Mom's Recipes

Mom was a very good cook. Some of the dishes she made were unique to her, as she had adapted them from English ingredients, or made them up.

Mom used to say that the only thing she knew how to make when she got married was white sauce. She said if one could make that then one could make anything. She made sure that all of us knew how to make it. Take butter and melt it. The amount depends on how much sauce you want. Add flour (enough so it feels right, Mom never measured) and salt and pepper. Gradually add milk, stirring constantly over medium heat until it is cooked and boiling.

Dad loved pastry, but for years Mom could not make it. She used to try to put a pastry topping on the steak and kidney, and it always sank. Dad used to tease her about it, and she grew very discouraged. Then one day she discovered a recipe for never fail pastry in a cookbook Susan's grade 5 class put together for a fundraiser. She used that recipe from that time on, and made great pastry. Every Christmas the house was filled with mince tarts, pies, and other good things. Dad was particularly fond of custard pie.

Pastry

1lb lard (crisco)

5c flour

1/2tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1 egg

3/4 c water

Sift salt, b. powder, flour into large bowl. Cut in lard until fine like bread crumbs. Add egg and water. May be kept in refrigerator until ready.

Baked pie shell 400 8-9 min.

Custard Pie

4 eggs

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 tsp salt

2 1/2 c. milk

nutmeg

Beat eggs. Add sugar and salt. Gradually add milk. Sprinkle nutmeg on top after pouring into unbaked pie shell.

450 - 15 minutes

325 - 25 to 30 min.

Something else Mom made at Christmas was chestnut sauce. I don't know where she got the recipe. She made it in England and in Canada. It was something she always made, and seemed to be unique to our family. No one else I know makes it. Getting chestnuts in Canada was a bit of a struggle. Mom used to buy them as soon as they came into the store and store them in a cool dry place as they seemed to spoil very quickly in the store. Here's how she made it.

Take a few pounds of chestnuts. Pierce them with a paring knife and boil them in a pot of water for about 20 minutes. Then peel them while they are still hot. This is painful, and they get under your fingernails. Cut them up, and simmer them in milk until tender. Be careful not to boil them in the milk as they will curdle. You will have to keep adding milk as they cook as they thicken. When they are soft and ready, add the juice of a lemon and serve hot with the turkey. Chestnut sauce is also very good cold.

In England Dad used to roast chestnuts in the fireplace on a shovel. They were a treat in the early winter.

Mom always made a trifle at Christmas time. She would take a jelly roll sponge cake, cut it up and put it on the bottom of an 8X8 glass dish. Then she sprinkled a fairly liberal amount of sherry over the cake and let that soak in. Then she added nuts and a can (drained) of fruit cocktail. Then she mixed up a recipe of Birds Custard powder and poured that over, and then covered it with red jelly made with the drained juice from the fruit cocktail as the liquid. She let it set, then covered it with whipping cream and decorated with mandarin oranges, cherries, nuts etc.

She made mince tarts using a jar of mincemeat, but adding sherry, and jam and lemon curd tarts as well.

Mom always did as much of the cooking for Christmas as possible the day before, so she could enjoy Christmas Day with the family, not spend the whole day in the kitchen.

Christmas Dinner

Another dish unique to Mom was Skinny Pancakes. These were a favourite, much preferred to the usual thick pancakes. My kids would not eat the thick ones, only these.

3 eggs

3/4 c. flour

1 c milk

pinch salt

Beat eggs slightly with salt. Add milk and beat again. Sift flour into milk and egg mixture. Beat a little. Let stand 20 min to 1/2 hour. Pour small amounts at a time into hot oil, moving the pan around to cover the bottom of the pan with the mixture. Turn when brown. Sprinkle with lemon juice and sugar, roll up with a fork and eat immediately.

Fritters

3 eggs

1 c milk

1 1/4 c flour

pinch salt

Beat together and dip bananas or apples in and brown in hot oil.

Mock Roast potatoes were another Sunday dinner favourite. She would peel potatoes and boil them, then brown them until they were crunchy and crisp in the deep fryer. Probably not the healthiest, but really good.

We also enjoyed parsnips roasted alongside the meat.

Mom made stuffing for the turkey and cooked it in a casserole with the meat, not inside the bird as we did not like it soggy. She took breadcrumbs, onion, celery, apple and applesauce. Added an egg, sage, thyme, poultry seasoning, salt pepper, parsly flakes. Mixed it all up and poured some drippings over and baked it for about an hour.

Steak and Kidney was another favourite. People in Canada thought eating kidneys was disgusting, but everyone who tried steak and kidney liked it.

Take a beef kidney, cut out the white stuff and cut it into bite sized pieces. Cut the fat off a largish piece of round steak and cut it into bite sized pieces. Dredge both meats in flour and put into a casserole dish. Cover with water and cook in a very slow oven for several hours until tender and brown. It also works well in a slow cooker for 10 hours or so. Just before serving, add some frozen peas if you like, and salt and pepper to taste.

If you want a pastry top, put it in a casserole dish with something to vent the steam. Cut pastry to fit the dish and bake in a hot oven until the pastry is done, about 15 to 20 minutes. Mom used a white ceramic elephant to vent the steam. It stood on four legs and the vent was his trunk turned up. I loved it and looked everywhere for it but it was not to be found.

Sweet Bread is the thymus gland of young beef. Canadians thought it disgusting to eat, but to us they are a treat. Mom used to boil them, then remove them from the membrane that encased them, and cook them in a thin white sauce with some mushrooms. They were hard to find, and I haven't seen them in years.

Mom never threw out a chicken or turkey carcass without making stock out of it. She would use the pressure cooker to get a rich stock that she then used in a number of recipes.

Mom made a delicious and unique chicken or turkey curry. She would make a roux of butter and flour, add curry powder (Enough to make it spicy), and add chicken stock to make a thin sauce. Then she added onions, celery, apples, raisins, and leftover chicken or turkey.

Another use for leftover chicken or turkey was pilaf. She would saute some chicken livers in butter, add celery and onion, and chicken or turkey stock. Then add about a half cup of rice and simmer until the moisture was absorbed. Then she would usually add a can of cream of chicken or mushroom soup to cut the bitter taste.

The family favourite for the leftover chicken or turkey was stew. She would make a roux of the fat and some flour, add stock, salt and pepper and whatever spices she felt like using (parsley, sometimes sage etc) until it was a thin gravy and tasted good, and then add potatoes, peas, carrots, leftover gravy, leftover vegetables, meat, parsnips, and sometimes a can of cream of chicken soup, or other cream soup; and serve with bread and butter. Mmmm good.

In England Mom used to grind up the leftover roast beef and mix it with mashed potatoes and some spices, make patties, brown them and call them rissoles. They were very good. In Canada she browned hamburger to make them.

She also made fishcakes in much the same way with leftover fish and mashed potatoes.

Shepherd's pie was another favourite. Mom would brown hamburger, mix it with a can of mushroom soup, and some frozen peas. She would mash some potatoes, beat in an egg and some butter and milk and put it on top, dob it withsome butter and sprinkle it with parsly and put it in the oven at about 350 until it was hot and brown and crispy on top.

One of the favourite desserts was rice pudding. Mom never measured anything. She would sprinkle some short grain pear rice in a pan, add milk, butter and sugar, and put it in a slow oven until it cooked. Every once in a while she would add some more milk if it was drying out, and stir it around under the crust. It developed a rich brown crust on the top, and tasted absolutely wonderful. I have tried and tried to make it, but it has never turned out as good as Mom's.

Family Memories: Weslaco and Rock Glen

Weslaco is a city in South east Texas, near the Mexican border. Howard Hall was living part time in Weslaco. He told Mom and Dad they could buy a trailer there cheaply and they bought a house trailer and moved into a trailer park community. Orange and grapefruit trees grew in the yard outside the house. Dad of course re built and renovated the trailer extensively. They made lots of friends in the community and Mom got involved in line dancing. She loved it. One year there was a big parade and the line dancing club danced on a large float. Mom had to purchase her first ever pair of blue jeans to line dance.

The trailer in Weslaco

Inside the renovated trailer

Graham and Marsha were living in Austin and they visited each other frequently in Weslaco and Austin; spending Christmases and Thanksgiving together. They traveled together to Mexico. Marsha and Mom became very close friends who enjoyed each other’s company very much. On trips they spent many hours laughing and talking in the back seat of the car. Dad used to call it nattering in the back.

Marsha says in Weslaco Mum used to take a daily walk around the grounds and the neighbors would ask where she was going so fast and comment on her stride. She'd come home and prepare lunch for Dad to send him off to his bridge game for which he won a plaque one year. They both would go swimming every afternoon. They loved to eat at their favorite all you can eat Chinese Buffet in town.

When Graham and Marsha came to visit they always went to Safeway where they had befriended the fish monger and he would always save them some choice pieces of fresh fish. Then Dad would crank up the grill and stir fry the veggies. They insisted that Marsha season the fish with Marsha Mix which was just whatever she happened to throw together but they thought it was a special recipe so Dad insisted that she make it.

One day would always be devoted to shopping for Mum's kitch in Progresso Mexico. Dad hated that but they would temper the ordeal with margaritas and nachos at this little place at the end of town where all the snow birds hung out.

They had a very active lifestyle there and enjoyed good health in the sun. They had several friends down there and had a great garden with grapefruit size lemon trees. Marsha and Graham loved visiting them and having Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners there although Marsha nearly choked Dad one night cooking turkey stock which he doesn't like and letting it simmer for hours through the living room where they slept when Graham and Marsha were there.

Marsha and Graham went to visit one Thanksgiving, and contracted Howard Hall, and Howard bought the materials and built a deck for them as a surprise when they went back at Christmas time. Marsha and Graham bought them the swing shown above, and drove it to Wesalco in pieces in their car. I gather it was a rather uncomfortable ride among the hard metal pieces of swing.

Beginning in the Dominican Republic and continuing in Texas with Graham and Marsha’s assistance they began cooking and eating in a different more healthy way. Mom had to change her eating patterns because of her diabetes, so they ate less rich and fatty foods. Mom stopped making the rich sauces and things, and they made more stir fries and vegetables and used different spices. They learned to love Cilantro in the Dominican Republic, and grew it in Rock Glen. They even learned to love garlic!

I remember being quite shocked to see them using garlic cloves, and the house smelling of it. While I was younger, they had refused to eat it, and claimed to hate it. (We had always been amused when in a restaurant they would be brought a dish reeking of garlic and eat it all up).

While living in Bienfait, Mom had been a regular viewer of a daytime TV show called “The Galloping Gourmet”. The chef was a character named Graeme Kerr, who used a lot of wine and was really quite funny. Mom had tried for months to get Dad to watch it. Well, one day Dad sat down to watch the show. Darned if the fellow didn’t proceed to take a leg of lamb and smother it in garlic! Dad was horrified. Sacrilege!

Mom tells the story of travelling in Mexico and overhearing some Mexicans speaking rather derogatory remarks in Spanish. Mom turned and spoke to them in Spanish to show she could understand them.

In Monterray

They purchased a huge boat of a Cadillac and drove back and forth between Weslaco and Rock Glen every spring and fall. They avoided the larger cities and freeways. They learned how to accommodate the need for proper morning tea with a kettle, and purchasing milk in small containers and keeping it fresh in the ice bucket in the motel.

The Cadillac. Mom never liked this car she thought it was too big.

Graham and Marsha tell the story of once Mom was driving this car, which she did not like to do. She was weaving all over the road because she could not comfortably control the car. She was pulled over by a police officer, who had her undergo a Breathalyzer test because he thought she was driving drunk!

Rock Glen

I began taking Sarah and Cameron and Michael to Rock Glen every summer to spend some time with the grandparents and cousins. Michael remembers visiting Grandma for the endless supply of Revellos in the freezer. Sarah went downtown one day and came back to declare "There's nothing there but two strip malls".

John and Andrea and Carolyn began going for visits in the summer time as well. Andrea and Carolyn enjoyed being able to write on the walls at Susan and Al's home as it had been stripped to the wall boards for the renovations.

They bought a “shack” in Rock Glen across the back alley from Susan and Al’s house. The kids went back and forth visiting Grandma Tobelito.

Sydney and Grandma share an ice cream cone

Susan and Al were very involved in scouting with the kids, and went to Scout Camp Pianu at Moose Mountain Provincial Park every summer. One year Mom and Dad went with them.

Having Mom and Dad so close was not without its frustrations. Mom sometimes used to get anxious when asked to do something, and wanted to get things just right. Once Susan needed a large quantity of ice cubes for an event the scouts were catering as a fund raiser. She asked Mom to help her make ice cubes. Well, she soon wished she hadn't asked as Mom wanted detailed instructions: "How many ice cubes?" "How big do you need them?" "What size bags?" "Are these OK?" The questions never stopped until Susan was ready to scream "It's just Ice Cubes"

At Pianu

Dad of course renovated the shack and turned it into a cozy home. Mom surrounded it with flowers and they built a huge vegetable garden, growing their favourites, broad beans, runner beans, potatoes, eggplant, pickling onions, beets and sugar peas. They would work together every fall, freezing them all. Mom loved all kinds of flowers except white ones. She always said white flowers reminded her of funerals. She hung up bird feeders for the finches and doves and other birds and enjoyed watching them.

The "shack"

The garden

Mom kept up her exercise program. Every morning she went for a long walk, up the hill, across the top, and down again. When I visited I would go with her. “Come on” she’d say “I go quickly”. She took on the job of cutting the rather large amount of lawn, using a lawnmower Dad called her “Exercise Machine”

Mom's exercise machine

Mom soon got to know everyone in Rock Glen. She made friends with Claudette the librarian and with the hairdresser. Dad particularly like the local co-op where he purchased lumber, hardware, and everything else he needed for his projects. He helped Susan and Al finish the renovations on their home in Rock Glen; building the kitchen cupboards and cabinetry in Christopher and Gregory’s room.

Dad had always hated Revenue Canada, and had such a bad experience with the pictures in Weyburn. So when he received a notice in the mid 1990's that his Income Tax was to be audited he was worried and angry and grumbled at length. A couple months later he was thrilled to receive a check in the mail for about $5500.00! Well, the same thing happened the following year, and again he grumbled about Mr Bloodsucker thinking that his rebate from last year would be clawed back. Darned if he didn't get $7200.00 that year. Well, when it happened again, and again he got a large rebate, he began to look forward to getting audited. Apparently, he got audited about 5 years in a row, and got a rebate each year; and then Revenue Canada gave up. Dad changed accountants as well, because the one he was using was obviously missing things.

They met a woman called Renie. She was a very interesting person, who had served in the WRAF in Britain in WW11, in communications. As enough time had passed and the events were no longer secret, Renie was able to tell them of how she had intercepted German communications, and been a part of secret communications for the Allies. They became very good friends and visited her frequently. Renie was an avid gardener both of indoor and outdoor plants and gave Mom perennials and African Violets.

In 1999 Graham and Marsha came to Saskatchewan for a visit. We held a family gathering at my house in Regina. Everyone except Carolyn and Andrea were able to come. It was the first time in a very long time that so many of the family were able to be together. Graham got special T-shirts made up and we all wore them.

The T-shirt

The family

Dad got rid of the Cadillac and they purchased a 1990 Oldsmobile. Both Mom and Dad loved this car. It was very smooth to ride in and to drive. Mom felt comfortable driving this car.

Dad had experienced problems with his back for many years. Finally he had to have an operation called a laminectomy. He had this in Regina and experienced first hand the frustrations of the health system from the other side of the bed. He showed up for the operation, was prepped and ready to go for surgery and then got bumped. Mom and I had gone shopping, and poor Dad had to wait in the hospital til he got hold of Cameron who took a bus up to get him as we had the car. Then a few weeks later he finally had the surgery, and on the day he was discharged from the hospital put aside the walker he had been lent and decided to take a sledgehammer to posts in the garden.

Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He saw a specialist in Saskatoon and decided against invasive measures. He used to say that most men his age had prostate cancer, and it was a very slow growing condition. He always said he would die from some other condition than the cancer. He accepted a hormone treatment, and the cancer went into remission for many years.

He had cataract surgery on one eye in 2003. Mom was driving him back from the hospital in Moose Jaw following the surgery, and they stopped for gas at the co-op where Susan was working. He looked at her face, saw a mark and said "that's cancer" It was a basil cell carcinoma, (rodent ulcer), and benign, but it freaked Susan out. She had it removed a few weeks later.

With Dad’s mechanical and technical abilities, one would have thought he would be a natural for computers, but not so. He was not really interested in acquiring a computer or the knowledge to use one, and resisted it. This all changed one day when they were visiting me and I happened to be playing Scrabble on the computer. That was it, they began using the computer, and Dad built a computer desk in the spare bedroom that he had converted into an office.

The computer desk

The “shack” had a shed, which Dad turned into a workshop. He began renovating it to make a studio for Mom to practice her line dancing in the summer time. Unfortunately he was not to finish this project before Mom passed away.

Mom became noticeably ill in July 2003. I went down to visit them for the long weekend. She seemed fine and we took “Mom’s walk” as usual. The next weekend John and Betty Lou went down and Mom’s legs were sore, and she did not take her usual walk. By the next week she was in bed, and strange looking nodules began erupting. Mom called them “scary noodles”. Dad and Dr. Carulei took a biopsy. She was referred to hospital in Moose Jaw, and got sicker and sicker. The whole family came and stayed with her at the hospital. It was a very emotional time for us all. Mom grew weaker and was in a lot of pain. Dad signed a DNR order. On August 1 she died.

We organized a memorial service in the garden at Rock Glen, among the flowers and birds she loved so much. It was a very sad day.

Mom's Service

Memory table at the Hall

Dad was devastated. It was by far and away the worst thing to happen in his life. He sank into a terrible depression, from which he never really recovered. He did become interested in converting his photographs from black and white negatives on to the computer (the source of most of the pictures included here). Then Susan introduced him to Internet Bridge. He became addicted, and as “witchdoctor” he was on the computer every day playing bridge. He met a woman from Iowa named Sally, and developed a friendship with her. She was a rather strange person, an alcoholic and very controlling. To me she represented every negative stereotype of American women. Graham and Marsha referred to her as "the smoking drunk". The rest of the family did not like her at all, but she did help to bring Dad partially out of the terrible depression.

But he was never really the same. He went on a cruise with Sally and broke his hip in Rome. He stayed with me for a while, and then he and Gregory shared a suite in Regina. He broke his second hip visiting in Iowa a couple of years later.

We had been worried about his driving for some time as he was becoming increasingly confused on the road. He was followed home by a police officer one day, and then received a letter saying he had to take a driving test. Gregory tried hard to teach him the rules of the road, but he failed the test and lost his license. It was a major blow to his independence, but necessary for his and other people's safety.

After he broke his second hip he needed more care and moved into a care home. He recognized that he needed the care, but it was not what he wanted. For Dad this was his worst nightmare come true. He had always dreaded being old and helpless. When living in Weyburn he had sometimes filled in for the doctor at Souris Valley Hospital, formerly the Saskatchewan Hospital, a psychiatric institution; but by then a level IV nursing care home. Dad hated going there and seeing the people "lined up like sausages" along the hallways. He always used to say "hit me over the head with a hammer before you put me in one of those places". He recognized though that he needed the care, and that the staff at the care home were very good.

Dad with two of the staff, Dindin and Florinda

The staff were very kind. They enjoyed him because he was pleasant and respectful. Most of the staff were new Canadians, many from the Phillipines. This created some misunderstandings in communication, particularly with some of the expressions commonly used. One day Dad told the staff he had to "spend a penny". We all know that means he needed to use the washroom, but the Phillipino staff were very confused, wondering why he wanted to go and spend money suddenly. Dad's friend Sally happened to call just then and explained the mystery.

The prostate cancer he had been treating with hormones for years mestasticized. He gradually declined and became weaker. He still had good days though when he would remember things that had happened. He was always pleased to hear of trips that we were taking, especially to the Caribbean. He remained courteous and never complained, even when he must have been in pain. He slept more and more. One of the care home workers, Mu Thu, commented "Nice man, but sleepy".

As he grew weaker, his care became too much for the care home staff to manage, and on July 9 he was transferred to the hospital, where he was placed in Palliative care. He was calm, and we played his favourite Mozart on the stereo for him, and put a picture of Mom where she could watch over him. On July 12, Susan and I visited him, and as we were leaving, he mouthed "Love You". The next morning we were called up to the hospital, but by the time we got there he had gone. We were sad, but we knew he was with Mom, and that was what he wanted.

Family Memories: The Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is the eastern 2/3 of the island of Hispaniola. The other 1/3 is Haiti. It is a lush, green tropical rainforest. The land is very fertile. Dad used to say if you stuck a stick in the ground it would grow. The people speak Spanish. They had never seen snow. I sent a picture of Cameron playing in the snow wearing a snowsuit, and the children asked Mom "What's that white stuff?"

What's That White Stuff"

It is a poor country, but Mom and Dad always said the people were very happy. The Dominican Republic has a troubled history of Dictators and corruption, but is much better off than Haiti, which Dad used to describe as “wall to wall starving people”.

Cabarete

They moved to a little town called Cabarete on the North Shore of the Island, near Puerto Plata. The first home in the Dominican Republic was The Little Round House. They rented it from Gwen and Tony. Gwen and Tony were a couple who ran a real estate business in Cabarete. They quickly made friends in Cabarete among both Gringos (fellow ex pats) and Dominicans. There was a large gringo community living in Cabarete and nearby Sosua; and the North coast of the island is a favourite holiday spot for Dominicans from Santo Domingo as well.

The Round House

Gwen and Tony

They loved the Dominican people. Some of their fellow expats were a little surprised at them learning Spanish and finding friends among the Dominicans, but anyone who knew Mom and Dad would not have been surprised.

Dad found himself with the unusual task of leading funerals for people in the Gringo community who passed away down there. He was a little puzzled by this as he was never a particularly religious or even spiritual person, but people turned to him to lead the service when someone passed away. He said he used the Lord’s Prayer and the 23^rd Psalm.

Life in the DR

Mom learned Spanish quickly, but also used her sense of fun to communicate. Once early on in their stay there they flew into a little airport. The soldiers there were asking them how they flew such a little plane over the ocean and what happened if they crashed. Mom crossed herself and put her hands together in front of her chest, miming “pray”. The soldiers cracked up laughing.

Dad kept busy doing a little doctoring, a little veterinary work, and soon began using his plane to fly private charters. He flew people all over the Caribbean, even into Haiti, which he hated. This was not quite legal as he did not have a license to fly charters, but the passengers all knew to say they were friends or relatives. Once he flew a couple of young German girls around and when asked by officials, they declared Dad was their Uncle. I don’t know if the officials wondered why the Uncle and his nieces spoke a different language.

Dad got into trouble one day. He got into a dispute with someone who said he had not paid for some part for the plane. After Dad left this person apparently went to the authorities and made a complaint. Dad was heading to the Bahamas. When he got there he was arrested and thrown into jail. He spent a very uncomfortable night in jail until the matter was sorted out. When he got home his friends brought him cakes with files in them and made great fun of him for being a jailbird.

Friends

Living in the Dominican Republic was an adventure, and they had to get used to living with a few less amenities than we are used to in Canada. The mail service was unreliable at best and non existent a lot of the time. Phone service was also difficult. The power supply was unreliable and Dad had a back up generator for the fridge and other necessities. They got used to spending a lot of their time without power, and became very good scrabble players as they played a lot of scrabble by candle light.

They were highly amused by the Dominican “ambulance”, which consisted of someone being carried on the back of a motorcycle. They told of seeing motorcycles being driven along with a passenger holding on to an IV pole.

After a few years in the Round House, they built Castillo De Las Flores. This was a large house, and quite a major project. Dad built two houses on the property, a small one for their Dominican staff, and the big one. They lived in the small one while their house was being finished, then their staff, Anna and her husband Victor and their two children Rafalito and his sister (shown in the picture of the Round House) moved in. Dad hired an architect and a crew of labourers; and learned about construction, Dominican style. He had to learn his way around the Dominican bureaucracy as well for all the necessary papers and permits. The Dominican system is quite corrupt, and he had to learn who and how to bribe to get what he needed. The house grew quickly, and they moved in.

Building the house

The house was large and quite luxurious. It also had a suite that they rented to tourists who came to stay. They met some very interesting people that way. They would take them around and show them the country.

Castillo De Las Flores

Mom with shell

The house was right on the beach. Every day Mom walked for miles along that beach. She bathed in the rock pools, and searched for shells. Dad swam in the ocean and scuba dived.

Dad took this picture story of Mom. There was a rock pool where she loved to relax. As you can see, one day her relaxation was rudely interrupted.

The architect was busy with other projects and Dad had to finish the house himself. Once the house was finished, Dad had a trained work crew and a workshop that he had built. He was asked to complete the cabinetry for a small hotel that was being built nearby. That project was completed, and soon led to more, and before he knew it he had a thriving business on his hands.Between the woodworking business and the charter flying, he said he made more money down there than he had doctoring. However, he was not allowed to keep the money and Tony kept it for him. Unfortunately Tony ran into difficulties, and Dad’s money disappeared. (Remember what Dad said about a good doctor and a poor businessman?)

They adopted a dog named Lobo.

Mom and Dad were happy in their community and felt totally safe among the Dominican people, many of whom they considered friends. They loved the simple lifestyle the people lived. Mom did say, though, that it was a rather sexist society. The men pretty much did what they wanted, and the women held the household together. Dad found his workforce would work very hard until payday, and then they would take their checks and drink and spend the money on themselves. They did not seem to see a need to provide for their families. For the most part, the land supplied their needs. They built their own homes out of whatever was available, and grew gardens, and their chief diet was rice and beans, so their needs were few.

A Dominican Wedding

Mom and Dad were rather disdainful of the all inclusive gated hotels down there. They felt that people who stayed in them were missing the opportunity to get to know the people and the country. They thought people’s fears were being whipped up by the hotel owners and people were encouraged to believe they should not venture out of these gated hotels alone. Once they learned some people they knew from Weyburn were staying in one of these hotels nearby. They went and “rescued” them, taking them home and showing them around so they could see the Dominican Republic Mom and Dad had come to know and love. The people were very grateful.

At first they stayed in the Dominican Republic year round. Then the rules for continuing their Saskatchewan health coverage changed and they would lose their health coverage if they did not spend some time in Saskatchewan every year. They began coming back to Canada for the summer months.

Dad did “locums”, meaning he would fill in for a doctor while the doctor was away on holiday. He did locums in Rock Glen, and Bengough for a few years. He was not really happy with the state medicine had reached in Saskatchewan by then, almost everything was referred to specialists, and to the hospitals in the larger centres. He found he did not do as much hands on doctoring. He was rather dismayed by the amount of drugs that were being prescribed particularly for older people. When the resident doctors returned, they often found that their patients prescriptions had been severely cut back, and the patients were feeling much better for it.

Dad was always a good diagnostician. Christopher had been suffering from a recurrent stomach ailment, and would have periods when he would suddenly throw up, and could not be moved. The doctor had not been able to figure out the problem. Dad was doing a locum in Rock Glen, and Susan described the condition over the phone. Dad immediately diagnosed juvenile migraines. He taught Christopher hypnosis to deal with it, and Christopher was able to manage the condition.

Susan and Al and the kids were happy to see them spend some time there, and the kids were able to get closer to their grandparents. Mom called Christopher Grandma’s “Tobelito” as she learned that Tobelito means Christopher in Spanish. Christopher thought that her name was Tobelito, and from that she became known as Grandma Tobelito. While Dad was working in Bengough he stayed in the doctor’s home, and the doctor had a private swimming pool. Susan and Al’s kids enjoyed going there to visit and swim.

When Mom and Dad first moved down to the Dominican Republic they loved the people, both the Dominicans and the visitors. But after about ten years, as the country became more popular as a holiday destination, they found it changed. The tourists were more rude and demanding, and the local people became less genuinely friendly and more grasping. They said the country was being ruined. Mom was no longer happy, and they began looking for other options.

Then Mom’s health failed. Her lung collapsed, and she wound up in hospital. This was a very scary experience for her, as when she woke up; she had forgotten all her Spanish and the nurses did not speak English. Dad was very worried about her.

After she recovered Mom quit smoking. And Dad said anything she could do he could do better and he quit too! Both of them had smoked since their student days. Before Dad could quit he had to use up every scrap of tobacco in the house, no matter how old and dried up it was. It was hard to get used to him without his trademark pipe that had been with him as long as any of us could remember.

They put the house on the market, and made the move to Weslaco Texas for the winter months.

Family Memories: The Weyburn Years.

The move to Weyburn happened in 1968. Mom and Dad bought a big bi level, called for some reason a “Toronto Split”. It had a suite in the basement, but we did not rent it out, we used the whole house. The basement bathroom became the photography darkroom. The rumpus room became Dad’s workshop and was usually full of lumber and machinery from various projects.

House in Weyburn

Water skiing continued, on the Nickle Lake Resevoir near Weyburn, but he did not bring the ski jump, kite or dock. He had hurt his knee on the jump and could not use it any longer.

Nickle Lake

Dad worked with his partners, Oscar Decter and Wayne Squires. It was a bit easier on him as he now had days and weekends off in rotation. There were other doctors in town and they all worked well together, assisting each other with surgeries and coverage.

Weyburn Hospital

Dad was well loved at the hospital. He always treated the nurses with respect and they responded. They also teased him unmercifully when he deserved it. Once he had a hemorrhoid, and decided to lance it himself. Well, he caught a vein and went to the hospital bleeding “like a stuck pig”. What’s that they say; a doctor who tries to treat himself has a fool for a patient? The nurses never let him forget that one.

Dad got them back though. I was living in Weyburn as an adult by then, in a farmhouse just outside of town. We had purchased a 1965 Chev half ton 5 speed stick shift to haul garbage and junk. It had originally been red, but now was more rusted out than anything. It chugged along merrily though, even if first gear didn’t work any more, and it started in second, with a great deal of grinding of the gears. It was a very useful truck and Dad loved to borrow it. He took it to the hospital and told everyone he had bought a new truck. What colour is it they asked as they ran out to look. “Oh, a sort of rust,” he replied.

A black cat, named Peg Leg, adopted them. When he came, he had an injured leg (hence the name), and Dad took him to the hospital and X-Rayed the leg. He then wrote up a medical history of the cat and sent it down with the X-Ray to be interpreted in the lab.

In Weyburn Dad learned to use hypnosis as part of his practice. He was thrilled with the results. Hypnosis was very suited to him, as he was always very quiet and relaxed by nature. He went to a conference in Banff and learned hypnosis and came back and started using it. Susan accompanied him on this trip and also learned to use hypnosis. Dad used it for all kinds of situations. He had great success treating children’s asthma and allergies. He was invited to speak to a doctor’s convention about one case where he was able to assist a woman who was basically dying from a colon disease. He found he could teach people to control bleeding. The main use he found though was in delivering babies. He would work with the mother during the pregnancy, teaching her to relax and not feel any pain. Then when he came to deliver the baby the women were relaxed and happy. They would walk to the delivery room, have the baby, pick it up and walk back. He used no drugs, and the results were healthier mothers and babies. He only agreed to deliver their babies though if they would breastfeed them. He soon became very busy delivering babies. Almost all the nurses came to him for their pregnancies.

The only areas he had little success with hypnosis were weight loss and smoking cessation. These were the two areas stage hypnotists often advertised success with. Dad said the lack of success was because people had to really want the result and often with smoking and diet they are really looking for a “quick fix”.

Dad hated the stage hypnotists, because he felt they misrepresented hypnosis and made people afraid of it. He tried to de bunk the myths surrounding hypnosis. One of these was the belief that hypnosis could be used to control people. He demonstrated this one day with Kathryn. She loved to be hypnotized, and one day he hypnotized her and tried to tell her she would no longer like pumpkin pie, one of her favourite things. She immediately sprang up and declared she would never stop liking pumpkin pie.

An operation

Not being a doctor, I don't know what body part this is, or why it is memorable, but Dad took the picture, and there must have been a reason.

Dad loved to teach, and was not afraid to use methods that were somewhat unorthodox, or assist anyone to develop an interest. The Weyburn Hospital acquired a defibrillator, and some of the staff in Emergency were a little nervous to use it. So Dad had them practice on recently deceased bodies! Soon everyone including the janitor was very comfortable using the defibrillator and lives were being saved, with no harm done.

Connie Milligan sent us these memories of working with Dad:

I graduated from the Grey Nun's School of Nursing in 1973 and came to Weyburn to work at the Weyburn Union Hospital .While working at the hospital, I always remember your Dad being very quiet, soft spoken and patient. He was very kind to his patients and gave his time freely to their care. Of course his reputation in the practice of hypnosis ,especially in labour and delivery ,gained him much popularity.

I remember on many occasions seeing him enter the front doors of the hospital with his usual slow walk, smoking his pipe and wearing his slip on sandals(winter and summer.) Oh, did I mention how much he disliked the cold winters?

In 1975 I went to work for your Dad and Dr.Squires and Dr.Decter in the office. It was a great job as no shift work and we worked 9-5:30 with 1 1/2 hour lunch break! It was a very busy office and we managed the office care of approx. 60 patients on an average day. Your Dad was always patient and a good teacher as I learned nursing in the office setting. He was the Dr. to confirm my first pregnancy in 1976 and I think he was as happy as I was!! It seems very hard to believe that all three of these remarkable doctors have passed.

Dad’s partner Oscar Decter enjoyed fishing. He used to go up north of Stanley Mission to a fly in fishing camp. He persuaded Dad to fly him there. Dad was never much for fishing, but loved to eat fresh fish, and enjoyed flying and camping, so he went. Graham went along one year and had a great time. The first year Dad went he caught a huge lake trout. Then he discovered that the fly in fishing camp had a freezer full of fish for sale, and he did not have to go out getting cold and wet in the boat and catch it himself, so he bought a cooler full of fish. He was very happy, but Oscar was quite disgusted.

Dad’s big Lake Trout

Fishing north of Laronge with Graham. He particularly enjoyed the shore lunch prepared by the guide.

Mom and Dad both became involved in the Weyburn Flying Club. Their close friend and next door neighbor, Howard Hall was also involved in flying. Every year, the Weyburn Flying Club hosted a fly in breakfast out at the airport. Howard persuaded Mom to cook kippers for the event, and she would cook kippers on the barbeque for everyone that wanted them. They were very popular.

Kippers

Dad rented a hangar for the plane. One year it blew down in a windstorm, so he built another one with the help of friends and whatever children and children’s boyfriends he could rope in to the project. Kathryn had a boyfriend at the time who worked as a roofer, which was very handy for Dad as he did a fair bit of the shingling. Unfortunately he was not very good at it and a lot of the shingles blew off in a windstorm. The hangar was quite a project, a large Quonset style building with rounded beams that had to be hauled up in one piece. This was one of the first projects where Dad and Al worked together. Al said it was the project where he realized Dad did not know how to swear when he accidentally hit Dad’s hand with a large hammer.

Building the hangar

The Finished Product

Kathryn and Graham both got involved in swimming. Weyburn had an outdoor swimming pool which was very close to the house, and Kathryn and Graham both spent a lot of time there. Graham joined the diving club, and Kathryn got involved with synchronized swimming. Mom had taken many years of ballet dancing as a child, and taught the girls graceful hand movements. Dad installed the underwater speakers so the girls could hear the music underwater.

Synchronized swimming

There was one more family camping trip, this one Canadian style. It occurred when we were young adults. We met at Cyprus Hills Provincial Park and were able to use a group campsite for the weekend. John and his girlfriend, Susan and Al, myself and Dallas, Graham, and Mom and Dad came. We had a great time. Mom and Dad enjoyed camping the Canadian way, with the use of a covered and sheltered cooking area with tables, bathrooms, groomed campsites, barbeques etc they felt it was quite luxurious. They also enjoyed canoeing on the lake. Mom and Dad went out together in the canoe and Mom was paddling away in the front, little knowing that Dad was sitting in the back of the canoe, arms folded and enjoying the ride!

Canoeing in Cyprus Park

Group camping at Cyprus Hills

Dad was quite near sighted and had always had to wear thick glasses. Contact lenses became popular when Dad lived in Weyburn. He tried them and never went back to glasses. He had worn glasses since he was a child and was thrilled with the freedom contact lenses gave him. He called them his “eyes”, as in “Have you got your eyes in?” Mom would say. As he got older he needed bifocals, and was one of the first to wear bifocal contact lenses.

The grandchildren started to come along while Mom and Dad lived in Weyburn. First Sarah, then Christopher, Carolyn, Cameron, Gregory, Andrea, Zach, Michael, Sydney and Kyra Jade.

Grandma

Grand Babies

Sarah and Christopher

Carolyn and Andrea

Gregory Christopher and Sydney

Grandma, Sarah and Cameron

Great Grandma and Cameron

Michael

Kyra, Harp, Kate and Zach

Grandparents with Zach

Family Picnic at Moose Jaw Zoo

It was while living in Weyburn that Dad took up woodworking. He began to make furniture, and made coffee tables, a dining room table and benches, kitchen cupboards and counters, a built in stereo cabinet and a beautiful stand for a Petit Point tapestry Mom made. He also did extensive remodeling and refinishing in the house. Woodworking and building turned out to be very useful for him when he moved to the Dominican Republic.

The wooden table Dad made for Mom’s petit point

Mom enjoyed handicrafts. She got into tapestry making, and knitting and crocheting. She made bulky sweaters with patterns on them.

A sweater Mom made for Dad

Mom always loved babies, and enjoyed making things for the grand babies. She made a sweater for Sarah that she loved and fit her from age 2 until she went to school, though it was a little worn by then.

Sarah in the sweater Mom made for her

Dad always hated paying Income Tax. He called Revenue Canada “Mr. Bloodsucker”, and was always looking for ways to reduce his taxes. Unfortunately, as he always used to say, a good doctor is a poor businessman, and he was a very good doctor. One year, he and a number of the other doctors heard about a scheme where they would buy art cheaply and then donate it to an art gallery, putting a larger value on it, and could claim a tax donation for the larger amount. They were assured it was all legal and above board. It sounded fishy to Mom and the rest of us and we urged him not to get involved, but he went ahead. For a few years he paid very little taxes and was quite happy with the plan.

Well, it all came tumbling down when Revenue Canada caught wind of the scheme which was definitely not legal. Dad and the other doctors were charged, and convicted and had to pay the money back plus large fines. Two of the doctors who had been the instigators of the scheme went to jail. It was a very bad time for Mom and Dad. They were humiliated when their house was raided by the police and their personal papers seized. They had to appear in court and testify. The papers were full of it. It even made the National TV show “The Fifth Estate”. Mom said the experience caused her to lose faith in Canada. Their only crime really was naivety. The doctors had been taken in by a con man who assured them the scheme was legal. Weyburn stood behind their doctors though, and there were even demonstrations at the courthouse in support of the doctors. The relationship between the doctors in Weyburn was never quite the same after that time, as Dad felt betrayed by the doctors who had got him involved.

Their friend and neighbour in Weyburn was Howard Hall. Howard spent a lot of time with the family. He used to invite us over for “champagne breakfast” on Boxing Day. It was a lot of fun. Howard was also a pilot, though he no longer owned his own plane. He always wore cowboy boots, and styled himself after westerns.

Howard Hall

Howard and Jean Hall

Mom was never as happy in Weyburn as she was in Bienfait. She did not get involved in the community in Weyburn as she had in Bienfait. She used to volunteer every year for the Cancer drive, but did not have close friends as she had in Bienfait. She was quite lonely, as Dad was very busy. This may have been due in part to the diabetes taking away her energy.

It was while they were living in Weyburn that Mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The diagnosis meant a major change in her lifestyle. She began a strict diet and exercise regiment that she remained faithful to for the rest of her life. She lost a lot of weight and felt healthier. She was able to manage the diabetes very well with diet and exercise for a long time before beginning on insulin.

Chiefly they looked forward to their holiday every year in the Caribbean. They went for a month every year, gradually venturing further and further afield, and exploring more of the Caribbean. They loved the Turks and Caicos Islands. There was a discussion about the Turks and Caicos Islands joining Canada as a province. Dad thought it would be a great idea and was very disappointed when the Canadian Government at the time did not accept.

Grand Turk

Dad was becoming increasingly tired. He was working very hard, and wearing himself out. He suggested a scheme to his partners that they hire another doctor, but keep the practice the same size, so that they could all have more time off. He thought the decrease in income would be negligible, as they would save in income tax what they lost in income. Unfortunately his partners did not agree. So Mom, who was very worried about him, persuaded him to take an early retirement.

They began looking for a possible site for their retirement; and discovered and fell in love with the Dominican Republic. They found they could live very cheaply there, so in 1982 they sold up everything, took some Spanish lessons, and moved down there, basically taking with them only what would fit in the plane.