Monday, January 30, 2017
The relationship between the Carters and the Maguires goes back to when Ray and Dad were school chums. They both served overseas not knowing that experience would change their lives. They both married English war brides and brought them to Canada. My mom Peggy got passage to Canada in January of 1946. For a few months prior to getting on the farm that spring, Ray and Pat and Gordon and Peggy lived together in a house in Elgin. Peggy often chuckled at her memories of those times together. I can only imagine! From those times, our families were knit together celebrating Christmases, New Years, birthdays and anniversaries together. We had fun. A frequent memory Mom always shared with respect to Pat''s gift as a seamstress is rooted in a trip to Clear Lake for the two couples. Pat needed a new sun outfit, spied the floral drapes in the living room and voila! A wonderful pantaloon and halter top - we have the picture as proof! Finally, our 2 mothers were soul mates. They spent many times, happy and not so happy over a pot of tea in each other's kitchen. They braved their lives as farmwives together through thick and thin, canning peaches without sealer rings, baking lemon pies totally in the over, and learning how to drive in a ModelA and an old Plymouth in a summer fallow field, once Ray and Gordon had shown them the gears.
When I think of Pat, I think of great bursts of laughter, great family times, her grit and determination and her constant, principled love for her family and friends.
We are thinking of all of you in this loss. Jeff Carter
