Slainte!! We are so blessed aren't we? Slainte is 'to your health" . I have been reminded of this so many times over the past year. Last night I watched a documentary about the emigration of our Irish ancestors on the horrific crossing on the coffin ships during the potato famine.
http://tilefilms.ie/productions/death-or-canada/. Throughout my genealogical research I hadn't really focused on what this must have been like for my gr-gr-gr grandparents and their children. Entire families may have boarded these ships with nothing more than the clothes on their backs and a hope of survival in an unknown country only to arrive with one or two members of the family remaining. No one to welcome them. No place to settle. No one to help them grieve or to mourn the loss of their beloved children and spouses unceremoniously 'dumped ' at sea or left behind to die on Gros Isles. Suddenly missing my children who are spread across the country and continents, becomes something to celebrate because they are happy, healthy and living life rather than merely trying to survive.
So tomorrow Adam, Laura and Abigail will join us for a hike and then we will return for a meal that we can not only afford but are able to choose what we want to eat. We will have a traditional Irish colcannon in remembrance of my ancestors subsistence living on potatoes and their arrival here in Canada under the most tragic circumstances. German rouladen is also on the menu but that becasue we are privileged to have choice about the foods we may consume and not just for sustenance, but for celebration.
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