Shipboard scene, crossing the Atlantic in the Columbia, April 1952.

Margaret in "ihr Gips" - probably summer of 1950. The congenital hip displacement was discovered when she started to walk, and she spent about a year in a cast to realign the leg in the socket. The floppy bow is another story...

Oma with all her grandchildren, about 1967.

Steven and Margaret, 1954, Ste Adele.

Oma with Else and Anni, about 1919 perhaps?

16 July 1971 - Margaret and Roger had their wedding party at 17515 Ford Road, with family and close friends. Jim and Connie Cooter on the left, Gundel and Alfred in the background. The food, prepared by Gundel, was legendary, especially the potato salad.

Geoffrey and Alec (Norah's sons) visit Alfred and Gundel.

April 1952 - Margaret with her best friend, Margit Weber, and Fritzl the dog, just before leaving for Canada. When Margaret went back to Gersfeld to visit Aunt Anni in 1984, they ran into Margit in the shoe store.

Gundel in her beloved garden, amid blooming azaleas and rhododendrons. Alfred would have clambered as high as possible on the ladders that led from roof to roof to take this photo, in the early 2000s.

1994 - Scott and Drew try out the cupboards in Alfred and Gundel's new house.

Paul, and Peter Benjafield, on the way to Keremos - 1952, perhaps, in the days when young men went up to the logging camps to work. Paul started out as a camp cook, and I hope he'll add his experiences....

Oma (next to teacher) as a schoolgirl, about 1900.

Opa Martin as a schoolboy (back row), about 1890.

Skiing at Crystal Mountain, Christmas 1978 - Kate, Paul, Norah, Martin, Nettie. And Paul and Sue enjoy the view -

Christmas in Pitt Meadows, 1977 - Kate (Hughes), Gundel, Alfred, Nick (Hughes), Nettie - tucking into Christmas cookies?

Oma's 91st birthday.

At 18035 Ford Road, 1956 - Margaret, Gundel, Steven, Oma.

A wedding, in Gersfeld probably - but whose? Oma is on the right. Late 1940s perhaps.

Germany, 1975 - Susan, Margaret, Maria Langendoerfer, Gundel.

Gundel and her beloved hanging baskets, mid-90s - the greenhouses were right outside the deck, and Gundel spent a lot of time in them, potting up and trimming azaleas.

Alfred and Jessie. Jessie was a rescue dog and gave all her allegiance to Alfred, keeping as close to him as possible. She wasn't allowed in the house, so she made herself a place to lie down in the flower bed, right outside Alfred's chair by the window. She wasn't allowed in the greenhouses either, but she knew all the time which one Alfred was working in, and when visitors came to see him, she could indicate which greenhouse they could go to.

Oma and Gundel in the kitchen at 18035 Ford Road, spring 1957. The stove burned sawdust, which was delivered by the truckload from a nearby lumber mill. The sawdust was dumped in the driveway - and then began the work of taking wheelbarrowfuls round the back of the house. Of course the sawdust then had to be moved again, by the bucketful, and loaded into the hopper beside the stove. The refrigerator (a step up from the icebox we had in Quebec, less than five years before) was still running when the first house at 17515 Ford Road burnt down in 1973.

The bathroom was beyond the wall with the cabinets, just inside the back door. Before we moved here, we'd come out on weekends to get the house ready for habitation. The tub was absolutely filthy - scrubbing it was a big job for Gundel.

Six glasses of milk on the table - for Mom, Dad, Oma, Auntie Else, Margaret and Steven.

A celebration, mid-90s - Rosel and George Bell, Dieter and Frauke Claus, Alfred, Gundel.

Maike, Frauke, Alfred, Hedda, and Inge (Frauke's three sisters, visiting from Germany), summer 1991. Alfred did enjoy being surrounded by lovely ladies!

Oma in her Gersfeld living room, early 1952.

Pat and Paul with Martin, 1957.

Steven and Susan with their nephew, Sebastian (now known as Thomas), Christmas 1976. Sweater and hat knit by Grandma.

Coffee and cake on a Sunday in 1960 - Oma, Paul with David, Wolf Galetzka, Martin, Margaret,Alfred, Barbara Galetzka, Steven, Ruth Galetzka, Susan, Gundel, Pat.

Oma's 74th birthday, June 1962. Barbara Galetzka, Oma, Susan, Pat (Bruce) Schleicher - and, as always, wonderful cakes.

Gundel (dark hair) with brothers and sisters, probably about 1930.

Else and Anni, with Else's husband and others, including their cousin Paula.
Fortunately Gundel added the names on the back.

At 18035 Ford Road - Steven with a couple of the Saunders kids, and Saunders' house in the background. Probably 1957.

Steven and Margaret, Quebec, probably early 1954. The photo on the wall is of Margaret aged 2.

Anni and her husband, Kristl (Christian) Bauer, late 30s. Anni spent a year and a half in jail for handing out anti-Hitler leaflets, and Kristl spent six years in jail for "communist activity"; on release he was drafted in an army regiment, 999, made up of dissidents and decadents; we are uncertain what happened before he was killed in Yugoslavia.

In the late 1950s the sheds at 17515 Ford Road held mink in cages, being raised for their fur; this went on for only about three years, though it was in order to have a mink farm that the family moved to Pitt Meadows from Vancouver. At the first property, 5 acres, the neighbour had a turkey farm and got byelaws changed (to needing 10 acres) to prevent having mink next door - hence the move from 18035 to 17515 Ford Road.
Steven once got a badly bitten thumb, to the extent that the nail fell off. The mink were vicious creatures (undoubtedly made more so by being trapped in a cage; not something we would do now). They needed feeding and watering twice a day. The food was fish waste from canneries, I believe; it must have been delivered fairly frequently, and taken to the sheds in the wheelbarrow.

Else and Paul about 1938, in the little garden across the road from Oma's home and grocery shop.

Paul, about to depart for Canada in 1951, with his mother and niece Margaret.

Steven and Susan on the lawn at 17515 Ford Road, August 1960, with Williams' house (where we went to get milk) in the background.

Family gathering, 7 October 2010

Assembled in Pitt Meadows - the guys (from left): Craig Wright, Alec Wright, Martin Schleicher, Geoffrey Wright, Steve Schleicher, Matthew de Villiers (at top), Andrew de Villiers, Paul Schleicher, Charlie Johnston, John Schleicher, Thomas Cooter, Bob Thoreson, Scott Thoreson, Drew Thoreson

and the gals: Sue Thoreson, Nettie de Villiers, Jan Bain, Norah Wright, Margaret Cooter, Sue Hughes

Oma (on the right) and her sisters Emma (left) and Dora.

Emma Niebling had six children - Mariechen, Ernst, Friedl, Gretchen, Ewald, Paula.

Dora married Karl Braubach and moved to Hannover. Her son Hans Otto moved back to Gersfeld.

Another sister, Anna Mueller, also lived in Hannover and had a son named Werner.

The youngest sister, Leni, married Ewald Korte in 1936 and lived in Gersfeld.

"Als ich bei die Nonnen war" - Gundel, aged about 14, is on the far right. She tells of wanting to do sewing-related work, but her father decided she should learn typing instead.

1987, outside Steve's boat-building shop in Port Coquitlam - Steve, Thomas, Margaret, Scott, Susan.

Oma's family at home, around Christmas-time in the early 1940s - Anni, Oma, Paul, Else.

Oma with Alfred and Paul in Gersfeld, early 1930s.

1987 - the Pitt Meadows Schleichers visit Paul and family on Denman Island - beautiful weather, beautiful views, lovely meals, good times...