RIP Henry V Brown

 

1937 - 2024

Henry V Brown passed away August 25, 2024 in Burlington, Ontario after 87 and a half years of adventure, leadership and a full rich life.

Henry was born in Sydney Mines, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia on January 16, 1937 to Thelma and Charles Brown. He is predeceased by his parents, first wife Roma and two sisters and a brother. He is survived by his three sisters and two brothers. His love and admiration for his wife Theresa was evident to all who knew them. He was a devoted father to his four children and loving papa to his eight grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Family was the cornerstone of Henry’s life and spending time with them was his greatest joy.

Henry became a teacher and then a principal by age 19. He was an innovative educator, inspiring the first ever student-built computer in the mid sixties; taking his students on overnight winter ski trips; directing school musicals; and running environmental programs at Pembroke Senior Public School starting in the seventies.

He owned several family businesses in Pembroke including a boat tour company. He eagerly shared his passion for the Ottawa River with countless cruises on the Miss Pembroke, often landing at Oiseau Rock for a corn roast and swim.

In the nineties he fulfilled his lifelong dream of living and working in the Arctic as the senior administrative officer for Cambridge Bay and Broughton Island.

Henry was a changemaker and modelled community service. He served as councillor and mayor on the Pembroke City Council for many years in the seventies. He helped bring geared to income and seniors housing, a second ice surface, and the marina to Pembroke as well as helped facilitate the establishment of Festival Hall. He was an active member in every community he lived in, helping create positive change, including in his final Burlington village community.

His commitment to being a lifelong learner and his determination to remain positive while overcoming obstacles inspired us all. He left the world a better place.

He is peering through a greater porthole now. Rest in peace Polar Bear.

Fresh Air and Sunshine

After over six months of medical confinement, I was pushed out of Joseph Brant Hospital in a less than a comfortable wheelchair. I was free however from that huge medical factory that grabs you and keeps you in a tangle of medical tests and results which leads to more time in confinement.

MOTHER NATURE

The year 2000 sure has been wonderful. Whatever riled her up we will never know but the daily events have been nothing less than specular. Record low and record high temperatures. Record snowfalls and record everything. Is she showing us who is boss or is she just being the powerful lady who looks after our beautiful environment and letting us know we are not doing such a good job.

I am a nature lover and have had a wonderful experience with a mild winter where birds forgot to go south and snow was scarce this year. I see people being challenged with a virus powerful enough to make the whole world take notice. For me, I see a wake-up call where all peoples of the world have to live together and work if they are to survive. I will have more to say in the near future about the dynamics of the world as it becomes a natural part of the universe instead of a world with an angry and selfish existence.

Back Home Again

I have been away from the blogger writing for quite a time. I have been busy working to get well and after two years without being able to walk I am finally making progress. I was encouraged during the past couple of years to receive many contacts from the past. I intend to honour the messages and to return to blogging and enjoying the great pastime of amateur writing and sharing thoughts and ideas about Canada and our neighbourhoods.  

Back Writing Again

I have not written a post for many months as I have been on quite an adventure. I would like to share the details of that adventure with family and friends. Many of my posts will be personal and reveal some secrets. Stay tuned. Just wanted you to know that I am back.

Turning 80

I jut turned eighty and I don't feel one bit different than I did a week ago. On the other hand I did think about some important facts. My life is on the home stretch and I am thankful I can even think about the future. Plans are always on my mind and when it comes to time left I feel very fortunate I can still function in a positive manner and carry out my daily needs in a happy way.

I believe that people do change with older aging in a more mellow and engaging way. We are less judgemental and more confrontable and because of this we become easier to like. Our grandchildren and children as well as friends view us as wiser and friendlier and are more ready to engage us in their thoughts and conversations. As I aged I became aware of other peoples worth and the value of family. I get excited about a family visit or the birth of a baby in our circle of friends.

I no longer worry about little things that don't concern me but think and dream of the wonderful gifts I have shared over the years. My strong belief that we are all people of the universe and subject to the great truth about the natural order of things makes me free of the dependence of man created law that
help to kill the very nature of our being.

Today is

February 17th and it is like summer. I was out on the deck with only a shirt and the temperature was almost 20 degrees. Our little brook was running and all the local ponds and waterways are ice free. People here are being convinced about weather changes as the evidence is here.

When I compare the weather when I was a young lad to the weather today there are some similarities as the East Coast is experiencing very heavy snow falls and windy storms. Maybe with weather changing we are really experiencing a cyclic weather pattern. Global warming is another story.

Overnight Visitor

This morning Theresa had the fright of her life. She went to the balcony to shake the dust off a mat when she heard a growl. As expected she was startled and ran back to the door with the beat  behind her. She got to the door and the visitor growling but remained where he was.
Theresa gained her composer and realized that the visitor a racoon. This was an angry animal and continued growling and taking an offensive stance. Theresa closed the door and took pictures. This little fellow has been hanging around and looking for a home for the winter. When I came home I tried to get rid of him and managed to get him off the deck bet  he only went as far as the area Below the deck. I am trying to make a plan to get rid of him all together but there are laws. So much for the visitor who came in from the cold.

16 Year Tradition

Ever since Theresa, Doris and I moved to Oakville and lately Burlington we have taken a day and made tourtiere .It is a rather simple exercise but we all have our own recipes for this French Canadian Xmas treat. My recipe came mainly from my late Mother in law Margaret. I made them before but she helped and added her special spices.

With Doris and Theresa helping we made as many as 12 pies but this year we decided on six. I made the body of the pie from beef and pork ham bug. I cooked it in the traditional  way by boiling the ingredients in water and making sure the taste was just right. The only spice that I use besides the eight regular ones is ginger. I love to use ginger in many of my items because of the mellow aroma and warm taste.

I make the pastry and Doris rolls it out. I have never seen anyone that could roll pastry like Doris. Even at 99 her pastry is rolled perfectly even and she will be hard to replace while doing this traditional Xmas treat.

Another Feather in Her Hat

Granddaughter Darcy has had a superior year as a hockey coach. She coached her division championship and had a great winning percentage. Her command of the bench and her ability to bring players along had earned her coach of the year in her division.
To top off a great year she was invited to coach in the Ontario games. Her team won three, tied one and won silver as they lost to a better team in the final. Darcy coached well this year and was promoted to coach the top junior girls team this year for Guelph.  Nearly all of her family and friends attended her games held in Mississauga .One of the highlights of the tournament was her meeting Hurricane Hazel.

Last Fanjam

Our family celebrated another great fanjam at Lynda and Peter home. Twenty five of us getting together for fun and games. The girls planned some competitive games requiring skill and agility. Everyone participated and the older folks did very well considering we were three times as old or older. 
We had a special guest at this event as my sister in law Margie and her husband Kevin attended. It was special as we have not had an opportunity to party with them for several years. The weather being fair many went swimming in the pool and some had to be helped to get wet.
Our next event will be Doris's 99th year b'day. She is looking forward to this and so are we.

Fishcakes for the Fanjam

I wondered what would be good for breakfast on the Sunday Morning after the big day before. I had some salt cod so made some Cod Fish cakes. I make the cakes and Theresa and does the cooking on the flat cooker we use for just such chores. It is a traditional favourite food of mine and I try to make them every two or three weeks. I like them for breakfast . Theresa is beginning to like them now but it took some time.

Theresa at the PGA

Theresa and her friend from Ottawa had tickets for the last PGA tournament at Oakville. Her friend Diana won these as one gift when she won the Canadian Championship for Senior Curlers. They wanted me to go along but I would rather see it on the big screen. Actually I could never keep up to them. They were so excited and planned to see certain golfers and so on. They were gone early and arrived home late and tired. I stayed home and watched the game and cooked.

I was so happy to see these friends sharing time together that I tried to stay out of there way. Their friendship goes way back and it is great to see them together. Theresa was actually excited to see certain golfers as she watches the PGA on TV. They took many pictures and I am using some of them to show how beautiful it was at that famous golf course.

Darcy fron BC

Our great niece Darcy has made history in the Brown Family with her Canada wide, two month safari all alone. She drove from Victoria and travelled across Canada meeting friends and family and ended up in Cape Breton where the family had a fanjam.  She has surprised many people with the maturity she has shown by her independence and courage visiting places we are not familiar with but were on her list of must see places.

We looked every day for her pictures and commentary about the places she visited and the impact they had on our traveller. Darcy wrote so beautifully about her impressions and just how she was able to carry on her long and possibly lonely journey. Darcy left me a letter when she left our home and it was very moving with the powerful feelings she expressed. Darcy is our travelling hero and we look forward to seeing her next year in Cape Breton when we have the Buddy Brown reunion .

Global Warming and Extremes in Natural Event

Our weather forecasters have issued a report saying that the last 60 days have been the driest in recorded memory. Crops across Ontario  have been devastated in many areas. Theresa and I travelled up country today and there was clear evidence that areas have been denied their share of rain during the past weeks.

Corn crops that should be green and growing are dry and shrivelled.  A few good rains could help but if the plants get too weak there will be a terrific loss for our farmers. The weather man has predicted rain on many occasions but the clouds just pass us by.

I love Mother Nature and I feel she will get us out of this terrible mess. I feel that the catastrophic changes in our weather where we have extremes in rain and drought are going to be the normal and we have the prepare ourselves for the new weather patterns. We were warned by the experts in the field and we shook off their findings much to our determent. Lets have some faith in our scientists and get with a program of future survival by grasping the truth and becoming a positive force for the good of all people.

Help from Henry and Henry

One of the issues we have to deal with when aging is the need from others to perform tasks that you yourself would have done in the past. However this issue can be solved quite nicely when you have children and grandchildren who are only too happy to help out. This week I wanted to install a new fan in our bedroom. Because it involved standing on a ladder for half an hour I had to call for help.

Help came from my son Henry and my grandson Henry. We managed a great visit as we had our computers tuned up as well and  a barbecue. Steak was on the menu and after the work and dinner was settling I took them over to see our new clubhouse. A perfect day with some of the family.

Man Against Nature

My lawn is a beautiful green and my garden is about as good as it gets. However I am been invaded by rabbits and moles. The rabbits eat my Lettice and I do not mind as I have a secret stash in a container. The moles are sneaky and dig tunnels under the grass and they come mostly during the night but we see them in the day as well. I have declared war on these little Fellowes and went to Canada Tire and bought some heavy duty weapons to get the upper hand.

Mouse traps, glue pads and yes poison in containers that protect other animals from having a toxic lunch. I no sooner set the traps in their runaways when there was a snap and I was one up. All evening I engaged the enemy and was lucky again but from then on they changed their routes and I tried to keep up.

Late at night I set some more traps and during the night I upped my total to three. I think that I am loosing the battle because I still see new trails and a few poking their heads out of the grass. I should give up but it is a matter of principal. How can I let a one ounce furry ball of hungry intent defeat an intelligent 180 pound man?

Pool Table Adventure

The Village of Brantwell has just completed a new Club House. I volunteered to set up the pool room. We were gifted three tables. These tables were slate covered and one was 5 by ten feet. It weighed a ton. I gathered a group of men interested in pool and we undertook the task of taking the tables apart. We then hauled them out of basements and loaded them in my van.

Taking them out of the van and hauling them to the clubhouse was a difficult and physically demanding for people averaging 80 years old. We managed to get them into the basement of our clubhouse. Now we had to put them together and level them perfectly. New cloth was purchased and another task was to stretch it properly over the slate.

None of our group ever did this before but trial and error brought us results on the smaller two tables. The larger snooker table was a mean beast and we actually put it together and apart three times. After completing this task there was only three of us still standing . Neil had to leave so Joe and I played five games. We tried all the tables and felt happy with our work and we really felt proud with the look of these beauties as they grace our new pool room.

Pool Table Adventure

The Village of Brantwell has just completed a new Club House. I volunteered to set up the pool room. We were gifted three tables. These tables were slate covered and one was 5 by ten feet. It weighed a ton. I gathered a group of men interested in pool and we undertook the task of taking the tables apart. We then hauled them out of basements and loaded them in my van.

Taking them out of the van and hauling them to the clubhouse was a difficult and physically demanding for people averaging 80 years old. We managed to get them into the basement of our clubhouse. Now we had to put them together and level them perfectly. New cloth was purchased and another task was to stretch it properly over the slate.

None of our group ever did this before but trial and error brought us results on the smaller two tables. The larger snooker table was a mean beast and we actually put it together and apart three times. After completing this task there was only three of us still standing . Neil had to leave so Joe and I played five games. We tried all the tables and felt happy with our work and we really felt proud with the look of these beauties as they grace our new pool room.