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.