80th birthday

Gramma Roy on her 80th birthday.  Taken in our living room, on that brown 1970s indestructible couch!

 

Last of Frank

This is in the back yard at our house on 35th. Frank, John and Jan. 

The date on the print in July 1961, so they would have got this picture back from the shop a few weeks after Frank died in a mountain climbing accident. 

There are a couple of mentions of Frank's death in the online world, but this one seems the most interesting to me. There is a little link on the right of that page that will give you a .pdf file. Thanks to my anonymous checker for spotting that the old link didn't work. 

Father-in-law

I'd love to know what was going on here, but at some point early in my parents' life together, my skinny, young dad went swimming with my more robust grandfather. 

No date, but we could guess 1941 or so. 

 

Grampa and Syd

This picture of a small child is dated 1944, so it must be Sydney, with her Grampa Roy. 

Flowers all over the lawn!

Two women

This picture was taken before my parents were married: my dad's sister and sweetheart. 

 

Betty, Sydney, Frank

Mom and kids out for a walk, March 1946. 

I don't know why this picture was so precisely dated. I would love to have months for some of the other pictures.  

 

Cute soldier

Here's my dad in his army uniform with his parents in 1942. 

He looks a bit awkward and his father's face is hidden behind smoke, but the best part of this picture is the back, "Cute soldier what I love, xx."

Their first child was born in September, 1942. 

Mother-in-law

My mom and my paternal grandmother. 

It looks to me like Grandma is holding knitting needles, but that might just be me. Vancouver, I suppose? And what could they be looking at? Taken in 1943. 

Father and daughter

I don't know when this was taken but I'd say Betty looks quite young. 

Sporty-looking, right? 

Betty, 1941

Part of the family lore is that my parents courted on the canal in Ottawa. Here Mom is skating, but it could be anywhere. 

 

Frankie in England

Little Frank de Bruyn in England in 1950. Our dad was studying at university in London and the family lived in a town called Weybridge. 

 

All the Roy kids

This is from 1941, a few years before the one yesterday. 

Mary Jean, Douglas, Donald, Betty and Bunny with little Frank and Pat in front. 

I don't know where everyone was living then. Is this before or after Betty and Jan were married?

 

All the Roys

This picture should have been the first up! A classic shot. I know some large ones were made but this is just a small one. 

It says along the bottom, "Last time the whole family all there," and I believe that is still true. Both parents and all the siblings were together in 1945, I think when Bunny was just home from the war. 

 Please leave a comment with any more information about this (or any picture)!

There's Jan and his pipe again! 

In July 1941 my parents were recently married. 

 

Some de Bruyns in August 1944

My father, his mother, father, brother and sister. I knew my Auntie Ida, but both de Bruyn grandparents had passed on by the time I was born. 

No idea what house this was, but in Vancouver somewhere, I'd wager. 

Some unknowns from 1964

Five people here.in 1964. In the centre is my Grampa Roy (J.Frank Roy) with Gramma (Inez) on our right of him. Any ideas on the others? 

This could be at their house in Gibsons. 

 

Sydney and Frank on a slide

In July of 1947, Syd would have been almost 5 and Frankie 2, if I am not mistaken. 

 

Guys on Grouse Mountain

In March of 1943, my dad, his friend Mitch and two other young soldiers went up Grouse Mountain and struck a pose. 

 

Dads and babies

My dad is on the right with his 2-year-old, and the man on the left is Mitch with his daughter Anne. 

In those days, it seems my dad had a pipe in his mouth constantly!
 

Ladies in a garden

I thought that these two ladies were my father's aunts, but am now leaning towards the woman on the left being my grandmother and the one on the right being her sister-in-law, Tante Leen, or Aunt Helena. 

My grandmother had very European handwriting. I believe it says "Tante Leen and I visiting the Lukken (maybe Sukken, Lukkes, Sukkes?) Gardens. 

 

Sisters

This is my mom and her sister, who was 10 years younger. In 1941, Betty was 21 and Mary Jean 11. 

 

Winter of 1947

Sydney and Frank, winter 1947.

 

If "winter" means January, they were waiting for a new baby, but if "winter" means December, they already had their baby sister. 

Is that perhaps a skipping rope? 

Betty and Jan, and what I mean to do here

I have some of my mom's photo albums. Some of them are 72 pictures of out-of-focus people we don't know and the pyramids of Egypt, but I have one full of her old family pictures. 

And when I say old, I mean that this is very typical: my parents in, maybe, 1941. 

I know it is maybe 1941 because my sister wrote on the back:

There are also pictures of her siblings and their families, and of course eventually my siblings and me. 

I have a plan, or perhaps more of an idea: I shall reproduce them here in no particular order and tell my siblings and cousins and see if anyone is interested. At least it will help me to know what I have, and maybe we can identify some of the unknown faces. No one's getting any younger around here.