Tag: 52 Ancestors

52W Mark III – Week 24: Hard Times

It was through hard times that my grandfather came to own his first dog.

My grandfather, Adrianus “Arie” van der Fluit (1923 – 2002), loved dogs. When he was a teen in the Netherlands, he supplemented his income training dogs. After moving to Canada, in the 1950s and 1960s, he even trained dogs for the police. As long as I can remember, my grandfather always had at least one dog, usually a German shepherd. My favourite was Sheba, the first dog of his that I’m able to remember. He had dogs until the day he died at age 79, still training them even after he lost his foot due to complications associated with diabetes.

My grandfather with Sheba, sometime around 1970.

While I would have thought he had a dog ever since he was little, he told me that he did not have one until he was fifteen. It came to be during, and because of, hard times – the Great Depression. However, based on the story he told me, my grandfather could have gotten his first dog anytime after he was eight to when he was in his late teens.

Arie’s father, Johannis Albertus van der Fluit (1894 – 1932) died when my grandfather was eight years old. His mother, Theresia “Teetje” Pater was left a widow. Sometime after Johannis died, Teetje’s younger brother Johannes “Jan” Pater (1900 – 1948) moved in with the family. I always understood it was soon after Johannis died, which would make sense. Teetje was left a widow at age 37, with eight children. I am sure it would have been of great help if Jan moved in with his sister as soon as her need arose.

My grandfather in the Netherlands, a few months before he married my grandmother.

Jan had a dog, but Arie’s mother detested dogs. She insisted the dog go. However, because of the depression, it was difficult to even give a pet away as it was too expensive to keep one fed. Jan decided to drown the dog. Arie witnessed this. He swore to himself that no dog would suffer with him around, so he even got himself one.

This, of course, caused a conflict with Arie’s mother. She refused to allow a dog in her household, so Arie moved out. As his two older brothers were out of the house, and the other children were too young, Arie was the primary breadwinner for the household. Faced with the loss of the family’s main income, after a few weeks Arie’s mother relented and allowed the dog in the house.

Needless to say, the timeline is a bit problematic. If Jan moved in with his sister’s family shortly after Johannis died, my grandfather’s story would have taken place before he was ten years old. The most apparent way to reconcile the chronology is if Jan moved in with his sister when Arie was 15, around 1938. I don’t know much about Jan and I don’t know of any life events that would have caused him to move in with Teetje other than the death of her husband. Jan never married, so I can rule out him becoming widowed as a catalyst for change. The depression was still causing hard times – with harder times shortly over the horizon – so that part of the story still works.

My grandfather in Raymond, Alberta, in September 1999, age 76, with Dekker, along with my brother Trevor.

52W Mark III – Week 23: Health

While I descend from a long line of farmers and labourers, I sure have a lot of healthcare providers in my family tree!

I’ve written about my grandmother, Helen Lerner, who ended up becoming a hospital lab technician instead of attending Normal School to become a teacher. I’ve also written about my great great grandmother, Ella Thomas, who was a midwife for over 40 years. I have a sibling who is a physician, and her mother-in-law is also a prominent well-known physician. One of my siblings is a pharmacist. I have two aunts who were nurses. I have a sister-in-law who works in healthcare public policy and another who is a nurse practitioner specializing in mental health. Even my occupation is part of the healthcare system.

Helen Lerner, Hospital Lab Technician
Ella Thomas, Midwife

My wife’s family is also replete with people in the healthcare industry. There are numerous physicians in her maternal line, including her great grandfather who was a colleague of Dr. Frederick Banting, who co-discovered insulin. In fact, his daughter was one of Dr. Banting’s first patients to receive the medication. Many of the physicians in my wife’s tree served as medics in World Wars One and Two. Her grandmother also drove ambulance for the Red Cross during World War Two.

My own mother went into nursing. However, she was only in the training program for four months. She had to leave the program because at the time you could not be married or have children. That was about to change. My parents married after my mother left the program, and I came along not too much later.

My mother in nursing school

52W Mark III – Week 22: Creativity

In addition to being a scientist, my Aunt Diana was also liked to create. My mother has several of her paintings hanging in my parents’ home. In addition to amazing books and sciency items, gifts from Aunt Diana would occasionally be pieces of art.

I don’t have any photos of Aunt Diana’s paintings (I’ll have to rectify that next time I visit my parents), but I do have some of the little art pieces she gave to me when I was a kid. However, in going to find them, I came across these pysanky – Easter eggs – my great aunt Connie made.

Aunt Connie is my mother’s last living aunt. She was married to Ralph Burgess (1935-1999), my grandpa Leo Burgess’s youngest brother.

Until recent years, Aunt Connie made pysanky – Easter eggs. While associated with Ukraine, pysanky are common to many slavic cultures. I have not researched Aunt Connie’s lineage, but if memory serves her heritage includes Germans from Russia, people from the various German states who settled in the Russian Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. This included colonies in what is now Ukraine.

Writing about Aunt Connie, I am reminded of two things. First, she also made some of the most delicious sausage I’ve ever eaten. Second, I owe her a letter!

52W Mark III – Week 21: Nickname

Usually a nickname comes after one acquires their real name. Not always!

When my sister was expecting her first child, I became a little annoyed with referring to the baby-to-be as “it”. I decided to give the anticipated bundle of joy a nickname. So “it” became “Zeus”. Zeus was on my mind because of a fake TV show that was a bit on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Much to my surprise, it stuck.

“Satellite TV Channels – Not Cool Zeus“

Ever since then, we’ve had nicknames for all the expected siblings and nibblings. When my sister was expecting her youngest, she went with “Neptune” sticking with the theme of Greek and Roman gods.

With our eldest, we once again found inspiration in late night talk shows. One of our favourite chat shows was The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. We particularly loved his cold openings featuring a menagerie of puppets. One was a pig by the name of Gustave Flaubert. Another was a crocodile by the name of Wavy Rancheros. Thus was born the nickname “Wavy Flaubert” – Flaubert for short. Even after our eldest was born, it took us a few weeks to choose a name, so in the interim we continued to use the name “Flaubert”.

When our next child came along, there were a few contenders. However, what stuck was “Mr. Baby”, selected by our eldest. “What if Mr. Baby is a girl?”, we asked. “MR. BABY” was the adamant response. At least it was better than the alternate suggestion: “Salami”.

Mr. Baby it was.