Tuesday, July 5, 2022
Sorry to read about Mabel’s passing. She was my second cousin, my mother, Jean, and her mother were first cousins. Mabel was often in at my parent’s home in Red Deer. Us kids, quite inconsiderately, would always ask her if she was married yet and she inevitably replied “no.” We almost always exchanged Christmas cards and letters and this inconsiderate ribbing became shorthand. I’d end my note with a “?” and she would always end hers, unfortunately, with an “x.”
We always looked forward to her Christmas letters and knew something was seriously wrong when they stopped coming. They were always three or four handwritten pages, full of news, that ended with a few added handwritten lines specifically addressed to us.
Mabel was a faithful representative of her branch of the family at our branch’s events. Last I saw her was at my Uncle Walt’s funeral in 2015. Just last night, as I was scanning photos into my computer, I came across one of her at our wedding.
It is always great when relatives are are friends. Mabel was just such a relative. Carol and I will miss her, as will my siblings and the rest of the Walter J. Lynn family.
Lynn Straiton
