Page 42 - Venie's Letters to Her Dad, 1898

ISSUE : Issue 65

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1994/1/1

The placenta came before the child, and she hemorrhaged. My parents lived for a time in Gabaroose after they were married. My father opened a small shoemaking place. After some time they moved to Halifax. My oldest brother Fred, and my brother Wesley, who died at age 5, were born in Halifax. Jacques-Cartier Motel kitchenette units available / telephones in all rooms P. O. Box 555, Sydney, N. S. BIP 6H4 (902) 539-4375 or 539-4378 or 539-4379 SYDNEY - GIiACE BAY HIGHWAY FRANCAIS 2 Kilometres de I'Aeroport ENGLISH Imagine this as your office... Imagine a farcer al sea... bccominji an oHlccr in the Canadian ('oasl Guard. If ()ii art' finishing (Irade 12 plus G OAC's (Ontario), ChXiKP 1 (Quebec) or Ciradc 12 (oilier provinces) in your university prcparalor program this year, if ()u excel al math and physics, and if you think bif?... 1 lead for tlie freedom, the excitement and the challenge of a sea-going career witli the Canadian (x>ast Guard. The four-jear Canadian Coasl Guard officer training plan offers: • Tuition-free training • A monthly allowance • Practical sea training • A modem, attractive campus in Sydney, with private rooms 1*1 My mother loved Halifax. The nice churches with the big pipe organs. She also told about the "Red-Light district," where the women of "ill fame" lived, and tried to entice men in as a spider does the fly. Later my parents moved back to Sydney Forks. Grampa Howie gave them a piece of land. Father started a shoe repairing place there. By this time (1880's) machines liad put his hand-made shoes out of date. Which was why he had to leave Halifax. My brother Howard Armstrong was born at Sydney Forks. Then Venie. Her full name was Catherine Lavenia Isabell. Then sister Emily came a year and a half later. She ,was called Emily Mary Margaret. Then a year and a half later I came. They were running out of names by this time, or my moth? er thought be? cause she was so sick they thought she was dying, they let me be christened Wes- lend, at her re? quest, after Wes? ley who had died of scarlet fever at age 5. This was a heartbreak to my mother. Years after when she would tell us about him she still would cry. The three of us coming so quick? ly, one after an? other, Wesley's death, and her mother's death around the time before I was born, wrecked her health, along with poverty. The shoe repair busi? ness brought in a very small living. Then Hughie Mac? Donald started to contract on wharves and bridges, and my father started working with him. But a year or so later he caught Typhus Fever. He almost died. He had a perforated PIl-uh' send nw more informatiiin on Ihc (.anadum Ciiasl f iuard College: Canadian Coast Guard College CanadS

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