Paul & El

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WORK IN PROGRESS!!

My youngest brother Paul and his wife El, who live in Thailand, were visiting in Canada for a month or so from September into October. They live on the other side of the world and coming home to visit is a big deal. It's a long way to go, there's a 12hr difference on the clock between us, you're going to spend at least 24 hours flying in transit, it's quite tiring with the jet lag, so you don't go that often and when you do, you stay for a while. 

They were here in Canada for a month or so. First visiting family in Victoria, then in Ontario with David and Gail in Hamilton, then the family thanksgiving in Walter's Falls, followed by a week with us (with side trips to Toronto and Hamilton) before flying back. The photo album captures some of their visit. Many photos are cribbed from El's postings on Facebook. E.g., I'd never post a photo of a marijuana harvest on my page.

Paul and El were married here in St Marys in May of 2012 and are not back that often (Paul returned for our Dad's funeral that same year). The last time they were both here was in 2022. We have been to visit them a couple of times. In February 2017, just before Kate retired, we visited them in Songkhla, and continued on to: Siem Riep in Cambodia, a Mekong River cruise to Saigon and on to Darwin and Melborne in Australia for a KBS conference. In June 2018 we were to Chiang Mai, in the north of Thailand, for a KBS conference. Paul and El came and spent some time with us — they were a god send when Kate had a Bell's Palsy event. We stayed in a lovely resort, Yaang Come Village (within the city), that we hope to return to in the winter of 2027.

Of our family. We are/were seven (7) siblings (Ellen, Larry, Tony, David, Reg, Dale and Paul — see Mother's Family Album in this blog) and six (6) survive; our parents are both long gone as are their sibs. We are now the "old folks". The eldest boy sib in our family, our brother Larry, died in 2018. Of the remaining Ellen, the oldest, and Tony (next to Larry) live in Victoria, BC. David and Reg (me) are in Ontario, Dale (next to Paul) lives in Detroit and Paul is the youngest. I'm sure one of the reasons for Paul's visit is to connect with family before they are all gone. If you can only visit every 5 years or so, some won't be here next time. It's a sad fact that we don't live forever (although I've been doing pretty good with that goal ... so far).