Chapter 34
A Happy Meeting

In April 1986, Evelyn Tinnish and I met by sheer coincidence. She had a small post office in her home in Tantallon. We were together occasionally throughout the summer. I developed eye problems in October that year, and learned that it would be necessary to have cataract surgery eventually.

At the end of March Dr. Ashe performed surgery which did not turn out perfectly, partly because there is another problem that does not always respond well to treatment. At that time I learned of the cataract condition, October 1986, my left eye was almost totally blind because of hemorrhage. So, do not have very good sight. Yet I have no trouble driving and can now read reasonably welt without a magnifying glass.

Evelyn and I were married on May 16, 1987 in the United Church in Tantallon. It was a joyous occasion, and although the church is not large, it was filled with families and friends, some from a distance. Lorraine, Carol, Charlie and Fadiah, Carl, Marg, Bev and Ed Sobush of my family attended. My son Charlie was my attendant and Carol contributed the musical portion of the ceremony. Evelyn's sister, Doris, from Alberta was her attendant. Our minister was Jeff Cook of Esterhazy. Rev. Charles Ritchie of Calgary assisted. Mrs. Freda Miller was organist. A reception and supper was held in the skating rink hall, and we received many lovely gifts.

We spent the year of May 1987 until April 1988 tending the Tantallon post office and trying to have some garden on Gary Tinnish's property. Gary and Sharon lived on the south side of town while we lived on the north side. It was almost necessary to drive the car down there to work in the garden. I guess it was almost a quarter of a mile. It was a very dry spring and the garden needed rain right from the time it was planted. The farmers were delaying seeding waiting for rain. The crop was very uneven at maturity and the wheat was a lower grade because of green immature kernels. It wasn't a good year to grow much of anything, although the crop in the Tantallon area was much better than in my original home area at Midale. Many plants in our garden that are subject to damage done by flea beetles were largely wiped out before we realized what was happening. We had very little broccoli, carrots, lettuce, peas and beans were poor as were beets. Sweet corn was almost nil, but we had good potatoes, a dozen hills, and tomatoes. Evelyn's brother Lawrence bought some corn at a market garden down rear Moosimin and we scrounged some more in a similar way, I've forgotten where.

This was also the summer when the community of Tantallon was planning a school reunion the last days of July. The personnel spearheading the affair to my knowledge were Lillian Clark, Jeanine Howie and Evelyn Tinnish-Truman. No doubt they had a lot of very good help but by now I have forgotten who they were, probably many of them I was not well acquainted with. Also two of our nieces who live in British Columbia were planning a family reunion to be held in Kelowna during the last days of July and into August. I would be going to Kelowna at the time of the school reunion in Tantallon so I missed it all. Tantallon school reunion served supper to just over 1000 guests on the eve of their official programme.

Evelyn had received an extension of one year on her employment with Canada Post, which would expire on February 28,1988. Accordingly we made plans to remain in Tantallon until the spring of that year. In March 1988 the Tantallon community arranged a farewell party for Evelyn. It was a total surprise to us. We knew there was a Come and Go Tea planned for that Sunday afternoon, but we were never told who it was for. Gary and Neil, Evelyn's sons, were working at renovating Evelyn's front rooms after the Post Office equipment was removed, and were in the process of putting down rug.

They were anxious to get everyone out of the way. "Why weren't we getting ready for the tea?" Well, Evelyn said. "I thought we wouldn't go yet for a while, it's still early." Sharon and Diane were all this time coaxing and asking, "What are you going to wear?" etc. All of a sudden, one of Evelyn's sons, as a ruse, suggested to her, "Get yourselves dressed and get out of here, we have a lot to do and we'll get along just fine without both of you." Evelyn and I drove to the sports complex buildings called the Civic Centre. Where do we park? At the end of the line, wherever that was. We went in the front door and suddenly it appeared they were waiting for just us. The sound of applause was followed by a greeting from Lillian Clark who showed us to our seats. A program followed depicting Evelyn's adult life in the community over a period of many years, working in a store, tending switch board, post-mistress and figure skating club promoter. Her most trusted lady friends had even raided her house in search of clothing to wear during the many periods covered by dialogue on the platform. Lunch was followed by congratulations, good wishes for the future and tentative good-byes. When we arrived back at our house we noticed the carpenters had put on the finishing touches of converting the house to a residence.

All we had to do was get packed and move to Midale, which proved to be not so easy. We had difficulty finding a mover, to be moved by professional movers would be very costly. Murton Howie said he would move a couple of loads up on his halfton truck. Carol sent some of her family up with a halfton for a load. and Keith Eckersley also moved a halfton load. Along with what we could load into our cars, it was pretty well taken care of.