Please feel free to browse the vintage, black & white photos or the more recent color shots.  The Blog shows a few links of interest to family and friends.  You can look at either of the three albums of photos.   Reading the introduction found in the Blog will give some background information on our family and how they settled in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from Heidelberg, Germany in the late 1950's.   

The photo's comments (click 'comments' below photo) sometimes have little comments.

Uncle Albert (brother of Mother Ruth) and Aunt Sigrid were recently married in Detmold, Germany in an intimate, family ceremony.   Love is a beautiful thing.  All the best, long life and good health to both of you! Cousin Stephanie in Heidelberg, Germany e-mailed these photos.  Thanks Stephanie. 

You can easily share your photos with family or friends on the Flickr website.  Mikey G Ottawa posted a few photos including some old b&w shots from 1958 and earlier.  

 

Once you create a free account-by 'signing up', . . .you can then log-in to the account with your chosen username and password- and send photos that you wish to share . . . to the Flicker website's computers for all your friends and family to enjoy.   For free.

 

For local conditions world-wide (in english), try the site of the National Association of Radio-Distress Signalling and Infocommunications,  Havaria Emergency and Disaster Information Services in Budapest, Hungary (RSOE) and their World Alert Map:

 

 

 

Planning a visit to Canada?  For local weather conditions across Canada, go here:

 

 

 

With radio, TV and now the Internet the world has shrunk.  Marshall Mcluhan invented the term, 'Global Village', and he meant that our world has gotten smaller as distance is no longer the barrier to communication that it once was.  Maybe 'Joe Caveman' had to shout across the valley so that his friend would know that he was not alone.  Today 'Joe Caveman' would just use his cell-phone or send an e-mail.  Here's what Wikipedia, an on-line encyclopedia says about Marshall Mcluhan:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan 

 

 

http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/  -is a tribute website hosted by Mr. Michael McLuhan (MPA).   

 

www.michaelmcluhan.com  is Mr. Michael Mcluhan's own website.  Beautiful samples of his photography can be found here.  Thank you, Mr. Mcluhan for your email.  All the best to you and yours.

Ottawa, Ontario. . .  Canada's national capital has a population of 774,072 people (Ottawa-Gatineau Metropolitan area 1,063,664 people) and I think of Ottawa as a small town with "a big city attitude" and big city attractions.  The Province of Quebec is just across the Ottawa River where we can easily see the city Hull, Quebec and the Gatineau Hills behind.  We get most of the national touring shows and attractions in Ottawa because of our status as Canada's Capital City.  Having lived in Montreal (Quebec), Vancouver (British Columbia), Calgary (Alberta) and Winnipeg (Manitoba), I now make my home here not far from Canada's National Parliament Buildings.  My cousin Rob had been visiting here from Germany and Rob took most of these photos, which I attached below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to confess that creating and maintaining a website is new to me.  A recent visitor here left a trackback (kind of a link to a webpage) to a testing professional's website for teachers.  I noticed and unknowingly deleted the trackback.  Oops.   Sorry.   Couldn't find the site again so I am including a link to

 

http://www.assortedstuff.com/top101/ 

 

which has the top 101 items of interest for teaching professionals, and here's another resource for teachers from PBS, the American Television Public Broadcasting System: 

 

 

 

 

 

My World Time Clock shows Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in London, England.   

 

How you can add comments to Our Global Family that every visitor will be able to read.   There are two ways to do this.  You must have a HotMail address and also a Windows Live ID.   

 

 

 

 Visitors to Our Global Home will find a Memoriam for recently-departed Mother Ruth Gericke (nee Heinrich 07 12 21 - 25 12 05) and a glimpse into the new world of Canada through the eyes of german immigrant families coming to Canada from a post-war,  western european continent.  Originally born and living in Heidelberg, Germany,  Mother Ruth and her two children Ursula and Ralf boarded a ship in Hamburg bound for Montreal, Quebec- the promised land- 'Kanada" (as it is spelled in german). 

 

With time, I hope to add other albums of photos of interest.  Family or friends may want to add contributions or have a great idea to develop.  Let me know what you would like to see here.  Let's see some more comments added to the photos.  If the photo makes you think of something that you would like to share, please feel free to add your comments to either the photo itself or to the Blog found on these pages.  I enjoy all your e-mails.  Thank you.

 

 

 

This is "Our Global Family", our shared internet website where we can view family photos, share comments and add stories to the 'Blog'.  The weblog or 'Blog' is a chronicle of contributions and you can 'sign the guestbook' as my friend, Vinay did.  You can read the comments underneath each photo or add a comment of your own to any photo.  Using 'control C' to copy and 'control V' to copy and paste web addresses, links or even text- you can add text, photos and web links to your entry in the Blog.  You can contribute links to other web pages or sites, as well.  

 

With the recent passing of Mother Ruth G on 25 12 05, I chose to show old family photos depicting the lives of a german immigrant family who sailed from Hamburg, Germany to 'Kanada'- their new home.  In 1956 Mother Ruth came over from Germany with young Ralf, my dear, departed brother (25 01 97) and with my sister, Ursula (whom we call Ushi) and settled in Montreal, Quebec.  Later on little Mike (that's me) was born in 1958 and the family purchased a house and moved to the suburbs, north to Chomedey, Laval.  Ushi grew up and moved out, as later did Ralf.  Later the Chomedey, Laval house was sold and Mother Ruth lived in rented apartments from then on.   After Mother Ruth's health problems, she moved to a beautiful retirement home in south Ottawa called Landmark Court.

 

In 1970, Ushi moved to Vancouver with her new husband Cordell, later Ralf moved to Ontario and married Saskia (Sassie).  In 1976 Mike moved to Vancouver and later in 1978 to Winnipeg before returning to Montreal where Mother Ruth lived, five years after having left home and mother.  Years later, Ralf and his young son, Raymond were killed by a drunk driver in Kemptville on 25 01 97.  A few days later, Mike had a message from his brother Ralf, "Help Sassie and the girls": Nina and Rosie- or was it a dream? 

 

I sold my car, quit my job and moved to Kemptville to live with Ralf's widow, Sassie.  I lived in the basement for six months, helping out where and when I could.  This helped me to feel closer to my lost brother and nephew.  Sassie and Ralf had lived on 4 acres of land in the country with grass to cut and snow to shovel. I was there to 'help Sassie and the girls'.  Six months later they moved to Ottawa and I got my own apartment in Ottawa.  Later Saskia remarried and became Mrs. James N.  Jacqueline was born and now 'the girls' became Nina, Rosie and Jacqueline. 

 

Mom's closest boyfriend, Martin had befriended Mother Ruth in Montreal and they became very close, going on trips together.  Mom was so happy again in those days.  Her loneliness was gone and she had Martin and Martin had Ruth.  We lost Martin to old age and cancer.  Mother Ruth had lost her dear friend and soulmate Martin.  At the top of Mount Royal in Montreal overlooking the St. lawrence River rest the the final remains of Martin.  Mother Ruth's 'pre-arrangements for burial' requested that her remains be laid to rest beside Martin where they will share a place for eternity.

 

The following year, Mother Ruth had two strokes and soon after we moved Mother Ruth to Ottawa to a lovely retirement home called, Landmark Court.  Her last years were spent in the loving care of a terrific staff and premises of Landmark Court in south Ottawa.  Mike lives in Ottawa close by and came for visits with Mom in her last years there.  Mother went into the Ottawa General Hospital in early december, 2005 and passed away peacefully a few weeks later on Christmas Day, 2005.  We miss you, loved ones.  God Bless You Ralf, Raymond, Cordell, Martin and of course, Mother Ruth.