WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR MAY 2020

My Dad was a brilliant man and could do anything handy that you would ever need. A “Jack of all Trades”. One summer Sunday when I would be 6 in September and my brother had turned 2 in February my Dad decided he would made a grill in the yard and we would have a picnic.

He bought charcoal briquettes and placed them inside a circle of rocks. He would attempt to light it but it wouldn’t go. It would heat up and turn to ash but not get that brilliant red that’s required for grilling. He moved a few feet and added another circle of rocks. He did this about 4 times along the dirt driveway.

I was his go-fer “go for this, go for that”. At one time when I was gone to get something my brother decided to take my seat. I had been sitting on a little red wooden chair that was my Mother’s as a little girl. I asked my brother to move but he was 2 and didn’t listen to me. I asked again and he still didn’t listen. Dad told me to leave him be, but of course I didn’t listen. As soon as Dad turned his back I pulled the chair out from under my Brother. He fell arm first into one of these little piles of charcoal my Dad had made. The charcoal was not hot enough to cook on but it was hot enough to give my brother 2nd degree burns.

He still has scars and relishes telling anyone that will listen, often more than once that I pushed him in a fire. When I was home when our grandmother passed away we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs the night before my girls and I were flying back to Alberta. His son was 5 at the time, my brother says “Wyatt, you stay clear of Aunt Tracey around that fire, she likes to push little boys in fires. In 2016 when I took my Grandchildren home he warmed my Grandson as well. It’s all in good fun and I truly enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. I think I need to call my brother this weekend.