a streamer or two. Together they farmed their land until only a decade ago when the land was donated to become a wildlife refuge and they now live in Moosmin. |