This beautiful story is shared by one of our followers in Calgary, Alberta.. Lila Miller thank you it is truly lovely!!
My Great Great Grandfather Richard J Kimmitt was born in County Cork in 1832, he married my Great Great Grandmother Ann Dawson also born in Ireland.
They emigrated and landed in New York, some time during the great famine. They had a son John Thomas Kimmitt in 1854 in Janesville,WI. He married Delia Bridget Ward born in 1854 Ireland. Of their 9 children my Grandfather John James Kimmitt was born on Dec 15,1883 in Mason City. He married Katherine (Katie) Breen born May 22,1884 in Marshalltown IA.
My Grandfather moved his family back and forth from the US to Canada during the days of the great Depression. He was a Rancher/Farmer of his 11 children my Dad was the fourth born son Richard Lyle Kimmitt on September 8, 1913 in the small hamlet of Burdett in Southern Alberta.
M
y Dad and his brothers were soldiers in WW2, he was injured but returned from the war and He married my Mother Florence Elizabeth Lanz born April 7, 1920 in Etzikom Alberta (near the US border) on January 24,1946. The wedding was in Burdette , Alberta and the weather was so bad with a winter blizzard that all the guests had to sleep at the Reception hall or the nearby hotel. The next day they were able to leave for their honeymoon in Niagara Falls, Ontario. They raised my 3 Sisters and two brothers and myself on a farm near Foremost, Alberta with no electricity or running water until 1959 when they moved to a farm 2.5 miles from another small town Bow Island, Alberta.
Growing up here we always had a Canada Day Parade, a baseball tournament, and gymkhana events which I participated in with many of my cousins. In the evening there would be fireworks with lots of mosquitoes to keep us occupied as that was one of the major new irrigation farming hubs of Southern Alberta.
I remember celebrating Canada’s 100th birthday in 1967 and drawing the Confederation Maple Leaf in school. I also remember drawing the new Canadian Flag when the Union Jack was replaced .Congratulations Canada on another milestone Birthday, “The True North, strong and Free”.
