After my Dad passed away last fall, there was some discussion amongst my Aunts and Uncles who were at his memorial service, that it had been a long time since there had been a family reunion. I remember seeing pictures from a family reunion that had been held out at Pigeon Lake. I don't remember the reunion itself and was just a little kid at the time, so it must have been over 40 years ago. I decided that I would accept the challenge and organize the next one. My only regret is that no one got around to one sooner, when my Dad and my grandparents were still alive.
I solicited some help from my cousin Vic and his wife Susanne, as well as my cousin Donald and his wife Tracy. I'm grateful for all the help that they provided. Margarit helped me out as well, and my brothers pitched in too. I took it upon myself to contact all of my cousins. The reunion was to include all the surviving siblings of my Dad, as well as all of my cousins. There are still four aunts, two uncles, plus my Mom from the older generation. There were 17 cousins, including myself and my brothers, in the next generation. Almost all of us are married, and most of us have kids, so the group would potentially be pretty big.
We rented the Hillside Community Hall near Wetaskiwin and I spent the winter months contacting everyone and making sure that everyone knew about it. Then with the help of my cousins I worked on organizing the details. We put together a pot luck dinner with barbecued burgers and hotdogs. We had name tags and a guest book and charged a small admission fee to cover the costs. The turn out was really good. Aunt Hilda was the only surviving member of the older generation that was unable to attend. Of my generation, only two cousins were not able to make it, so there were 15 of us, most with our spouses. Only some of the younger generation of second cousins were able to make it. I was busy trying to keep everything going and didn't really have a chance to do a head count but someone did, and I believe the final count was 92 in attendance.
A number of us showed up on the evening of Friday June 20th, and set up our trailers and tents at the Community Hall. The weather kind of put a damper on things as in the mid evening we were hit with a heavy thunderstorm and for about 30 minutes there was some heavy hail, with mostly pea-sized hail, but also some stones up to Quarter-Sized.
The next day was June 21st and the first day of summer. It cleared up nicely and became sunny and warm. Through the day all the family members began to trickle in. By the time we got the potluck underway, there was a big crowd in attendance. I was glad that I had brought along a big tarp that we put up to provide shade for everyone. After dinner many of us hung around late into the evening with a fire going. My brother Wes, and nephews Sam and Colin set up some amps and a drum kit and played music for us through the evening. I think it was about 2:00AM before the last of us finally wandered off to our trailers and called it a night.
The next morning those that were left visited for a while, had breakfast together, and then spent some time cleaning up the hall and the grounds and getting everything put away. It was mid-afternoon on Sunday before the last of us packed up and headed our seperate ways.
After the reunion was finished my brothers and our families, and my Mom, headed over to the cemetery at the nearby Lutheran church. This is where my grandparents and two of my Dad's brothers are buried. Over the years Dad had often commented that he wanted his ashes scattered on his brother Richard's grave. Dad was a triplet and his sister Ellen is still with us, but his brother Richard passed away of rheumatic fever at the age of twelve. In respect of Dad's wish we scattered a small amount of his ashes on his brothers grave. Most of his ashes were previously buried at a plot up in Edmonton.
