Sunday, January 17, 2021

EMIL

        I mentioned that Dad started spelling his name in a different way from the family spelling. I could never understand why he changed it except that as a kid he started spelling it differently and kept on. 

        However, when we were born he registered us as Kline. I'm not sure what was on the marriage certificate.

       Economic conditions improved after the war. He bought modern machinery with two other farmers. By 1948 he had his own machinery and was independent. In 1948 he built a house. What a treat to move out of the old house and into a spacious residence. However, my brother and I still slept in the same room and bed even though there was an empty bedroom. 

      Dad also bought a new car and truck and was able to pay for them so this shows you how good the economy was.

      Tragedy struck in 1953 when his eleven year old daughter Doreen died after a short illness. He never came to terms with her loss and missed her the rest of his life. 

      Those who've had families know that children soon grow up and leave the nest. I left in 1957.

      In the mid 1960's Dad wanted to travel and so applied for a passport. He filled all the forms out very carefully. A few weeks later he received a letter from the government saying, "Mr. Kline, we have never heard of you!" What a shock! So Dad had to do the usual thing about going through school and church records to prove who he was. Dad thought that Grandpa had forgotten to register him when he was born. I accidentally ran into some information that said that the records for Saskatchewan children born from 1910-12 were nowhere to be found. They have no idea what happened to the records. So Dad's birth registration was one of the ones lost. 

     In his mid 70's he began to think about his accidental name change. He worried about his estate. So in his seventies he finally legally changed the spelling of his name. 

      Tragedy struck again in 1971 when Mom died . Dad remarried in 1973 and he had another 30 years of happiness with our step mother. 

      Dad enjoyed 20 winters in Phoenix. When insurance became too costly he stayed the winters in Manitoba. 

     He had good quality of life until 85. At that time macular degeneration took away his eyesight. Shortly after that Parkinson's set in. In 1990 he went into a nursing home and died in 2008 at age 95. 

     Dad led a very active life in farming, community, church and retirement. Did I ever tell you that he liked fishing? He was absolutely nuts about fishing. I remember spending time ice fishing with him. We would be on the ice all day.

39 comments:

  1. Oh my! What a full, meaningful life he had, Red. He was obviously hard working, loving and adventurous. I love how you and your brother shared a room even though there was an empty room in the house. It shows the love between you two.

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    1. Dad had all these things but he had hardships.

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  2. What wonderful memories you have of your Dad! I can imagine the problems he had to deal with because of his birth registration records being lost. Your Dad sounds like a very special man that worked hard and lived well. You have written an excellent history of his life!

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    1. He did have faults and we tend to ignore those.

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  3. Your father was in a nursing home for eighteen years. What a massive expense that must have been. Better to remember the ice fishing and the fact that he built his family a new house. What a guy Emil was.

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    1. Well. Red made a big mistake here with his aging brain. Dad went into the nursing home at age 90 so he was in for five years. ( You can se where the 1990 came from.)At that time they took your pension for nursing care. It's much more now. Thanks for picking up the error.

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  4. I like reading this material, which are good overviews of lives lived.

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  5. Hello,
    Your Dad had a happy life, lucky to find love twice. Wonderful memories and post. Take care, enjoy your day! Wishing you a happy new week!

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    1. The loss of our sister was a major blow nd he suffered for a long time.

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  6. Such amazing family history. I really enjoy these posts that you share.

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    1. These were ordinary people and yet their lives were interesting. They were peasants in Russia.

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  7. You do come from some long-lived stock, Red. So different from mine; I've already outlived both parents and I'm not yet eighty. I love your family history posts! :-)

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    1. Well, Mom died at age 59. Looking back from this point she was very young.

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  8. Sounds like your father was a hard-working, industrious man. He certainly did well providing for his family. He was a good inspiration for you and your brother.
    Thanks for sharing these great family histories.

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    1. He was hard working but didn't always work smart.

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  9. I love reading the history of your family. Your father had such a long, rich life.

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    1. Thanks. Yes, he was able to do many things that others would miss.

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  10. Loss of a child is always hard because it goes against the expected natural order of things. Your Dad seems to have had a pretty good life all things considered and given the hard era in which he was born.

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    1. You would know Graham. She was his only daughter so that was hard.

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  11. That is quite a story. Strange how someone lost all those birth records! That must have presented problems for lots of people! Did your dad finally get his passport?

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    1. If he didn’t, how did he spend all those winters in Phoenix?

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  12. Such an interesting family story. I really enjoyed reading it.

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    1. Looking back it's hard to realize how large the challenges were,

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  13. How fortunate you were to have your father so long. It sounds like he worked hard but enjoyed retirement for many years. He did well and deserved every minute of enjoyment in his life.

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    1. Dad liked people and love to visit and socialize.

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  14. I like the way you leave us hanging. Sad how records can be lost. I tried to reconstruct my father's life; he never spoke of it. I wrote for his army records, and learned all those records were lost to a fire.

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  15. What a long and full life he had, and so many changes he witnessed.

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  16. Sorry to leave you hanging. There's much more that could be told. Dad told stories continuously. There were always the same.

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  17. It sounds like your dad and you are a lot alike. I'm new to your blog so forgive my question. Do you still have your brother?

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  18. That's fantastic you have such fond memories of your dad Red, it sounds like he led a wonderful life, less the passing of your sister and the complications with his name spelling. I often wonder what my dad would have been like, he passed when I was four years old and have very little memory of him. He was an extremely successful farmer, owned outright a section and a half of land, cattle, machinery and the small home we lived in until he passed. It all went after he passed, little by little it was chisled away and our inheritance went away before our young eyes. Sad when I think of it, so I don't often think of it.

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  19. Hi Red, I like to read over the comments before writing my own. Marie said pretty much exactly what I was thinking. You've done a nice job of giving us the Kline family history over the last several posts.

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  20. This has been so interesting. I've just read your posts back to Traveling Back to the Homestead. So sad about your sister Doreen and sad that your dad missed her so much. She and I were born the same year.

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  21. Emil was a popular name in the Scandinavian community I grew up in. I was thinking your dad was German, though.

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  22. Your Dad's story is interesting Red.

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  23. Your Dad has a wonderful story...thanks for telling it:)

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  24. your father seems like an excellent man with many skills and great love for life and people dear Red!
    thank you sooo much for making us part of your beautiful family history

    this is scary how two years record missing can cause trouble to so many
    when i learnt how he never stopped missing his daughter who died ,it reminded me my late mother who would make all of us cry with her most of the days when she would mourn for his son died out of TB

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