Now go back 100 years when this Great Grandma was not yet born – and her Great Grandma traveled to Canada from the USA. The mode was slow as it was a train from the Iowa area of the USA. They came on a slow moving train along the “Soo Line” up to southern Saskatchewan.
Can you imagine the changes that one century has made?My mom has seen a lot in her life time.
About a year ago we traveled a road in southern Saskatchewan. There was a dusty road long ago deserted for larger roads. There at the side of the road was a lonely grave yard that had been neglected over all these years. The grass was much higher than the tombstones. The likelihood that the people buried there were not forgotten by their loved ones, but that the loved ones are now all gone as well. The small stone buried in the long grass is all that is left.
Mom looked at the road along side the small grave plot and told me the story.
She and her brother were fighting in the back seat of the old 1929 car. Her dad was sick of it. He stopped the car and told the two of them to get out. He slammed the door and drove away. Mom’s voice trailed off as she remembered the heart breaking scene personally. She ran after the disappearing down the road car. She was crying her eyes out. Her brother on the other hand kicked the dirt hard with his old work boots and walked the other way away from the car.
Eventually her father stopped and turned around to go back and pickup the kids in the middle of the prairies. He needed both of them. My mom helped my grandmother in the kitchen and with the other little kids – she was the built in “nanny” as the oldest daughter. Grandpa needed his son who was a hard worker.
I wonder with the new regulations of C.A.S. we have now… what would have happened. Mom would be raised in foster care and so would her brother. Yikes – the thought is too weird.
So much has changed. Now at 87, Mom can travel still. Flying where she wants to fly. She is in and out of Toronto with us – no problem. She actually loves the action of the cars zooming by our vehicle. Kind of like a ride at an amusement park I think.
As I look at the difference a few short years has made in our lives I am amazed at the results. Mom has not only witnessed a lot but we have also. In my life there has been much that has changed. Having your grandchildren ask questions about the Old DAYS (which is their parent’s high school days) is too funny.
What have we lost in the process of going forward? For me it was an innocence, when things were so much slower and easier – at least it seemed it was.
As we drove to the airport yesterday we traveled by an area that we have not been through for years. In fact we went by the area that I first lived in – 42 years ago. The roads are bigger and much faster – but the small communities are still there. As we whizzed by so did my memories of that old days stuff.
How could I ever gain the old stuff back again?
When I have talked with my mom about this – she likes the “Now” better than the “Then” – except for missing certain people that were once there so large in her life.
As I looked at Mom in the car last night whizzing down the 401 Highway – dozing off a little – I wonder what I swill be doing in another 23 years. A Flying Great Grandpa – hmmm?
When my grandkids are being married in Singapore or Japan – will I be able to make it? When my grandkids take their first job in Africa will Alida and I be able to make over to see their amazing project that is saving thousands of people’s lives?
Today as Great Grandma Lincoln is sleeping in a little bit… I wonder.
God has been good to us… so very good.
~ Murray Lincoln ~
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