100th Anniversary Grandview Flats Church & School

On Sept 18, 2010 Hector and I attended the celebrations for the 100th Anniversary of the Grandview Flats Church (and school 96 years). I attended to represent my dad who had lived there some time between 1928-1943.
It was a most wonderful day.

I put another piece into the puzzle of my life that day!!

My father and his mother were Baptized in Revelstoke BC when he was about 16-18. After baptism they must have heard about a warm and loving Adventist community, and for some reason (unknown to me) the 2 of them moved to Grandview Flats BC. Evidently my grandmother had some money (maybe she had saved up, or got help from her family in Holland) which enabled her to buy a house when she moved to the Flats.

The center part of this house is what my dad and his mother owned when they lived up at the Flats. I met the Mrs Marshall who bought the house from my dad. I also learned that the Seidel family lived there for years, and later the Paul family enlarged the living space.

The Cemetery

Here I found the resting place of my Grandmother, and my brother who died 6 years before I was born, they sleep together till Jesus comes. What a surprise she will have when an angel presents her with a 3 month old baby and says he is your grandson, take him to his family!!!
Oh what a day that will be!!!

After hearing all the testimonies, of what the community meant to many of the youth while growing up, and how it takes a village to raise a child, I realized that the reason my dad kept taking us back to the Flats, 2 or more times a year, when I was a kid. Those dear people had became his family. He and his mother came from Revelstoke alone, he was young and she was without a husband, trying to make it on their own. Those people became the father, brother and cousins that had been left behind when they stepped out in faith and choose to obey God rather than man.

The Flats is where one or more of the church ladies took care of my grandmother after she got sick till she died in 1938. (which may have been Alzheimer's or dementia, because my dad said he couldn't leave her alone)

I remember many of my dad's "good" friends, who would take us to their homes for Sabbath lunch when we visited their church. Johnston's, Peterson's, Graham's, Bechtold's, Weir's, Fergeson's, Kerr's, (Mrs Kerr still remembered me).

More Information:

Auntie Jannie, a cousin of my dad's in Holland.

She had her 97th Birthday in January 2011, we visited her in February, in March she passed away. What a lovely time we had, telling her about us, and asking her questions of what she remembers from years past. Jannie is the niece of my dad's mother, who I never met, so to me Auntie Jannie, is the closest I will ever get to knowing my grandmother, Jannie remembers letters coming from Canada and was able to fill in some of the blanks.

In 2004 she told us my grandmother would write to tell them about the boys (my dad Hendrik & his brother Gerrit) They understood that Hendrik was a farmer, and Gerrit was a pilot ( he wanted to be, but never did). During the war when Holland was being trampled by the Allies and the Germans pushing the war front back and forth, when they heard the Allied planes flying over, they would look up and say "Maybe Gerrit has come to save us." She told us where the family farm had been and we drove by to view it.

In 2011, she told us that they knew there was trouble in the family in Canada, and that my grandmother and Hendrik had moved away from Revelstoke. My Grandfather had moved to Canada in 1912 with his wife and children, to join some sisters already here, and he had brought his mother along. But my grandmother was the only one from her family who moved to Canada. Evidently the family in Holland, was worried about my grandmother trying to make it on her own. Auntie Jannie said "We tried to get her to come back home."

Previously she had said, they had lost contact with the family in Canada during the war, and never heard anymore. How sad that must have been, did they think that Canada had gotten bombed too? Now I realize that my grandmother died in 1938, and I guess my dad never sent them information, and then the war came, and that is why they thought it was the war that separated them. After her death, my dad sold the house, and moved away so any letters coming from Holland would not have reached him.

Enough rambling for now, on to...

Some Pictures of

those dear friends

At Grandview Flats,

or their children.

Florence Johnstone Schaffer, on the left
(with a cousin of hers who also remembered my dad)

My mother's cousin Delphi Ladner Baybarz, with Marvin Johnstone, and Florence. It was funny when I recognized Marvin, I could hear my mothers voice in my head say
"That's Marvin Johnstone, go and say Hi to him."

Sharon Johnstone and her Brother David,
all children of my dad's good friends
Ivan and Helen Johnstone.

Mrs Kerr, (the lady who said she still remembered me)
and Sharron.

Ann Weir Wombold,
I remember many nice times at her parents home.

My mother's cousins
Delphi, Alvin, and Nathalie Ladner Bischoff.

Here the Ladner family is joined by Clara Hawes Flint,
who I also remember from my childhood.

Saturday Evening Memory Lane Amateur Hour

I was so surprised to meet Candi Bechtold (left),
many memories of pleasant visits playing with Candi.

Edna Smith Crombie,
her younger sisters were very food friends of mine.
She sang "Teddy Bear Picnic".

The Marshall Family They sang:
"How Much is that Doggy in the Window"
"Petunia in the Onion Patch"
"This Land is Your Land"
"Less of Me"

Mrs Marshall (who bought the house from my dad)
She got up after her daughters, and said,
"They think they are really smart, but I am going to show them!"
... she sure did, she sang Yahoo Valley,
and could she ever yodel!!

The Tulak family who lived at the corner of South Grandview Rd, the sister on the left says she remembers my dad, and even the car that was in the picture that I had taken along.
They Sang "Blue Okanagan"

The Amateur was just what I remembered from childhood, and one of the main things I was looking forward to, but that part of the program was a little to short, even still we didn't leave till mid-night, a typical amateur program for the Flats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5BsKZYL0uM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxMNWTheKao
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfE8Gx-PB9s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY4SPD7QKZ8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSAd1iukZ0o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa3EhKUNNXo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhRktG-DxQE

Saved the best for the last!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Si6xBqmKOxQ

I Can't Believe it !

Nobody should own a car like this!!
It cruised the "Connector"(one of North America's most challenging mountain passes)
in 5th gear,
at 130 km/hour (80mph) no sweat!!
When the last rays of
natural light slipped away,
I tried to reign it in for safety sake,
but that car was on a mission,
and I strained to keep it down to 110!
Now I am afraid
to give that car to my daughter,

(she wants everyone to know that for the first time in her life she has paid us for the car she is driving)
it seems to easy to drive dangerously!!!

Hector, Beth & Royce arrived in Vancouver from Guyana South America Wednesday July 7 at 11:30 pm almost 24 hours after getting up, but being delayed by 2 hours on our first flight and missing the next one. When we finally arrived our bags didn't, they went the original route. We had 1/2 a sleep, and then Hector and I drove home to Kelowna, arriving at noon Thursday.

We had to come home to take care of our sick kitty. So at 3 pm we had the appointment with the vet to put him to sleep, after burial, we repacked and Friday morning went right back to Vancouver.

I had a wedding to be at in Portland Oregon on Sunday, but Hector, needed to be at a wedding in the Okanagan on Sunday. (Royce was supposed to be at a wedding in TN, but couldn't make it, so went with Hector, and Mai was at a wedding in Alberta the same day) So Hector drove to where Royce met us (Sumas boarder crossing) and then he spent 1/2 of Friday and Sabbath with Royce and then they came home. I continued on to Portland arriving 9 pm.

After a nice weekend I started home on Monday 9 am, but stopped to visit near Vancouver Washington, so left there at 1 pm. I hurried to make it to Seattle before the rush hour, and God blessed my efforts, I actually breezed through the city no slow downs. After a stop in Bellingham at Costco, I called home, and Royce told me the Connector was closed due to another wild fire. I decided to come anyway, and if the road was closed there would be cops holding the traffic, and it would be safe enough to sleep in the car and wait to get through in the morning.

I wanted to hurry, but was afraid of getting a speeding ticket, so on the Trans Canada Hwy, I picked a truck that was moving swiftly, and followed everything he did, hoping if a cop was out there he would only be able to handle stopping one of us! Once reaching the beginning of the pass it was raining, I prayed for the rain to clear up to give me better, traveling, but promised to accept the bad weather if that was what God was using to fight the fire. It kept raining, and at the highest points it was on the verge of being snow!!! But when I got to the area that had been closed, there was no evidence of fire, or even smoke, so I guess God sent the rain to stop the fire. I arrived home Monday July 12 at 10 pm, very tired, and very happy to be home.
"Thanks little car for being in such a hurry!!"

Tuesday we attended, of Ruth Wirtz, who has been a family friend since I was a child, and who's children I grew up with. If funerals can be considered nice, this one was, there was a lot of sharing by family members, and friends.  Unfortunately two days after we arrived in Guyana on our mission trip in June, my cousin's husband Larry McCarty passed away. It was really hard to be so far away, and to miss the family members that came from afar, and to miss out on the grieving, and the celebration. Life here is not user friendly.