I would like to share one of my fondest memories of my ‘Auntie Ann’. I was so very pleased that she always kept in touch with our family (my father John was one of her brothers), considering the distance between us (Ontario/Alberta). It was wonderful of her to attend two of our family reunions, the last being in Salmon Arm just a few years ago (the ‘last’ being understandable as you will see when you read on). I didn’t realize that camping was not her favourite pastime when I invited her to attend the Salmon Arm reunion with me. She may have first imagined staying in a nice big Winnebago or some such thing but no such luck, I had a little old Boler camping trailer and even though very small and cramped, it could sleep two (no indoor plumbing, of course). No problem we decided, we would spend the majority of our time outdoors anyway enjoying the sandy beaches and famous Okanagan sunshine. As it happened, we ended up ‘enduring’ a three day weekend of endless, non-stop, ‘buckets of rainfall’ that resulted in disappearing sandy beaches and drenched tents, lawn chairs and camp fires. The sand disappeared into sand bags to keep back the over flowing banks that flooded the camp ground. Once the weekend ended, we still have to face a fourteen hour drive to ‘home base’. Auntie was a trooper throughout it all and simply made the best of a bad situation. She didn’t really have much choice I suppose being that far from home and besides, we all kept thinking that the torrential rains had to quit ‘anytime now’. Because Auntie Ann always had a great sense of humour, I sincerely believe that she wouldn’t mind me sharing this, one of my favourite memories of her. I am truly going to miss her....