the end, Brother Bennie and I became the middle children when the complete toll of twelve children was tallied. Middle children are typically independent as no one seems to have time to care for them, so they self-care at an early age..
When I drove solo to Plum Coulee, Manitoba to attend my uncle Jack Penner’s funeral I had asked my aunt Agnes over the phone if she could point me to the house where I was born, after the funeral. She did but it was only a sport where the house had once stood. When their son took over the farm the house was torn down and a new ranch-style house now stands in a different corner of the farm.
She pointed out the now deep ravine where the footbridge had once crossed over the creek. I shivered at the depth of the ravine.
Our Grandmother Braun
My grandmother, at age ninety during my last visit with her, told me all about the Tudor Wars, the Wars of the Roses, and the great European Reformation. She named kings and czars. She knew their birthdates and the year of their deaths. Her historical knowledge and memory were awesome to me. On her ninetieth birthday she had named all her children, their spouses, their wedding dates, their birthdays, their children’s birthdays, their children’s spouses, their spouses’ birthdays, her great-grand- children and their birthdays, their spouses’ birthdays and named all of their wedding dates. How awesome!
Grandma Anna Braun came to Canada when she was sixteen years old. Although she did not attend school in Canada, she learned alongside her brother doing homework and became self-educated. She became an avid reader. I suspect she may have had a fair amount of schooling in the Ukraine before coming to Canada. Suffering from insomnia for many years, she would read until four in the mornings. She amazingly remembered what she read! My grandpa would get up and tell their daughters to let my grandmother sleep and they should do the work. What a dear, sweet man he was! But he was also a fighter whenever the need presented itself and his policy was always to fight for the underdog. This is a history in itself.
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