One of my cousins on my mother's side has made a play about our grandparents journey to Alberta, Canada. My children are in the middle of illustrating it and turning it into a movie. As I find the pieces on the internet that are mentioned in the story I start to find the pieces of a very interesting puzzle.
When I was a child I only saw this little old lady with long grey hair that was turned into a bun on her head. It was important to my parents that we did visit her, and our cousins as we were growing up no matter where we lived. We went to Alberta many summers from Ontario, and Manitoba. I did not realize the price of the gas, or the food needed for the journey. We knew it was a boring trip though and not always willing to "enjoy" the ride. But we did it.
When we were little I don't think grandma was ready to tell us the tale of her migration. Or maybe we did not know what to ask in her in German. She kept her German language even though she was born in Russia and had lived in Canada for over 50 years. Crazy lady. But she did not need too much English as her community all spoke German as well.
We now know how determined she really was in coming to Canada with her husband, my grandfather. They had to bribe the officials to allow them to go. It took my grandfather 6 trips that were 1 week long in order to get the proper papers signed and sealed. This was back in 1925-1926. Her brother had gone 15 years before her and was willing to sponsor them.
Why would my grandmother not tell us their tale? We all wanted to know. So we had all made up our own story to tell our children of how we got to where we are today. But the play was really fascinating. We keep reading it each month and the kids are getting more familiar with the people and the events of the story.
It is a different way to value them and other family members.
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