April 10: Visiting the Brood in Devon, England

Just a brief note on my brief visit (Saturday-Sunday) with Uncle Tony and his family in the coastal town of Devon, England. For any non-family reading this, my aunt Alison married Tony and their two kids were very young when she passed away from cancer. Tony was something like 20 years older than my aunt when they married and was lucky enough to find another younger wife sometime after (an excellent mom to the kids) who he had twins and another son with. So now he’s in the rare position of being a man in his mid sixties at the head of a household of five children, all under the age of 9.

Can you imagine?

These kids all seem to stand out individually as being brilliant and creative. Their parents do a lot to encourage it. A chalkboard takes up the entire wall of their open kitchen dining room and I looked at it during a meal to see the word Saskatchewan written there in pink chalk and underneath it I’d say 40-50 words the kids had derived from it.

My cousin Noah showed me a five-page short story he’d written for a contest and it was frankly amazing -- better than most Can Lit at least. (If he wins it he gets to take his whole class to the circus or something). While watching Wallace and Gromlit (?), I looked over at my seven year old cousin Zoë, who was busy scribbling in her little notebook. What are doing? I asked, and in response she showed me a poem she had just written spur-of-the-moment. I read it and was like, What?! That’s so good! Also, the two little twins are the cutest. One of the pair doesn’t have front teeth and the other is constantly correcting the other’s pronunciation until it sounds posh.

Uncle Tony was simply effusive in his hospitality and I left feeling definitely like family. I had a great talk with him on the drive back to the train station. He’ll probably be taking the family to San Francisco next summer so I think the family should all encourage them to stop by Victoria.

Westward Ho! is the only town that has an exclaimation mark in its name, Uncle Tony thinks.

Wow. I know a Trumpy when I see one. Look at this intense little individual.

And finally, a picture that is so cute that I had to make it even bigger than the rest: