May 24, 2019 - I have become concerned about what will happen to all the bits and pieces, which you will have read about on this blog, after I have gone. It has become quite a collection - telling a really good story of my parents. It becomes quite a responsibility for another family member to take it on.
Just when I think the final chapter has been
written on this piece of work, something else happens. Fortunately, it is
usually something really positive.
"My cousin Janet (Ade) Dewan who lives in
Toronto, Canada is an avid supporter and contributor to the Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Library of the University of Toronto - https://fisher.library.utoronto.ca/.
Last October, she approached
PJ Carefoote (head of the Fisher's Special Collections) to ask if he'd be
receptive to having my material. Because Janet has been connected with
the Fisher for 30 years, PJ knows her well and said Yes, so Janet wrote to me. I canvassed my siblings and Janet negotiated with PJ - with emails
and phone calls ongoing to clarify details both before and after after your
decision to donate.
It
was later in November that Danielle Van Wagner became involved. To make material
accessible to the public, a finding aid is created for a collection.
Danielle was already working on the finding aid for Janet's ongoing Tripe
family donations and doing a terrific job, so she was the obvious choice to
work on my parents' collection.
And so on with the story.
Over this past January, Danielle came to visit her mother
and was able to drop in here to have a look at the collection. She was so
positive and encouraging.
The UPS truck arrived on March 29, 2019 and took three boxes
off to Toronto where they were received and the contents were being catalogued.
And the icing on the cake was a Spring Open House held at
the Fisher Library and Danielle was able to put together a display of some of our
items - see photos below.
My own thoughts on this part of the tale are mixed. From the
time, all those years ago when I received Mom’s diaries from her and then when Dad’s
Flight Logs were given to me by my brother for safe keeping, I have followed
the story along. It has become my story too, of course.
It is the story of many Canadian families in the late 1930s
and 1940s. While the details may vary, the times were such that one did one’s
duty to King and country. And one did that especially if your parents were from
England and they felt threatened even though England was an ocean away.
And so with the all the help and proddings and from my four cousins - David and John Hall, Dad's sister Margaret's sons; and Janet (Ade) Dewan and Barbara (Ade) Tangney, Dad's sister Marian's daughters along with all the other people in Canada and in Europe, this collection has found a perpetual home. All the folks above made this possible and I can't thank them enough.
And so with the all the help and proddings and from my four cousins - David and John Hall, Dad's sister Margaret's sons; and Janet (Ade) Dewan and Barbara (Ade) Tangney, Dad's sister Marian's daughters along with all the other people in Canada and in Europe, this collection has found a perpetual home. All the folks above made this possible and I can't thank them enough.
It is very clear that my Dad wanted to fly. He must have
loved going up in the Lazair Ultralight when he was in his 60s even if it wasn’t
a Spitfire.
Of course, I have regrets too. The obvious one is that when
one is a child/teenager/young adult, one is very self-absorbed, I find. I
certainly was. I didn’t ask the questions and I should have. But I doubt that I
am alone in this. A person does get wiser as one ages.
I hope I’ve done my parents proud with this project. It’s
certainly been a labour of love and a wonderful adventure meeting my friends
across the pond and here in my own country.
Here are some photos of the exhibition at the Thomas Fisher Rare
Book Library at the University of Toronto in March of this year.
Danielle Van Wagner and my cousin Janet Dewan.
Two of Elizabeth (Rannie) Tripe's diaries. The bottom one is open to D-Day and the scribblings are mine, I was 3 nearly 4!
Dad's Flight Book open to his last entry for WWII.
