All around us, every day, history streams by in a fascinating whirl of old people, older buildings, or even the person sitting next to us on the bus. And we ignore it. We rush in and out of the old post office, slip past the doddery lady on the sidewalk, and even forget to ask our family elders about their past until it’s too late. For the most part we don’t care. Until we lose someone and experience that fleeting moment when we think to ourselves, “Oh, I have to ask Mom about that first house we lived in.” Before the thought is even completed, we realize we can’t as Mom is gone.
Last June I got the chance not to forget, and I even had my camera along to make a video of my 90-year-old aunt, Helen Lumb, speaking to the last ever graduating class of Beachville Public School. My nephew, Noah, was in that class, and my Aunt Helen had spent her first two years of school there, 85 years before, a fitting link between them and the school.
Helen Lumb grew up in the Beachville area, was a Continue reading
