Sentimental Sunday - A Very Belated Tribute

My mother told me about 20 years ago, that Margaret, my 1st cousin once removed, was very involved in our family genealogy.  The letter shown, was from Margaret to me at the time I was beginning to do research on my Canadian line. What a sweet letter and I received a nice packet of information.  But..I never wrote back!  (I believe her writing is quite readable, so I am not transcribing it.)

It wasn't until the early winter of 1998 that I contacted her by phone, only to hear her tell me that she was moving into a retirement home soon, and had donated all her genealogy material and old family possessions to the Missisquoi Historical Society (Quebec, Canada).  I was pretty upset with myself for not keeping up with the correspondence and also for not visiting her.  Winter came and went, then in the summer, a friend from my genealogy club went to Brome, Sutton, Canada to visit her, on my behalf.  Several months later, my husband and I made the trip and by then, it wasn't the time to discuss genealogy!  She passed a way 1 1/2 yrs. after my visit.  This was a valuable lesson to learn.  Don't wait, don't put off and any of those other don'ts when it comes to people.  I can't wait to chat with her when I get to heaven; I think we will be best buddies.

From The Loyalist Gazette, "At this meeting a memorial tribute was paid to the late Margaret Doherty Ellis, a founding member of our Branch, who passed away on 11 March 2001. She was a descendant of Loyalist Andrew Ten Eyck, one of the original land grantees in the Township of Dunham, the first township to be granted in the Eastern Townships of Quebec in 1796. She will be greatly missed and always remembered by our Branch."