Both sides worked for the railway, one on train engines.
One side came to Alberta in the very early 1900s, the other came over from Poland and Finland following WWII.
Grandma "ran away" to Canada from not a great situation back home, found work in Red Deer as a nurse in the 50s.
Difficult early lives pretty much all around, grandpa was shot in the war and had friends with him that died, carried that with him pretty much the rest of his life.
Very grateful that they all persisted through what they had to experience and I hope in these (mildly) screwed up times we remember how great we still have it in comparison, and I sincerely hope that we don't ever go back to such extremes because of our differences.
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