The holiday has existed in Canada since at least 1845, originally on Queen Victoria’s Birthday, May 24.

The holiday is colloquially known in parts of Canada as “May Two-Four”, a double entendre that refers both to the date around which the holiday falls (May 24) and the Canadian slang for a case of twenty-four beers (a “two-four”), a drink popular during the long weekend.{

Hanley, Saskatchewan, had a celebration on Victoria Day as far back as 1905? The reason I know that is because when my mom‘s family came to Saskatchewan there was a celebration in Hanley at that time. There were flags and banners and a merry-go-round. Baseball and foot races.

I only remember it as being a “Sport’s Day” and my Brother Jim would go and pitch for the Strongfield baseball team. I don’t believe I ever went to Hanley, but I can remember it was either really cold or really hot. Jim would come home with such a sunburn when it was the hot sunny day.

I think my dad really wanted to have a son that was a good baseball player because he had played baseball back in Minnesota. I think by the time Jim was old enough to play all my dad probably wasn’t that keen about baseball by that time. How do I know?

I know that Jim tried very hard to be really good pitcher and he probably could’ve become one if he had had any coaching outside our family. All I know is I wasn’t very good at catching the fastball that came out of his hand!

I have no pictures from Hanley celebrations but I have one from Notre Dame at Wilcox.

I hope that summer is on its way!

You should write your life story.

I think it is important and forgive me if I said this before! Every time I’m having a card game with a few people or just coffee, I ask them if they have written their life story or if they have any plans to do it! I explained to them that it’s not that difficult even if you just write it on line paper. If you have access to word document on your computer or tablet you can write it there. Printed out or if it is just on lined paper, you can go to Staples and have it coil bound. BIngo , you have a record of your life for your children or grandchildren to read.

One day when I was waiting at the lab to have blood work done, I was in conversation with a gentleman in the next seat. He said that his Mother was still living on her own and very healthy at 86 years of age and I thought this is a really good time yo tell him to sit down with her and explain how important it is to him if she would write her life story. And I told him just that. He told me that his mom was 13 years old and his dad was 14 years old when they came to Canada from Germany. They had survived WW2 in Germany and met and married after coming to Canada. There must be interesting stories of each parent.

It reminds me of the story of Edith Kesmarky. She was Doc’s (my husband) boss at SGI for many years. She and husband and children escaped from a train that was taking them to a concentration camp. The oldest daughter needed to go to the washroom and all four of them went from the washroom off the train on the other side. It was dark and they trudged through the muddy fields for four hours not knowing where they were going. It turned out when it was daylight that they were safe in West Germany. Edith’s husband was an Engineer and was offered a job with Sask Power when they finally arrived in Canada. I remember her saying they had only $1.87 to their name when they got to Regina.
One friend of my youngest daughter told me how happy she is that I write about my life in my blog. She was at her grandmother’s funeral and after listing to family members recalled many things her Gramma had done. She had never heard any of this before. She wished her Gramma had written about her life.

You can buy inexpensive lined paper to write on. Once you have written your life story, you can take it, as I said above, to Staples to make copies for family members. You can get it coil bound for under $10.00.

Start writing today!

This is World Glaucoma Day. Yes, today, March 12, 2026, is World Glaucoma Day. It is part of World Glaucoma Week (March 8–14, 2026), which focuses on raising awareness about the “silent thief of sight”. The day emphasizes the importance of regular eye check-ups to prevent blindness.

I want to share my experiences with Glaucoma.

My Glaucoma started in 2003

Dr. Monica Jensen referred me to Dr. Kirker to see if I had signs of glaucoma.

Dr. Kirker was full of fun. He always called me, Maureen O’Hara, and he would laugh. He did confirm that I had the start of glaucoma and I began taking eye drops to stop the progress by reducing the eye pressure.

Dr. Kirker retired and I started seeing Dr Douglas and he retired. I was referred to Dr. Gooi and now I see Dr. Penner.

In the past few years, I tried many different eye drops and had major side effects. The last prescription was Monoprost.

Dr. Penner explained to me that the drops were not keeping my glaucoma at bay and that surgery was the only option. I was booked January 5, 2026 for surgery on my right eye and February 17 for my left eye.

This surgery is called Trabeculectomy and they make a flap called a bleb in the white of your eye. My first surgery was on the outer side of the white of my eyeball of my right eye. The 2nd surgery was to the right of the eyeball of my left eye.

The surgery on my right eye kept the pressure down however it caused my eye to be blurry. 4-6 weeks was generally the timeframe for the blurriness to stop. However, after eight weeks, there was still a bit of blurriness in that eye.

The surgery for February 17 was postponed to March 4 when my left eye surgery was done.

When I wake up in the morning, there is no blurriness in either eye, however, I do believe the eye drops cause some cloudiness but it is mild. Right now I am using four different drops; prednisone, bepreve, nirvanac-sandbox-moxifloxacin. These drops are to heal my eye.

For whatever reason my right eye was blurry for seven weeks. With my left eye right from after the surgery I had very little blurriness.

I can see quite clearly with my latest
prescription classes from last summer. However, they up close reading portion of my glasses is not accurate. Dr. Pender said that it takes a good month for the eye to heal totally and I will be able to get new prescription glasses.

Hopefully my eyes will be healed from the surgery soon and I will be seeing OK!

Music in my life.

As far back as I can remember, there was music in our house. My mom seemed to be humming a tune as she did her housek work. And oh yes, my dad loved to sing. His favorite song was “ Moonlight Bay” and without exaggeration I’m sure I’ve heard him sing it 1000 times by the time I left home at 18 years of age.  I was a teenager when my dad bought my mom a piano.  Not that she was ever going to learn how to play but it was there for anyone else to play.

My two older sisters Verna and Georgie kept what we called a scribbler (lined rule book) to write down the words latest songs with the words to each song. They had a system when they listen to the song on the radio that Verna would write down the first line and Georgia would write down the second line, etc. this way by the time the song was ended they had it all down in black-and-white to sing.

My first recollection of my sister, singing songs was one of them or the other would rock me to  in the rocking chair when I was a child. As a matter of fact, until I was four years old, I thought that Georgie was my Mother! Now it all goes back to when the midwife Mrs. Brun brought me into the world. She handed me to Georgie and told her that she would have to look after the baby because mother needed a rest.  I was actually the 10th baby my mother had.

We didn’t have a piano.  However, I think by the time I was five years old, my brother Gordon, who was 14 years older than I was, had a guitar. Gordon also owned an accordion. My brother Gerald had a trumpet, a clarinet and the saxophone. I do believe both my brothers learned to play the piano after they turned 50.

We did have a Radio and it was the center of attention in our house: listening to the news, listening to dance bands from radio stations in the USA in the evening or late at night. (reception was exceptionally good at night). One of the favorites that I believe was on every Saturday night was Guy Lombardo and the Royal Canadian band . Music to sing along and dance to. 

And my Mother listen to one soap opera at 10 in the morning and an hour of soap programs between 1 and 2 PM. And in the winter, we listened to the Hockey Night in Canada program every Saturday night. Go Maple \Leafs!

Oh the horror when the batteries for the radio ran out and we never had an extra set of batteries I suppose because of the cost. Anyway, my dad would hightailed to our closest town Strongfield to get a new set of batteries.

I think by the time I would be 8 years old we had a record player. It was a majestic piece of furniture at least 4 feet tall on legs and two doors at the front. The top was a lid that lifted up on hinges.

 My siblings who would be teenagers at the time would makes some money and buy the latest records for us to enjoy the music.

My sister Georgie learn to play the piano where she worked as a housekeeper. Her older sister Verna once she became a school teacher learned to play the piano that was supplied at the schools where she’s taught the students. My sister Edna became a school teacher and learned to play a piano at the school as well. Edna became a music teacher and could hear a song once and play it on the piano. She had a fantastic ear for music.

My sister Verna reluctantly came back home to teach at our local school,Stanford, when the teacher left halfway through my first year at school. We were so lucky to keep my sister for the rest of that year and the whole next year. Verna was by far the best teacher I ever had and she taught us so much more than what was in the curriculum. We had a variety of extracurricular games. We had spelling bees, geography bees, and sometimes we sang songs all afternoon. Verno played the piano and she brought out her song books so we could follow and sing along.

 When I moved into an apartment with three other girls, the first thing I bought what’s a console Record Player with Radio.  It played 33+ 1/3  long play records and I was off to the races buying my first Frank Sinatra album called “Songs For Swingin Lovers”.  After I gave away my records, of course I went out and bought the CD of the same name.

I guess you could say I’m still old-fashioned and that I still have favorite CDs that I play on a regular basis. I have a variety of artists from Ella Fitzgerald, Garth, Brooks, Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Anne Murray, Carlton Showband, Leon Redbone, lots of Dixieland jazz and of course, my favorite band The Eagles. 

Modern technology has given us the ability to click on your I remember, iPad almost any song you want to hear.

I was fortunate that there was a music teacher at the end of our street where are my children took piano lessons. I remember Colleen and her dad, Doc, coming home from the movie The Sting and she immediately went to the piano and played The Entertainer from that movie.

Modern technology has given us the ability to click on your I remember, iPad almost any song you want to hear.

I was fortunate that there was a music teacher at the end of our street where are my children took piano lessons. I remember Colleen and her dad, Doc, coming home from the movie The Sting and she immediately went to the piano and played The Entertainer from that movie.

I mentioned at the beginning about my dad and his love to sing. However, I want to mention the fact that my dad had a twin brother Paul, and “oh how they could harmonize”. My fondest memory of listening to them singing was when I went with the two of them in the car to visit an uncle about 100 miles from home. It wasn’t long before we left home that they were singing and they sang a lot of songs in Swedish, but also songs from the 30s and the 40s. One of the songs they sang in English first and then in Swedish was a song “After The Ball Is Over”.

Peter and Paul Stone

Mostly, I like words and music. There are some instrumental pieces that I like, especially the piano. Mostly, I like words and music. There are some instrumental pieces that I like, especially the piano.

Music makes me happy.