As the old year ends and a new one begins, how shall we sum up the year past for all of us? There has been sorrow and there has been joy. Loved ones have been lost and loved ones gained. There have been tears and laughter, bad times and good, sickness and health.
The outlook for next year is more of the same. Life isn't fair. Life isn't not fair. Life is...life.
May you have enough. Enough love, enough health and enough happiness. May the love of God enfold you and His Peace fill your hearts throughout 2009.
I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, 'Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.'
And he replied, 'Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!'
Minnie Louise Harkins 1875-1957. Quoted by HRM George VI, 1939 Christmas address to the nation.
С Новым годом! Happy New Year!
Money was tight when we were very young. Allowance was 10¢ per week of which 1¢ went for tithe to the church. When we got older, for helping with chores we got the dollar equivalent of half a market pig (about $30), which was our Christmas spending money.
They have been in love since Grade 8. Luda wanted to go to Moscow to University but Valerie couldn't part with her for that long so she stayed. She is a sweetheart. Valerie says half the men in Belii Yar are waiting for him to die. I tell Valerie that if I wasn't already married to her sister, I'd get in line too.
Sasha's daughter Lena, husband Dymr and little Ulianna have adopted Luda and Valerie as parents and grandparents, which is good as Lena needs a Mama and Ulianna needs a Babushka.
Tanya and Luda are both worried about Papa and Tanya wants to see him alive, not go to his funeral too.
In Coral, Lorne found love and stability. In their new town, Lorne found a home and acceptance. They bought a house which took time and money to renovate. They went to church. Lorne sang in the choir, built props for the local Little Theatre, served on the Museum and Bowling Boards and visited with everyone in town. He worked as a building maintenance person, or for a local plumber when there was work, or at North Battleford or Pierceland when there wasn’t work locally. Coral’s family loved Lorne and he loved them. Lorne and Coral spent summers at their cabin in Northwest Saskatchewan surrounded by her family and enjoying every minute of it. Lorne put his woodworking and carpentry skills to use making cabin signs, renovating or repairing anything anywhere. In 2001, when I was working in China, he insulated, drywalled and put a bathroom in our basement.
A voice was stilled on Earth but the Heavenly Choirs have been sweeter since for Lorne’s rich tenor. If there are lessons to be learned from Lorne’s life, they are “Never give up on anyone” and “The love of a good woman makes all the difference, if you let it”.
Christmas is also a time for remembering. This picture is from 2001. Happier times or "the last good year". 
In 1950 Dad bought a used 
My brother and I went with Dad whenever we could, like this picture of hauling bundles of green oats home for cattle feed. Dad was pretty patient with us as long as we listened and stayed out of the way.
Finally we stopped in Khmelnitskoye (formerly Friedensdorf) where Berny’s family had lived. His father’s house was still standing though unoccupied since Berny’s last visit. When his father lived there, a long stable would have been built on the back of the house and the roof would have run the other way, with the gable end facing the street. 
We also went to the village cemetery where his great grandfather’s gravestone was the only one left standing from Mennonite times. The other stones had been removed to use as building material.
I have read several histories of the Russian Mennonites in Zaporizhzhia so actually being there and seeing where it all happened was rather awe-inspiring. 
There wasn’t a tree anywhere in those days as the prairie fires kept them from growing. Grandpa had to haul firewood 30 miles from an Indian Reserve near Red Pheasant. Grandpa planted lots of trees around the yard; Manitoba Maples, Caragana and Lilacs. Trees that could take the drought and the cold. By 1945 when my folks got married and took over the farm, there were trees in the yard and poplar and willow trees grown up in the low spots in the fields too.
The house was big but it wasn’t really. I think the two storey part was about 14 ft x 20 ft (but should check with my little brother for those details). Downstairs had a front veranda on the west side which we never used, that linked into a lean-to kitchen and unheated “backroom” which served as storage on the north side of the house. There was a big L-shaped dining and living room in the main house, with space along one wall taken up by the stairwell. The kitchen was heated by a coal and wood cook stove and the livingroom by a coal and wood space heater. That was eventually replaced by an oil burning heater which meant dad didn’t have to get up at night to keep fuel on the fire in cold weather any more.
