#45 Photos Connecting the Generations

                             

Grandparents are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they're there.

Grandparents hold our hands for just a little while, but our hearts forever.

  

My lifetime spans five generations of family. Photos help strengthen the connections between the generations/

                                                                4 generations

               my Grandma Jean (Werth) Homuth (1892-1959); 

my Dad Carol Homuth (1924-2017); me;

 my great Grandmother Ann (Harper) Werth (1863-1956)

I have a vague memory of my great-grandmother Werth as a small woman dressed in black and sitting in a chair in my grandmother's living room. Ann was the youngest of eleven children; the five oldest were born in Cornwall, England and emigrated with their parents, Richard Harper and Jane Oliver Lemin, in 1849. The youngest siblings were born on the Harper farm in Pilkington Township, near Elora. In 1889 Ann married Edward Werth (1860-1932) and they had seven children. Edward was a farm and factory labourer. In her later years, Ann moved from Elora to Harriston to live with her two daughters, my great-aunt Lila and my Grandma Jean.

                                                            3 generations

me, Grandma Carrie (Hendrickson) (1902-1987), Grandpa Vaino Suomela (1893-1963, Mom, Vicky      My maternal grandparents were both born in Finland; Grandma emigrated at age 3, Grandpa as a young man. They were married in Saskatchewan in 1921. In 1932, Grandpa joined about six thousand North American Finns in the Karelian Movement and decided to take his wife and daughter to the Soviet Union; he believed that the Soviet Union would be a socialist dream. Within a short time, he realized the dream was a fraud, a lie, and the family was able to escape back to Canada. ( My book, The Suomela Story--Sisu-Guts, Willpower, Persistance, Strength is about Grandpa's beliefs and his incredible life adventures.) In his later years, Grandpa developed Parkinson's Disease and unfortunately, my memories of him are of a frail and shaky man.

                                                                    
                   

                                                                    4 generations

            Grandpa Fred Homuth (1889-1983), Dad Carol Homuth (1924-2017), me, Beverly, Jessica

Jessica remembers feeding the chipmunks at the cottage with her Great Grandpa Fred. The two of them would sit quietly on the cottage steps and wait for the "foofies" to jump onto their hands for the peanuts. (My book The F.F.Homuth story-- Rx for Living: Ability+Condidence+Drive is about Grandpa Fred's many passions--as a pharmacist, optmetrist, businessman, 33 degree Mason, cottage-builder, car-lover, etc.)

                                                                4 generations

Beverly, Grandma Suomela (Carrie Hendrickson 1902-1897), me, Jessica, Mom (Viola Suomela Homuth 1923-2010)

Jess' most vivid memory was getting to dust all of Great-Grandma's knick-knacks in her "slanty" apartment.

                                                            4 generations

                                                Dad, Vicky, Grandma Suomela, me, Mom

                                        Uncle Dave Vallance, Jess, Bev, Aunt Lila

Blessed are those who spoil and snuggle, hug and hope, pray and pamper, for they shall be called grandparents.

                                                                    

                                        Vicky, Grandma Homuth (Jean Werth 1892-1959) me

Remembering my Grandma for her shortbread cookies, her sewing, her phone calls, her flower garden, her basket of school supplies, the cottage.

Telling stories to my children that I was, in my turn, told by my parents and grandparents makes me feel part of something special and odd, part of the continuous stream of life itself.

                                                                Grandparents

                                                Murray, Jessica, Ellen, Carol, Beverly, Viola

                                                        Murray, Beverly, Ellen, Jessica

Some memories of their Grandparents Whelan : cribbage & euchre games (and Poppy did not go easy on the girls), Poppy's chocolate squares, reading Ann Landers to Grandma, "Oh no, not Weston" on PD Days, Poppy at Jessica's badminton game where she won provincial U-16 doubles title, the ridiculously huge Smurf doll, Grandma Ellen riding the Marineland Roller coaster with J.

                                                        

                                                          3 generations of Homuth family

    back: Steve, me, Vicky, John,  mid: Rebecca, Mom, Beverly, Dad, Alison; front: Jessica & She-Ra

                                                    3 generations of Whelan family

back: Jessica, Hae-Moon, Wayne, Joan, Douglas

front; Ellen, Beverly, Murray

Steve behind the camera

        

If children are the rainbow of life, then grandchildren are the pot of gold.

Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.

                                                            4 generations

                                  Jessica, GG (aka Great Grandpa Homuth), Sophia, me

                                                            GG, Ellie, Sophia, Oliver

Sophia, Ellie & Oliver know about GG's trains and firetrucks, and that he built doll houses and that Grandma Vi was an eye doctor and had an optometry doll that looked like her.

                                                             

                

                                                                    4 Generations

                                                Beverly, Jessica, baby Miles, GG, me

                                                        Steve, baby Miles, GG, Chris

When the child you love has a child you love with all that is within you, only then will you know how grand being a grandparent truly is.

                                                      Our 3 generations--December 2022

                                The Bostons                                                The Miamis
                                Calvin, Chris, Bev                                      Jessica, Darren

                                Miles, Owen                                               Ellie, Oliver, Sophia

                                                        Our Gaggle of Grands

Grandparents are voices of the past and the door to the future. They provide us with the wisdom from a lifetime of experience that should never be undervalued.