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...

The "Pitt Meadows Schleichers" - Steve, Jan Bain, Margaret (Cooter), Drew Thoreson, Thomas Cooter, Sue (Thoreson), Bob Thoreson, Scott Thoreson.
The painting in the grey frame is of the Rhon area, and was brought from Germany.
Margaret and Steve grew up at 17515 Ford Road, and moved to England and Maple Ridge respectively; Susan was born there (well actually in Maple Ridge Hospital, shortly after it opened) and returned after sojourns in White Rock and elsewhere in the Lower Mainland.

Alfred's family on the way to Paul's wedding - outside 2635 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, with Alfred's VW in the background.

Alfred and Gundel drove a VW to Vancouver in the summer of 1954, in the days before there was a Trans-Canada Highway, using up their last 25 cents on gas. According to family legend, at the time there were only three VWs in BC. That car was black and had a split rear window. The kids loved to travel in the luggage-well behind the back seat.

Vancouver (West 10th Avenue), 1955 or 1956 - Alfred, Gundel, Steven, Oma, Margaret. In the background is Kitsilano High School.

Gundel in the '57 Ford (what a monster to drive).

Oma and her children, early 1945 - Else, Paul, Oma (Greta), Alfred, Anni.

One version of the origins of this photo is that Paul got a week's leave (from the army) because his brother, reported missing after his brigade was captured, had returned home, having made his way back to Gersfeld from Poland after being captured on the Russian frontier. The journey home was quite a story, and Alfred spoke of it only in recent years. When she got the telegram saying "your son is missing in action", Oma emphatically said she knew he was on his way back - and some weeks later he came through the door.

Alfred as a teenager. This was found in an album of tiny photos - "Tebe" Klein-Photothek - the first page is dated 1935. Other photos show cars, gliders, mountain scenery, winter sports, young people larking about. Alfred has noted: "Aufgenommen mit Zeiss-Ikon Baby Box". His address in Gersfeld (Rhoen) is given as Karlstrasse 96.

Baby Steven, spring or summer 1953. Steve was born a couple of months early, in August 1952, in St Adele, Quebec.

Alfred's family in 1997, on the occasion of the 50th wedding anniversary. From top, Alfred; Gundel; children Susan, Margaret, Steve; grandchildren Thomas (b.1976), Scott (b.1986), Drew (b.1991).

Gundel and Alfred with their first grandchild, Sebastian Thomas Cooter, December 1976.

Alfred's family in the late 1990s. Margaret, Alfred, Gundel, Susan, Steven.

Gundel, Oma, Margaret, Steven, Else, Alfred at 18035 Ford Road, Pitt Meadows, in 1956 or 57.

Gundel, Oma, Anni, Alfred, about 1950. Could this photo have been taken at Anni's, before the departure for Canada in 1952?

Wedding day, 1910

Margaretha Friedrich (who we knew as Oma) married Martin Balthasar Schleicher on 11 October 1910 in Gersfeld.

The greenhouse years

Algund Greenhouses started with a small enclosed space on the roof of the new house, using the waste heat from the furnace. Starting with cyclamen, Alfred and Gundel moved on to pelargoniums, notably Martha Washington variety.

85th birthday

Alfred was 85 on 21 November 2005.

New house and car, 1990s

Alfred, Gundel, Gundel's sister Lioba (Langendoerfer) Okon. The car is a VW Passat; Lio visited several times with Hans.

Alfred and family, mid/late 1960s

Alfred, Oma, Susan, Steven, Gundel in "the old house" at 17515 Ford Rd.

Alfred and Gundel, 1990s

At their new home, built onto the big house at 17515 Ford Road, and visiting Little Mountain (Queen Elizabeth Park) in Vancouver.

60th anniversary

Wedding day