Holliday Visits With The Family, While in Ottawa over Christmas visiting with our daughter Vanessa, Scott and a members of his large family, we took time out to visit another member of our extended family. This meeting was a strange renewal of a long standing relationship. At Christmas, some of you may have welcomed home a child you had sent away last September to their freshman year of college. The returning individual, however, might have developed into a worldly-wise sophisticate, who sported the self-assurance that may only be assumed by those who have earned their own place in a strange world. While visiting the Museum of Canadian History in Gatineau, we turned into a five room exhibit entitled, ‘Rebellion and Confederation.’ Imagine our surprise when we came face to fabric, as it were, with a cushion made from a gown worn by one of W. H. Steeves’ daughters to a ball at the Quebec Confederation Conference in 1864. We recognized her, of course, but just as with your returning freshman, she now had a new aura about her that had been hidden during the years she lived among us in the Steeves House Museum Parlour. Oh, there was no outright snubbing on her part, but, then, the red velvet she lounged upon and the subdued lighting that brought out her best features, made us hesitant to casually approach her as for years had been our custom. She was surrounded by flattering signage, which described her unique place in Canadian History. The other artifacts that shared her sumptuous room each reflected a part of Canada’s creation story. However, and we admit to a strong bias here, that scrap of material on the cushion, saved from a long ago dress that had been worn to a ball one hundred and fifty years ago proved to us that those Steeves sisters, like all of their cousins who have come after them really knew how to strut their stuff. Cousin Kathleen & Paul
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 22:17:36 +0000
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