McKay family memorial

Family Life


Some of Billy’s family L to R: Mom, Cathy, Pam, Gloria, Laura, Austin, Peter and Jon (who is furious at what they did to Billy–or maybe it’s the heat)

On Saturday, a number of us braved the extreme heat to watch the unveiling of a plaque dedicated to my Mom’s great-uncle, Billy McKay. Billy owned a farm in the Coxwell and Mortimer area, including the fields for what is now the Civic Centre and the Hospital, which he sold to the city for a dollar. Which is what he got credit for on the plaque.

It doesn’t go into the full story though. The city of East York got greedy and wanted the rest of Billy’s land. Billy was somewhat eccentric–he liked animals more than people; he built a farmhouse to share with his bride, but when she jilted him he didn’t use it and lived in the barn with his animals. Working on his eccentricities, first the city re-zoned his farm, upping the taxes, and when he kicked up a fuss they then trucked him away one night to the Mimico Asylum. The next morning they told all the neighbours that he had died. The city appropriated the land. The records are “missing”. Billy died in the asylum.

Mom and Colleen–feel free to add or correct my recounting of Billy’s history.

Apt

Jon, Thoughts & Musings

Jon got to try out an iPod for the first time the other day. He had no idea what it was and got quite rigid with fear when we inserted the earbuds and encouraged him to hit the centre button. After some convincing he clicked it on, jumped when the tunes started, then slowly broke into a HUGE grin and breathlessly said “It’s a little computer that plays music!”. Which is a whole lot more succinct than Wikipedia’s description.

Suzuki Family Reunion

Family Life

On Sunday we headed out London way for the Suzuki family reunion. Since she grew up on the West Coast, Laura never got to know much of the family on her dad’s side, as they were based in Western Ontario.

Until yesterday, when she met about 100 of them.

Wow! What a great party! Held at Diane’s idyllic farmhouse, the weather was perfect and the food was heaping. Four generations laughed and played together. And tried to figure out who was who (Jill’s nametags were great, but there was still a lot of mental math).

We even got to visit with family we actually know, but rarely get to see.

As usual at any large gathering, Jon retreated into his shell a bit, but it was great to see him have some one-on-one time with Severn and Sarika.