Tomorrow Dad Would Be 100 Years Old

      My Dad was born August 31,1912 and died Feb. 8, 2008. So he was a little over 95 when he died. He was a large strong healthy man but Parkinson's took its toll towards the end of his life.

Dad with some of his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Parkinson's had taken away all facial expression.

     A couple of funny things happened with Dad's age throughout his life. I have to work backwards on this one.

      When Dad turned 65 he very proudly applied for his old age pension. The government department wrote him back and said , "Mr. Kline, we have never heard of you." This really shocked my Dad. His birth had been registered . He'd gotten married and he paid income tax from the time he started earning money. 

     So you don't argue with  the government. He found the necessary documents to prove how old he was. He found an old school register which had his date of birth. He found his baptismal certificate and something else that proved he was born in Canada on Aug. 31,1912. In due time he received his pension.

     Now Dad thought that his Dad had forgotten to register him at the local office. He thought his Dad was busy with harvesting and just forgot.

     In 1939 when WWW II started most young men in Canada received a form letter inviting them to join the armed forces. Dad never got  a letter and when the pension issue occurred he just thought that since the govt. didn't know he existed they didn't send him a letter inviting him to join the armed forces.

     When Dad told me his story I came across some information on the registration of births , deaths and marriages in Saskatchewan in 1912. Apparently all marriages and deaths were recorded accurately. Some how the births were not recorded for two years. So this is why the Govt. did not know that Mr Kline  existed. It was the government's fault. It wasn't because Grandpa forgot to register him.