POST # 483
The year was probably 1971, but I could be off by a little bit. In any event, it was a very long time ago.
I was at dinner with a friend from my elementary school. We hadn't seen each other for a quite a few years, and so the conversation ranged far and wide. At some point we got to talking about our respective families. Both families have five children, and interestingly enough, there are four girls and one boy in each. In addition to that, the order of boy/girl was exactly the same, with the four girls arriving on the earthly scene prior to the single boy.
The conversation proceeded somewhere along these lines:
Me: "Well, there was actually another boy born before the rest of us, but he was stillborn."
Her: "Lucky you. If your brother would have survived, you probably would never have been born."
Me: "Why on earth would you think that?"
Her: "Your mom and dad would already have their boy, so there would be no urgency to have another one, and the family name could continue on to the next generation."
Me: "Oh I really don't think that that is the case, it's just the way things happened."
We chose to disagree on this topic, and soon the conversation had shifted to other things, as there were plenty of stories to tell in the short period of time that we had together.
In spite of the fact that I rejected her take on the family arrangement, after we parted ways, I couldn't help but ponder what she had said to me. The more that I thought about it, the more I started to come around to her point of view. One of the main reasons for shifting my position was recalling the numerous times over the years that my dad would tell me that it was my responsibility to carry on the family name*. I heard that on many occasions, and never gave it much thought at the time. But now, the idea that mom and dad kept having one more baby in the hopes that they would finally get another boy started to make sense in light of what my friend had mentioned.
We'll never know. For whatever reason, I never brought the subject up with either of my parents while they were still alive, so the mystery will remain. So of all the things to talk about, why would I talk about something that happened about fifty years ago when I was still a teenager?
The answer to that question is in the photo at the top of the post. You see, at my current house sit, I am for the moment, pet-less, so I have plenty of time to go for walks each day. Yesterday was a brilliantly sunny day here, and seeing as sunny days have been few and far between lately, I wanted to make sure to get out and enjoy soaking up some vitamin D, and get some exercise as well.
Not far from this place is the appropriately named, Mountain View Cemetery, the one and only cemetery in the entire city of Vancouver. It was opened in 1886. It certainly lives up to its name.
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