Family Stories of Kith and Kin

Today, 1 November is also the Day of the Dead.  It is a joyful celebration to remember family members and friends who have passed away. 

This year we lost a number of family members but two were both kith and kin. In May, we lost my mother's older brother, Terence Pineau. My father, Danny, met Terence in the Royal Candian Air Force, I think, when they were both posted to Beaverbank, Nova Scotia. So, my uncle Terence was my dad's friend before they were brothers-in-law. It was Terence who brought my dad home to visit his family in Halifax, where he met my mother, Anne. As for my uncle Terence's wife Helen, she was my mother's friend before Terence and Helen began dating. My mother was Helen's Maid of Honour at their wedding and a year later Helen was my mother's Maid of Honour. So, for both my parents, their friends became family. 

Helen and Terence's wedding

Anne and Danny's wedding

We also recently lost a cousin of my mother's, Ivan Arsenault. Ivan was a second cousin. I'm not really sure of their relationship. Ivan was about three years younger than my mother, so it's unlikely that they met on Prince Edward Island before my mother's family moved to Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were living in Alsask, Saskatchewan, a small radar station of the Pinetree line, when one night my father called from the Junior Ranks Club. He told my mother that there was an Arsenault from the Island and they were probably related. As the story goes, my mother said: "Don't be ridiculous not every Arsenault from the Island is related".  Well, it turns out if you're an Arsenault from PEI, you probably are. Anyway, they hung up, but later in the evening, my dad called back and said: "You have some of the same uncles, I'm bringing him home". And that's how we met Ivan Arsenault. In Saskatchewan, we were a long way from any family, Ivan is the first relative I remember meeting. My mum's parents and their youngest children had visited us in Foymount, Ontario, our previous posting but I don't recall that visit at all and my dad's mother had visited us in Alsask but I only vaguely remember that visit. My mother and Ivan probably met as children on PEI during the summers as Ivan used to help his father or grandfather with deliveries.  But it was way out in western Canada that we all became both family and friends.

Ivan and Terence were good friends of my father and all three served in the Royal Canadian Air Force as Air Defence Technicians or Air Weapons Controllers. Our families would be posted together at 21 Radar Squadron in St Margaret's New Brunswick.

Ivan Arsenault

Terence Pineau

Danny Stewart

So, in this month of Remembrance and on this Day of the Dead, we will remember them. I've read once before that as long as we are remembered we will never truly die. 

Remember your family and friends, both kith and kin, they are part of your story.