We have lived in Sussex, New
Brunswick, Canada since 1977. Fourteen of
those years were spent on a 210 acre, 65 cow dairy farm,
where our children learned to work and enjoy all aspects
of farm life. We never hired anyone, so work was done by
everyone capable of doing it, as it is on any farm. The
hardest time was haying time, but it is also the time that the
kids remember most fondly.
Only people who haved walked in our
shoes can know what it takes to survive on a farm. There
are many of us out there, all hard workers! The humerous
and special times are what pull us through...like the
time Amie fell into the cement we were pouring for the
stalls, or the time Bess climbed our feed silo (she was
so scared of everything that she was the last one we
expected to do that) and couldn't get down, or when Jenny
got lost and sat down and cried to wait till we found
her. She was only by the field next to the house, but
wasn't tall enough to see over the hill...Our two youngest don't remember,
but as babies they spent many a morning in the feed wagon between the two
rows of cows and sleeping to the sound of the cows eating their hay or feed
as we did chores.Our hat goes off to all the farmers of the world!
Our children have all flown the
coup now and we had about a month of "free time" before
we decided to take my father in. Grampy died on July 28, 2003 and was 91
years old. We so enjoyed having him with us the last two
years of his life. Grampy had Lewy
Body dementia and we tried very hard to make his life
as good as it could be for him. It's was a big
undertaking but one that we haven't regretted for one
minute.
He is now where he wanted to be... burried beside
his mother in Montreal.
Let's not forget Mom too. Mom stayed with us before Dad did. They were separated.
Mom decided a week before Halloween one year that she thought that she might
like to move in with us. We had asked her many times before, but I guess it wasn't the right
time for her. We quickly fixed up a place for her and added a bay window to her new room, put
some nice pink carpet (that she picked) and she moved in happy. But Mom had a bad heart. It wasn't
till years after the fact that she discovered the damage that had been done by
the rheumatic fever of her youth.
She was taken away from us way too early at 72. Mom had stayed with us only two years.
We are also a family interested
in genealogy.
What a great feeling when you start finding out about
your ancestors. We are very fortunate to have many
old pictures, so our family branches are all over the
house. We feel quite close to them, although they are
gone.
My lineage is French all the way except for some
Abenaki
Indian on the Belisle side. The line comes through
Chief
Madockawando. on the
Belisle dit LeBorgne
side.
This is on my father's mother's
side. It took me many years to get this line. They
came to what is now called Nova Scotia from France in
the early 1700's. They were forced to move to New
Brunswick and settled on Belisle Bay, which was named after them. During the Acadian
expulsion of 1755 some went to Quebec and some to
Louisianna.
I have done considerable work on
Proulx (my maiden name),
Soucie (Soucy), and
Pelletier. I have quite a lot on
Ouellette and there are tons of information on
this name out there. I have also worked on
Belisle dit LeBorgne.
I'm always working on my "Family History". It's one
of my passions!
My husband has English and Irish in his background.
He is working on Harvey,and
Thirkell (both from England);
Constantine and
O'Shaughnessy
(from Cork Co., Ireland).
