Dear Anne ,
You are thirteen now! I have been trying to recall my life at thirteen, and I am sure that the girl I was at that age and the girl you are would have little in commom. Tremendous changes have taken place in the more than a half a century between us. A child living in the first part of the twentieth century had few of the convenienecs that we have today, and she wouldn't know such words as radio , television,electricity,furnace.
Today Grandpa Willy and I had breakfast in New Brunswick ,and lunch in Boston .When I was a child it took almost six days to travel from my home in British Columbia to Vancouver, six hundred and fifty-five miles away. Seems unbelievable, but I shall tell you tales of my childhood which you may think equally incredible.
Just before I was born on June 27, 1892, my father went away to work in Boston , but my mother remained in British Columbia . Our own house had not been built yet, and my mother continued to live in her father's house. It was there that I was born,and my earliest memories are of life in the home of my maternal grandparents, Russell and Gurt Spiddle .
One of my earliest recollections is of being asked to take a cup of water to my grandmother who was ill. I obediently took the cup and went to her room. There she lay with her eyes closed, looking very ill. I was terrified, but I had been sent to give her a drink. I did the only thing I could think of - I threw it on her face and ran to the kitchen. At Grandmother's startled cry, my mother and Aunt Sandra came running. They were shocked at my unusual behavior and never allowed me to forget the incident. I don't think they ever knew why i acted as I did. Since I was just four when Grandmother died, ( in 1899 at the age of 52 ) I wasn't very old when I committed this " awful deed ".
