Helena Burgess nee Fayle
Helena Burgess and Allan Miloff 1938
Helena Fayle came to Canada from The Isle of Mann in her teens to work as a Domestic. While working in Canada she sent for her siblings two brothers, John, and William, and a sister Elsie. She met and married Allan Burgess and had 5 Children John, Charles, Allan, Mark, and Eleanor.
I was her first Grandchild, the son of Eleanor, and became probably her favorite, for that reason.
At this writing I don't know her age when she died, but it was pretty good and in fact outlived four of her children. While she lived to a pretty good age, it wasn't as good as her sister Elsie who lived to be 101 years old. Most of her life was lived at 107 Hope St in Port Hope Ont, in a home built on radioactive mine tailings from Eldorado Mines, which had a big uranium processor in Port Hope on the Ganaraska River, and Lake Ontario.
Grandmother was a very hardworking woman, as was my mother who took after her in that area. She was a very meek and mild woman, except if you got her riled. Her son Mark, my uncle was badly wounded during the second war in Belgium and was in the hospital recuperating when an Officer came around for an inspection. While checking out Mark, Mark is said to have puked all over the Officer, who put Mark on some sort of report and had his pay docked. After hearing about this Grandmother contacted her local MP complaining and the Local papers found out about it, causing a big stink, and correcting the situation . I remember her making roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy, and used to tell her she made the best gravy. Grandfather used to like his roast beef with the blood coming out of it, and I didn't like that but the gravy was great. What grandmother would like more than anything was to come to the CNE and play bingo. I swear she could play 10 cards at once while I had trouble playing 2 cards. She was also generally a happy person, although I couldn't figure that out at times.
I was her first Grandchild, the son of Eleanor, and became probably her favorite, for that reason.
At this writing I don't know her age when she died, but it was pretty good and in fact outlived four of her children. While she lived to a pretty good age, it wasn't as good as her sister Elsie who lived to be 101 years old. Most of her life was lived at 107 Hope St in Port Hope Ont, in a home built on radioactive mine tailings from Eldorado Mines, which had a big uranium processor in Port Hope on the Ganaraska River, and Lake Ontario.
Grandmother was a very hardworking woman, as was my mother who took after her in that area. She was a very meek and mild woman, except if you got her riled. Her son Mark, my uncle was badly wounded during the second war in Belgium and was in the hospital recuperating when an Officer came around for an inspection. While checking out Mark, Mark is said to have puked all over the Officer, who put Mark on some sort of report and had his pay docked. After hearing about this Grandmother contacted her local MP complaining and the Local papers found out about it, causing a big stink, and correcting the situation . I remember her making roast beef and mashed potatoes and gravy, and used to tell her she made the best gravy. Grandfather used to like his roast beef with the blood coming out of it, and I didn't like that but the gravy was great. What grandmother would like more than anything was to come to the CNE and play bingo. I swear she could play 10 cards at once while I had trouble playing 2 cards. She was also generally a happy person, although I couldn't figure that out at times.
posted by Allan at 4:03 PM
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