family photos

Yesterday, I was at my mother's home and we were going through some  family photos of my dad. I guess some of them dated back to the 1900's. Some of the photos were on "postcards" or postcard paper. It was thicker then the printing paper. I guess that is another way to conserve money, time and trees.
My father's mother was born in Canada and grew  up in Saskatchewan. She was the eldest daughter, so she was nominated to be the family caretaker for  the next 7 children. Then when she met my grandfather she had 6 of her own. Again she was the main care-giver as he was away during the week working on the Canadian Pacific Railway. They had tried farming when the family was small but when the tornado took the house it was time to move. Or so the story goes.
When they moved to town they had bought a 3 bedroom house in the "valley" (it was actually the flood plain of the South Saskatchewan River.) But half of the town lived there and it was sort of protected from the prairie winds.  So the 3 boys were in the one room and the 3 girls in the other. Until my father moved into the "storage room".
My grandmother had the lawn removed from around the house and put in a garden. At some point the house behind them burnt down, and my grandfather bought the land and the garden was extended.  That was her occupation. There is one photo of this wonderful garden.
Medicine Hat, Alberta is not known for gardens. It is a very dry climate due to the prairie winds. But she tended the garden very well. She grew things that grew well in her location. I think I saw a lot of bean poles in the photo. I remember the raspberries. I think this is where she found her pumpkins for her family-famous pumpkin cookies. I am not sure what else she grew.
I am sure this garden is gone now and returned to grass. My dad was the second youngest and he graduated high school in 1957.  So the large garden would have been in use from 1944-1959.
One photo of her work remains. And yet the memory remains forever.