Pelee Island was my home for the first nine years of my life. Mom had come to Pelee in 1925; Dad in 1930. My earliest memory goes back to the summer of 1939. I was seventeen months old and Maria Fast was dying of Tuberculosis. Her husband Peter Fast was mother’s cousin. Their children were Erna Fast Janzen and Mary Fast Brown.
Maria had asked my parents if she could see me. Because Tuberculosis was considered very contagious at the time, I could not enter her bedroom. My parents and I drove down to the Fast home on Henderson Road.
What I remember is this: Mom carried me to the Fast’s bedroom window. I looked back and saw Dad leaning against the car. Mom held me close to the window and there I saw a lovely lady sitting in bed smiling. When she waved her hand, my mom took my hand and waved it.
That incident, my first memory, is as clear to me today as it was then nearly 68 years ago.
AK 2008
