First Monday without Kelsie

Today was the first Monday without my little pal.

It was an easier day than yesterday.

Yesterday it felt like my heart was physically broken with pain. I never knew you could feel like that over the death of a little dog. 

It helps that Robert is recuperating from gall bladder surgery from only 5 days ago. What a week this has been.

As I remember the things Kelsie did, and how many memories I have of her, I'm writing them down and will share some of them here. These photos were taken Sunday, Sept 23, 2001. It was Kelsie's first walk in Central Park in Burnaby. She just loved it!

I'll never forget that day as in the evening, Robert's mother, Ruth Houben, died. Twelve days before that was 9/11. It was a terrible time in my life, but Kelsie added such joy.

Here Kelsie has spotted her first squirrel. Matthew enjoyed walking her, and played with her for an hour after school each day. They were best buddies. When Matthew moved out in Nov 2008, Kelsie didn't know where he had gone. He visited once a week every Tuesday since then, and Kelsie would often wait and watch for him at the kitchen door, when it was time for him to come home on Tuesday evening. Somehow she always seemed to know it was his day.

Kelsie was always happy, and whenever I had a migraine, she sensed something was wrong, and she would lay by my side in the bed the whole time I was recuperating, or she would sit on my feet. She was my ray of sunshine on the darkest day. It helps to write about her, and remember all the good times. We had 17 years together!

Memory Monday: Going to the Farm

I've always enjoyed drawing.

I majored in Art in High School, put together a portfolio for art courses in college, and intended to go but had no funds. After getting a job at Canarim on Granville Street downtown as a credit clerk I discovered the joy of the weekly paycheque, so although I saved a great deal of money, I never did get to art school, and instead after 4 years of office work I got married and used the money as a down payment on a house, which in Vancouver BC was a wise investment, and maybe much better than two years in college!

Here are two hand drawings of a look at every day life in our family.

I wish I'd drawn more, but at the time I didn't think our life was all that exciting.

However, each summer as soon as school let out, we headed South to the USA. My Mom loved to visit Amity Oregon, where her brother Ed Brutke lived on the family farm where she had been born, and had grown up. To this day she misses the fields of Amity, and the quiet peaceful life of the farm. She only lived there for 19 years but it's still in her blood. She's now been in Canada for 60 years and is truly more Canadian than American! The drawing above shows the family car loaded up, with my Dad not shown as he's inside the garage locking up. Poor Dad never had a modern door with a remote garage opener; instead he had a heavy wooden door which had to be locked from the inside. Rain or shine he had to go inside the garage first, open the door, and heave it up with his arms. Poor man....Sugar was Leona's pet rabbit, bought in Richmond when she was 8 years old. At the time of this drawing Sugar was 5 years old, and I believe she died shortly after. Leona always loved pets. My Grandma Williams, who lived just two houses up the lane, took care of our house, garden, lawn, and any pets we had.

We usually stayed for 1 - 2 weeks at Uncle Ed's and had a marvelous happy vacation.

Another drawing...actually hand painted by myself with a simple paint set. I was only 13 and I was really proud of this drawing in my sketch book. The farmhouse is still there, with a new owner. It was sold in 2005 and we visited in 2006 with my parents. The place is changed but basically the same, yet not the same, as strangers now live there. But I'm happy someone bought it. I believe it was only $125,000 for the house and the acreage. A secret dream of mine was always to live in it, but of course, I'm not a farmer and it would be too difficult for Robert to commute to work, as I'm sure he could find work with his expertise in software design, but I don't think there is good WiFi in the area.

We visited again last summer in 2015, and the whole area is now greatly changed with the trees chopped down and many new large homes built. Uncle Ed and my grandparents, Adolph and Helen Brutke, would be horrified. 

Change is inevitable, so these old drawings which bring back such happy memories are a sweet blessing to me. I'm glad I didn't throw them out!

By Loretta Houben

Memory Monday... remembering our old house on Monmouth Ave.

I haven't done a Memory Monday post in a while!

I often dream about this kitchen.

Many a time I washed dishes at this sink.

Many times I had my hair washed in this sink.

I would stretch out on the counter, and my Mom would suds my hair and rinse it.

Oh the happy days!

I learned how to bake at this kitchen counter.

I made pancakes on Saturday mornings.

The first cookie I baked was "Joe Froggers".

I made a chicken and rice dish for Robert when I was dating him in 1981.

There are just so many happy memories associated with this room!

I did all my homework at the kitchen table, and I learned how to sew on Mom's sewing machine at this table. I wrote in my diary, I composed poems and stories, I coloured for hours, and I had good chats with my Mom here.

That's my Mom, Susan Williams, in the photo above, dated Feb 13, 1998.

She and Dad had sold their house for the vast sum of $285,000.

They bought a lovely brand new condo in Burnaby, and are still there.

I love how my parents kept their house so nice and spotless. The house sold in one day.

And here I am many years ago, when the house was brand new.

We'd moved in at the end of 1963. I can still remember going to look at this house at 

3382 Monmouth Avenue in Vancouver BC. There was brown paper on the floor and I had to stay on it and I couldn't figure out why. I remember the drain holes in the basement and outside the basement door. The whole house seemed huge! At first Leona and I had our own bedrooms, but in 1965 Marlene came along, and then Leona and I shared. I didn't get my own room until 1977 when my Dad built a room for me downstairs. I stayed in it for 5 years when I got married in 1982 and went on in life to acquire my own houses.

What memories two photos can bring out! 

My parents re-did the cupboards in the 1990's, and had a new sink installed.

In both cases the sink was white porcelain. It's much better and much prettier than stainless steel!

By Loretta Houben

Memory Monday....Happy Leap Day!

Happy Leap Day!

This is only my 2nd leap day post on this blog, as I neglected to do it in 2008.

I have a brother in law, Dan Morgan, whose 14th real birthday is today.

I think it would aggravate me if this was my birthday, as I love birthday celebrations too much!

The little diary above belongs to me, and I diligently wrote in it from 1971 until 1974. 

I wrote every single day except once or twice. It's really interesting to read the thoughts of an eleven to fourteen year old girl.

The above was what I wrote for February 29, 1972.

Mrs. Simmons was our next door neighbour to our right. She lived in a small white house with one floor; no basement and no upstairs. I loved her little house. She had a living room with pink wallpaper, and a 1950's style theme of trees etc all over it. Near her large front window, in the corner, she had a huge TV. I remember going to her house to watch the moon landing in 1969, as we didn't have a TV yet.

Past her living room was a kitchen, and we used to watch her cooking or washing dishes through our dining room window! She never closed her curtains. She never knew we watched her. She had a budgie hanging in a cage by the back door.

Past her kitchen there was a hallway with two bedrooms and a small bathroom on each side. Once I had to crawl from the back porch through her bathroom window, into the house to open her kitchen door as Mrs. Simmons had locked herself out.

Isn't it interesting what you can remember just by a diary entry?

Mr. Mark Buch was our Pastor at the time, at the church we attended from 1969 to 1976 in Vancouver BC: the People's Fellowship Tabernacle on Victoria Drive near Kingsway.

He was a very jolly man, and when he visited us he usually brought large candy bars as gifts. I always liked him and his sermons. The services aired live each Sunday on KARI. I was always so impressed with that.

By Loretta Houben

Memory Monday...the family cookie jar.

I just love this photo. It shows the kitchen counter area and sink at our little house on Euclid Street in Vancouver BC. I lived here from 1960 - 1963. I remember the kitchen the best, and a bit of the living room. I can't remember any other part of the house. I don't remember the bathroom or my bedroom. Isn't that odd? I remember one hot summer day watching my Mom cut a Popsicle in half, and wishing I could have the WHOLE thing! I loved store bought Popsicles. I also remember eating toast at the kitchen table which was just across from this area in front of a window. It was a very small house.

I recently inherited a large yellow cookie jar, and this is the only photo in which it appears. It's behind the loaves of bread on the left side of the counter. 

I remember my Mom's delicious cookies, especially her gingersnaps which were my favourites. My Mom has always been an excellent baker and cook. She rarely bought cookies when we were growing up.

This picture was taken a few days after I was born, in June 1960. My Mom's sister, Lydia and her husband, Louis Buzynski had decided to drive up after their mother's funeral in order to cheer up their father, Adolph Brutke. Can you imagine? Yet no photo exists with him and I together. It's really odd to me. My poor Mom was exhausted with my birth in which she nearly died from a hemorrhage, and she was grieving for her mother who died when I was 10 days old on June 25. 

Yet here all this company came to visit, unannounced, and they all stayed in this little house! 

It's so strange what family members will do. And there's my dear Mom making lunch for everyone as in those days no one went out for fast food as they couldn't afford it.

I do so wish I had a picture of me and my grandpa, whom I never knew.

He died in 1971.

By Loretta Houben

PS: Here are recent photos of the cookie jar I just can't part with.

My Mom gave it to me in 2015. It's sitting in my kitchen, but if I ever had to fill it I'd need at least 3 dozen or more large cookies! It's in fantastic condition.

Underneath it says "Royal Haeger, R1657 USA".

I looked up that name on Google and discovered that it's a pottery in Illinois near Chicago, and was founded in 1871!

Update on April 12, 2023

The Haeger Potteries closed May 2016, shortly after I created this post.

They had to close mainly due to rising costs. 

They were in business for 145 years.

I found a history of their website on Wayback Machine, which scrolls the web and saves photos of many sites that are no more.

I saved the history pages to my Genealogy files.

By Loretta Williams Houben

Memory Monday: Life in the big city.

Oh woe is me!

This is my neighbourhood above and below.

This is where I've always lived.

Beautiful Vancouver BC.

The two pictures are from this website.

In the picture above, I've circled our house at the top, to the right of the tower on the left.

The large circle around the 3 towers shows what it will look like when the development is finished in 2017. The foremost tower closer to Kingsway will be 36 floors high.

The one behind it on the corner of Vanness and Boundary will be 33 floors high.

Sometimes I could sit down and cry. Our lovely view of Central Park will be blocked.

The hole for the towers was dug in the spring of 2013 and I've never seen such slow building. Two lanes of Boundary Road are constantly blocked and there is only one lane of traffic even in rush hour. It's just horrible but of course will be a thousand times worse once the towers are filled with people. The thing which irks me no end is that around 20 single family homes were torn down to make way for these towers. The site on which they are situated was once two quiet residential streets. Some of the houses were brand new. Yet the city calls this "progress". Yes, it really irks me!

I grew up a few blocks away on Euclid Street.

Our home faced the area where all the towers are now, which you see to the left of the new ones. In the late 1950's when my parents bought this little house, there was an apple orchard. A few months after they moved in, the trees were all taken out, and then just before my parents moved in 1963, the site was developed for warehouses, which remained until 1994, when they began to be torn down to make way for the towers. The whole area has changed so much, it's actually hair raising.

The above photo shows me and my Dad in the little Euclid house back yard.

It was on the corner of Tyne and Euclid. It was torn down recently and a huge monster house is in its place.

Me and my Mom in 1961, with the fairly undeveloped neighbourhood in the background.

Tyne Street is behind us. A low rise complex was built in the 1970s just behind, and now there are towers in the distance.

Me and my little cousin Melodie in 1962, at Euclid Ave.

Now a school field and Collingwood Neighbourhood School are across the street.

The front of our little house on Euclid St in 1961.

Helping my Dad in 1963. He built the fence along the front and later that year we moved to Monmouth Ave to be near Grenfell School. You can see the vacant area across Euclid St. The rest of the road hadn't been developed yet, and for nearly 30 years warehouses were here, and now around 8 towers are here, with the Skytrain in the distance where those houses are.

I believe Ruby Street is just ahead. I can't make out those blurred houses, but most are still standing.

I wish the picture was more clear.

I find it fascinating how residential neighbourhoods change. This area was once all bush and trees, and Kingsway was an Indian path. A hermit once lived in our area in a tree stump. And in 1911 the first library was in a house on Ruby Street just across from where we live.

This area has a lot of history and it is very interesting.

Loretta Houben

Memory Monday...100 years ago on Oct 26, 1912

100 years ago on October 26, 1912, my mother's parents, Adolph Brutke and Helen Gusa were married in Taylor, Texas, USA.

I have always loved this solemn picture of the wedding couple.

Helen made her wedding dress and veil. I wish I knew if it's still around.

Helen loaned it to her sister-in-law, Helen Keene, and she kept it.

I have a photo copy of their marriage certificate, and the bride's name reads:

Lina Guss!!!!

Originally we thought this photo was taken in 1913, but it was actually taken on October 26, the wedding day of my grandparents.

The couple is Pauline and August Gusa, Helen's parents, and her siblings.

Helen also sewed the girl's dresses. How I wish I had one of them!

They are so pretty.

(notice that the carpet in both photos is the same...a clue)

A copy of the marriage certificate.

I love the handwriting!

Memory Monday...Happy 57th anniversary, Mom and Dad!

My Mother, Susie Brutke, before becoming Mrs. John Williams on Sept 3, 1955.

Wow, that is 57 years ago!

Rita Braun was her maid of honour.

This photo was taken in my Mom's room in the farmhouse in Amity Oregon.

My Mom wished to have a church wedding, but for some unknown and mysterious reason which I've never been able to fathom, the Apostolic Faith church which she belonged to didn't allow church weddings. The ministers claimed they were sacrilegious. This changed in later years, as Robert and I were married in a church in 1982.

So my parents had to be married in a hall or a garden, and my Mom chose her parent's garden.

Fortunately it was a beautiful summer day.

I have always thought my Mother was a gorgeous bride!

Here are my aunts:

Lydia, Emma Casteel, Patricia Brutka, and Freida Thompson.

The picture on the wall behind them is my mom's parents on their wedding day in 1912.

Aunt Pat did a lot of the decorating. She had quite the skill for this! She also helped at my wedding.

Aunt Bertha serving the new couple some punch. This was in the living room of the house my Mom grew up in, and this table was set up just outside the bedroom where she was born.

I think that it's so neat she was born in this house and married in it.

The lovely couple cutting the cake.

Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Memory Monday...Brutke/Gusa History

One thing always leads to another.

I was looking for something online, and I stumbled across a farm for sale in the Eola Hills in

Amity Oregon. This is where my Mom was born, and the picture below shows the old homestead to the right of the picture, off the SE Eola Hills Road. How I loved driving up that road from Amity in the hot summers of my childhood, without any air conditioning! I used to get so excited as we rounded the curve. In the picture above, you will see SE Gusa Road. I was doubly excited when I discovered this yesterday, as I never knew a road was named after my ancestors! This is so neat for me. I asked my Mom about it, and she said, oh yes; it was named after Grandpa Gusa (my Mom's mother's parents) because they built their house there, and a road had to go through.

My next mission is to find out the name of the creek which ran through the property.

Here is the old farmhouse, pictures taken in 2003 after my Uncle Ed Brutke passed away.

This is the long gravel lane which ran down from SE Eola Hills Road.

My parents and I on the front porch.

The side view of the farmhouse.

This is the trunk which my Grandma Helen used when she immigrated to the USA in 1910.

Matthew standing beside the wood burning stove.

I wish I could go back into the past again!

Happy 50th birthday, Leona!

Spring 1962.

50 years ago...and by the look on my face I was not happy at things to come.

Me and my Mom, Susie Williams, waiting for the happy event!

My Mom and baby Leona Joy, May 1962.

Baby Leona is nearly as big as me!

Leona and I playing with toys, a thing we often did together.

I did most of the talking and she obediently listened.

In the back garden of our new house on Monmouth Ave.

Leona and I loved to play outside. Each sunny day right after breakfast we were let loose in the yard.

My Dad built a rather high wooden fence all around and we were not allowed out of the yard.

That changed as we grew older.

Isn't Leona adorable? I think she was age 3 in this photo.

Leona age 8.

June 12, 1964: taken downtown Vancouver BC by a street photographer.

Leona in my Dad's arms.

Leona (sitting on the right) with the whole clan at Prospect Point in Stanley Park.

1973

Christmas 1974; Leona loved horses!

She also loved gardening and sewing.

This is just a selection of a tiny piece of Leona's life.

(I don't have too many photos scanned in.)

Wishing you all the best in your 50's, Leona!

May you have a marvelous decade!

Memory Monday....Doll Museum in Laidlaw BC

In working on my first project for 2012; decluttering my bedroom, I was putting away some paper things that I can't bear to part with, and so was also sorting through my stuffed file cabinet.

I came across the above brochure. I had forgotten all about this place.

I can't find anything about it on the internet, and wonder if any of you who read this blog remember it?

There was actually a wonderful doll museum in Laidlaw BC in the 1980's to the early 1990's, I believe.

I'm not sure of the dates. I went there once with my parents a long time ago.

It was filled with marvelous dolls of all description. It closed quite some time ago.

It seems like nothing lasts around here.

This is the back of the brochure.

It's a good thing I'm a pack rat just like my Dad!

By Loretta Houben

Memory Monday...Apostolic Faith Church Vancouver BC

I'm scanning in old photos which my Dad, Jack Williams, took 60 years ago.

Time flies when you're having fun!

The above brochure was one I had kept in my memory box.

My Dad would glue these to the church newspapers.

This little church was at the corner of Kingsway and Rupert Streets in Vancouver BC.

It was demolished in 2002.

The interior of the churh, April 1954.

Photo by my Dad, Jack Williams.

I remember these chairs. The church got pews later in the 1960's so I was a small girl when I sat on these chairs. I remember Leona nearly folded up in half in one of them.

Looking the other way in the interior of the church.

April 1954.

Photo by Jack Williams.

December 1953.

Sunday School Christmas program rehearsal.

My Dad is in the back row, at the end on the right hand side.

His little brothers, Bobby and Dennis, are also in the mix.

The Vancouver Apostolic Faith choir, October 1954.

Most of these people are now gone. I remember them so well.

Oh, the happy memories of days gone by.