Was this Ste Agathe or Ste Adele, Quebec? The year is likely to be 1954 ... spring. Oma is keeping a firm hold on the cat (name forgotten), Margaret has her doll Bärbel. Gundel and Else are wearing handknits, in variously fine wools - indeed, everyone is, except the cat.

Family gathering during Else and Ernst's visit, 1979 - Gundel, Susan, Martin, paul, Kate, Sue, Alfred, Nettie, John, Ruth, (front) Nick, Else, Oma, Norah.

Early 1950s - Margaret, Alfred, ?, Oma - and two shadowy figures in the back. Possibly still Gersfeld (1951) or possibly early days in Quebec (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.

Oma with Else and Anni, about 1919 perhaps?

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

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.

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.

Oma in her Gersfeld living room, early 1952.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.