Nicholas Miloff Jr.
A couple of years after we were all married and my mother and father's death Anne and I and the kids decided to go down to Kitchener to the Market and check and see if my fathers name was engraved on the stone in the Cemetery. We went to the market first and were on the top floor and I was carrying Amanda who was an infant at the time, and was preparing to go down the dark steps to the first floor when I noticed that no one was on the stairs and there seemed to be a phalanx of cops surrounding someone on the stairs heading up. I noticed it was John Deifenbaker who was born in the area, and knew that he would be swamped with onlookers as he reached the top of the stairs. I moved back into a corner so I would be out of the way because I was carrying Amanda, and Mr Deifenbaker noticed me backing out of the way so he came right over to me an shakes my hand just as Anne's mum appears and I tell her to get her picture taken with him which she does, but the picture doesn't turn out. I was impressed by Mr. Deifenbaker even if I was a Socialist, he reminded me of an elf, very friendly and mischievous.
After finishing at the market we went to the Cemetery to check on the head stone, and were surprised to see that the name hadn't been engraved on the stone so we went home and contacted the Funeral Director to see what had happened, and got assurances that it would be done. A couple years after my fathers death my mother dies and as we thought everything was left to George my stepfather, and life went on, but a year after mother's death we find out the George has Cancer of the esophagus and that he won't last for more than a year. Within the year George dies and then a new ball of wax develops. We find out that the entire estate is left to Anne, what a mess. The only good thing was that when we made out the deed for the cottage it was supposed to be made out so if George dies it gos to me and if I die it goes to George but that was not how George did it, he went behind my back and changed it so If I died first my share would go to my estate and if he died it would go to his estate. The problem being that Anne my alleged half sister inherited his entire estate, no one else got anything. The second good thing was that Anne told the Lawyer to turn her share of the cottage over to me as that was supposed to be the way it was done in the first place. The lawyer Mr. Hermant calls me one day to say that he has the papers turning the cottage over to me and that I should go to his office to collect them. I went down the next day and as an afterthought I say how much do I owe you and to my surprise he says $230.00 which was all that I had in the bank what with Anne not working at the time taking care of Allison and Amanda at home. I wrote him a cheque and ask for a receipt at which time he tears off a flap of an envelope and writes me a receipt on it, was I pissed off. I proceed to Parry Sound the next day after taking the day off work in order to file the papers with my name alone on the will. All the while after getting this bill which I thought was overcharging me I'm wondering to myself what can I do. When I get to Parry Sound I go to the Government Office to file the papers and find that Mr Hermant the Lawyer omitted something and I had to find another Lawyer to straighten things out, which I did, down the street, was charged another $10.00 which I did not object to, returned to the office and filed the papers. I ask the clerk how long it would take and he said that I would have the papers in my hands in a couple of weeks. On my way home from Parry Sound I am giving this cottage deal a lot of thought and come to the conclusion that I will tax Mr Hermant when the cottage is properly registered in my name because as far as I was concerned the bill was far to high, and because he was working for the estate and that was part of it, there in all likely hood shouldn't have been a bill at all.
I knew and felt that this Lawyer Mr Hermant was a real asshole and as soon and as soon as he found out I was taxing him he would be calling me on the phone with threats about taking the cottage back, so I went to Radio Shack and got a devise the goes on the phone, and hooks into a tape recorder which we had at home, and told Anne to start taping any calls that come in and if it isn't Mr Hermant shut the machine off. The next day I go to work and get caught up a little early and when lunch time comes I rush down to the court building on York St. in Toronto to file the papers required in taxing a lawyer. At the time of filing the clerk tells me that if my plea is not successful I will be required to pay the lawyer, Mr Hermant for his time before the Judge, or Taxing Officer, I nod ok, thinking I hope I just didn't double my bill. When finished with the papers the clerk advises me that I will now have to serve the papers on Mr Hermant, and I wasn't ready for that, because I felt very angry and was afraid of what I might do or say when I saw him, but what the hell, in for a penny, I head off to Mr Hermants Office to serve him the papers, loaded for bear. Mr Hermant wasn't there so I gave the papers to his secretary, who was very upset when I did, and she wouldn't sign a receipt that she had gotten the papers. I go back to work and call the Court and tell them that I couldn't get a signature for the papers, that Mr Hermant's secretary wouldn't sign the receipt. The Clerk at the court tells me I will have to visit another Lawyer and swear out an affidavit that I had served the papers, and I'm thinking oh no another charge. I no sooner get it straightened out what I have to do and Anne calls me on the phone. Mr Hermant has called home cursing and swearing threatening to cancel the whole deal and carrying on something aw full. I ask Anne if she had thought to record the call because this was a little early for the call I knew would be coming. Anne said that she had and if we got it it should be pretty good, because of the way that he carried on. I told Anne not to do anything with it until I got home and we would rewind it and listen to to it. After getting off the phone from Anne I called Hermant's office and when he heard it was me let out a string of invective that made my ears burn, but as soon as he finished, or maybe before I started on him calling him everything I could think of under the sun at the top of my voice and everyone in the office, which was a large office with perhaps 25 people stopped talking and started to listen to me thinking that I had gotten into a fight with someone. When I am finished yelling Wayne Jackson comes over to me all concerned, and not knowing who I was talking to and asks me just that, who was I talking to and when I tell him, my Lawyer he turns white, I guess worrying what will be the outcome of this monumental outburst, by me. I tell him not to worry that everything was under control, and a brief explanation of what just happened. After finishing work for the day I head home and find that Anne has taped Mr Hermant and gotten the entire litany of threats on tape. I tell her that I was going to have to visit with a Lawyer and swear out an affidavit that I had served Mr Hermant, thinking out loud who would I use as I never actually had a Lawyer. I'm thinking that when we bought our house, Mr Norman Todd was the Lawyer for the vendor and that when we closed out our second mortgage he seemed nice enough, so I would call him. It was still early so I called him, and he said that he would be around for a while to come over. I went to his office on Yonge St and he notarized the papers for me and asked me what it was all about. I told him at the same time as wondering what he is going to think about me taxing another lawyer, and he never seemed upset about it at all, and because of his reaction or lack of, I tell him the charges and that I think they were to high for that job, and what he thinks of it. Mr Todd thinks about it and tells me that if he really wanted to screw me he could run the bill up to $75.00 or $80.00 dollars. I tell Mr Todd about the tape recording of all the threats, and he tells me to take it to court, and offer to play it to the judge, but if the judge doesn't want to hear it just forget about it. Mr Todd then asks me what I do for a living, and when I tell him that I work for the railway, the CNR he perks up a little and proceeds to tell me that his father was a conductor for the CNR working out of Mimico on the SOD and was actually the General Chairman for the Union. When he found out I worked for the railway he wouldn't let me out of his office regaling me with his stories and wanting to hear my stories, and all the while I'm worrying I hope he isn't going to bill me for his time.
He didn't bill me for the time we spent talking about the railroad , in fact I think he only billed me for the affidavit that he did for me. Mr Todd did tell me one funny railroad story though, and it bares telling here. It seems that he worked for the railway at Mimico in the summer while school was out and he was working filling up the Steam Engines with water as they came in for water, but that entailed filling the tower as well and as the gauge on the tower was not working he would have to watch that the tower never got to full or it might collapse, under the weight of to much water. Mr Todd told me he got talking with someone and forgot to watch how much water was going into the tower, which was like a large wooden barrel on legs and the legs collapsed and the whole thing came down. This was the end of his railway career, we had a good laugh about that, and I went on my way to prepare for the Taxing event. For some reason or another I thought it would be necessary to get a copy of Mother and George's will so I went to the Courthouse the day before the case and got a copy. When I read it for the first time I was totally surprised to read what it said, and began to think if we could have challenged it. Essentially it said if Mom or George died the other would receive the estate, but if they died in concert Anne my half sister would be the sole beneficiary, if Mom George and Anne died in concert then Heather my other half sister would be the sole beneficiary, and if they all died in concert Rosemary Max and myself would inherit the estate, which on the face of it might seem OK, if you didn't realize that when this will was made out Rosemary would have been about 14 years old and Max maybe 16 years old, and it was my mother and George, mostly mother who coaxed me to go and bring them from the orphanage to Toronto, in other words Rosemary would have ended up back in the orphanage with Anne or Heather inheriting and estate probably with the insurance valued at $500,000 dollars with Mr Hermant as the administrator.
It gives one pause for thought, believing as I did that Mr Hermant was a crook. If we Rosemary Max and myself had not been mentioned in the Will I could see this but as soon as we were mentioned would it not que Mr Hermant to ask who are these three kids anyway, and what relation to you are they, and as soon as finding out for Mr Hermant to remind them that they had a certain responsibility for them.
Well the big day comes and as Annes mom and dad were over from England for a visit Anne's dad decides to come with Rosemary and myself to court to see what was going to happen and for a little morale support. Rosemary came along as a wittiness in case there was something that she knew that could back me up. The Taxiing Officer "Judge'' ask me to relate my side of the story, which I did and advised him that Mr Hermant had called my home and released a load of invective and bile which we had taped if the Judge would like to hear. The Judge never picked up on it so I never belaboured the subject. Right after starting the Judge stopped me and asked me to slow down as the Court Reported had to take down everything I was saying, and being quite mad and a little excited I was going quite fast. Every now and then after that I would look at the reporter to see if he was getting it down OK and he would nod OK to me, and OK would carry on.
When I finished the Judge asked Mr Hermant to say his part which he did, saying how ungratefully I was, for questioning his fees after all the trouble he had to go to to convince Anne to turn her share of the cottage over to me, and that I had bombarded his office with many phone calls over this case, and bugged Anne over the phone with this case which I didn't. Anne called my house a short time after Georges death without me ever calling her once, and in fact I have only seen and talked to Anne once since this episode and that was a Davids wedding. I never talked to the Lawyer after he called me to his office to get the papers for the new registration, and only once before, yet when he turned up at the taxing he had added about 10 phone calls to his bill and stretched it to $550.00 from the $230.00 that he had originally charged me in spite of the receipt he gave me on the flap on the envelope which said paid in full. When Hermant was saying his part I occasionally looked at the Court Reported who looked at me and nodded no, no, as if even at that time he knew Hermant was full of shit.
When the Judge asked me if I wanted to rebut, I said that if it was Anne's wish as his client not to turn her part of the deed over to me, wasn't his duty as her representative to go along with her wishes. Mr Hermant was visibly upset because I suspect he didn't know he had a tiger by the tail, and when we were both finished the Judge proceeded to chew him out asking why he even did the transfer the way he did, it wasn't a complected job. The Judge ordered him to repay me $130.00 and cancel the further charges with in 30 days, and after that I was so angry I asked the Judge to excuse me so I could go into the hall and cool down, as it was all I could do to refrain from reaching over the table and punching him which would have done me no good.
A few minutes later Rosemary comes into the hall with Leonard Anne's dad and tells me the Judge asked her what I did for a living, and when she told him I was a clerk on the CNR he told her that I should be a Lawyer. The next day I was still very angry and called the Court Reporter to ask how much it would cost me for a transcript, at which time he wanted to know why I wanted it. I told him that Mr Hermant had lied repeatedly during his presentation and that I could prove it and would love to have him disbarred. The Reporter told me that he could do it but that it would be expensive, that in his view that Hermant had been given a good chew out by the Judge, and that I should leave it lie. As I said at this time my check for 230 dollars to Mr Hermant had cleared out my bank account, and that perhaps discretion was the better part of valor so I decided to leave it go and go on from there. I got my refund from Hermant and that was the last time I ever heard from him. Anne went on to go through two or three hundred thousand dollars insurance money and the three hundred thousand dollars she got for the house and within a couple of years was back on welfare which she was on when she got the estate.
A couple years later when we had gone to Kitchener Market one Saturday we decided to go to the Cemetery to check and see if our fathers name had been engraved on the stone as it was supposed to have been, and when we couldn't find the site again so we went to the Office for instructions. We sent Allison into the office to get a map or something and when she came out she dropped a bomb shell on me. Allison said when she asked as to the site for Nicholas Miloff the woman in the office checked and there were two Nicholas Miloffs, one was in the infant section and had died at 3 days old and one in the regular section. Allison was then given the date of internment for the one in the infant section and it was in 1942 about a year after Rosemary's birth. As I have said I never gave it any thought, or to much when mother said about having triplets and them all dieing because she lied a lot of the time about personal stuff like this, and now that I saw some actuall paper work, I began to think about this situation more in depth, and it seemed to make a little sense about why she would take on two kids that weren't even hers. A short time after we got home I confronted Aunt Shirley with the information. Aunt Shirley was Uncle Johns wife who wasn't on the scene when this thing happened, if it did. Aunt Shirley told me that mother had told her that she had the triplets and that on e of them died, and the Doctor told her that she couldn't take care of the ones she had now, that he would find a good home for the remaining two children. Doctors at this time were looked on as from on high and people mostly just agreed with what they said. If this were the case it would explain why mother had taken two kids that weren't even hers, it was to make up for the two that she had given up, and probably at that point couldn't even find.
It was around this time that all the negative fuss about orphanages across the county was beginning to reach a cacophony and I was beginning to pay attention, thinking I was in an orphanage and it wasn't so bad to me. As I have said when I was in the home I was best friends with Irvin Beare who also had two siblings with him Ray and William both older than him. I had been trying to find him for years I had found out that he had been in the Navy RCN and that eventually I would contact the Navy for his possible address.
When up at the cottage hunting one year Emile my brother in law came up a couple days later and said that Aunt Ruth had died in Toronto, and that he had met my second cousin Dennis who told Emile that any time we were in Waterloo to visit him and gave Emile his phone number and address. I had gone to school with Dennis in Waterloo for a couple years before I found out that we were related by marriage, and had completely forgot about him in the back of my mind, but it all came rushing back.
One day when we were in Waterloo we called him and went to his house for a cup of tea, and had a good chat but he did seem a little aloof and disinterested. I asked about all the old school chums, some of which he knew about saying that he would bump into them from time to time. I asked him about Irvin Beare and he said that he hadn't seen him in many years, but if he did see him he would get a phone number and tell Irvin that I was trying to get him.
A year or so later I got a call from Dennis saying that Irvin's mother had died in Kitchener and Irvin had come down for the funeral and he got Irvin's phone number for me that he now lived in Ottawa. I gave Irvin a call and we made an arrangement to get together at my place in Richmond Hill. A couple weeks later Irvin came to Richmond Hill with his wife and we had a very nice weekend chatting about old time and reminiscing about the orphanage. I asked Irvin what his thoughts about the place were and his were very much like mine, that it was a good place and that we were well taken care of. Irvins mother Agnes actually worked at the orphanage while he was there, and had to leave when Ray his oldest brother reached 16 years old because that was the rule, when you reached 16 you had to leave. Irvin said that he was interested in looking back and particularly if we could find some pictures from those times and I said that the archives of the Kitchener Waterloo Record were in the University of Waterloo and that we could go down one day and have a look at what they had and maybe find some. Irvin said he did have a grade three picture of Miss Uffleman's class which I was in and that he would get a copy of it for me. One day subsequent to this We were in Waterloo after going to the markets and I began to think about this situation again and thought that if any one had school pictures it would be Michael Putnam, who came from a relatively wealthy family, our familys couldn't afford them if there were any. I thought I would look up Michael's name in the phone book and sure enough there it was M Putnam so I called and it was an answering machine so I left a message saying who I was what I was looking for and that if he remembered me would he give me a call when he got a chance. When we got home Anne's mom who never went with us this time said that we had gotten a call from Michael and that he would call back a little later.
Michael did call and asked me what did I mean if he remembered me, at which time I said Michael it has been forty or so years, and there has been a lot of water under the bridge. Michael told me that he had been to the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth Ziegler School and the booklet given out had our class picture on the front page, and that he had gotten an extra booklet and if I wanted it he would give it to me. I told Michael that I would like to meet him for a couple of hours if he wouldn't mind and I could get it then. A few weeks later Anne was recouperating from an opereation and I called Michael and asked it it were possible to see him then. Michael who now lived in Port Dover gave us his address saying that he had a couple hours to spare, the subtext of which was if it didn't go well there would be a good reason to cut the meeting short. I said that was fine because I had another friend who lived in Port Dover at the time, and he was overdue for a visit. We got on just fine and were asked to lunch and never did get a chance to see Jim Hunter down there that day. Michael and I agreed we would have to meet again. I had told Michael that I had been in touch with Irvin and he was quite interested so I said that we would meet in Kitchener for lunch one day.
After finishing at the market we went to the Cemetery to check on the head stone, and were surprised to see that the name hadn't been engraved on the stone so we went home and contacted the Funeral Director to see what had happened, and got assurances that it would be done. A couple years after my fathers death my mother dies and as we thought everything was left to George my stepfather, and life went on, but a year after mother's death we find out the George has Cancer of the esophagus and that he won't last for more than a year. Within the year George dies and then a new ball of wax develops. We find out that the entire estate is left to Anne, what a mess. The only good thing was that when we made out the deed for the cottage it was supposed to be made out so if George dies it gos to me and if I die it goes to George but that was not how George did it, he went behind my back and changed it so If I died first my share would go to my estate and if he died it would go to his estate. The problem being that Anne my alleged half sister inherited his entire estate, no one else got anything. The second good thing was that Anne told the Lawyer to turn her share of the cottage over to me as that was supposed to be the way it was done in the first place. The lawyer Mr. Hermant calls me one day to say that he has the papers turning the cottage over to me and that I should go to his office to collect them. I went down the next day and as an afterthought I say how much do I owe you and to my surprise he says $230.00 which was all that I had in the bank what with Anne not working at the time taking care of Allison and Amanda at home. I wrote him a cheque and ask for a receipt at which time he tears off a flap of an envelope and writes me a receipt on it, was I pissed off. I proceed to Parry Sound the next day after taking the day off work in order to file the papers with my name alone on the will. All the while after getting this bill which I thought was overcharging me I'm wondering to myself what can I do. When I get to Parry Sound I go to the Government Office to file the papers and find that Mr Hermant the Lawyer omitted something and I had to find another Lawyer to straighten things out, which I did, down the street, was charged another $10.00 which I did not object to, returned to the office and filed the papers. I ask the clerk how long it would take and he said that I would have the papers in my hands in a couple of weeks. On my way home from Parry Sound I am giving this cottage deal a lot of thought and come to the conclusion that I will tax Mr Hermant when the cottage is properly registered in my name because as far as I was concerned the bill was far to high, and because he was working for the estate and that was part of it, there in all likely hood shouldn't have been a bill at all.
I knew and felt that this Lawyer Mr Hermant was a real asshole and as soon and as soon as he found out I was taxing him he would be calling me on the phone with threats about taking the cottage back, so I went to Radio Shack and got a devise the goes on the phone, and hooks into a tape recorder which we had at home, and told Anne to start taping any calls that come in and if it isn't Mr Hermant shut the machine off. The next day I go to work and get caught up a little early and when lunch time comes I rush down to the court building on York St. in Toronto to file the papers required in taxing a lawyer. At the time of filing the clerk tells me that if my plea is not successful I will be required to pay the lawyer, Mr Hermant for his time before the Judge, or Taxing Officer, I nod ok, thinking I hope I just didn't double my bill. When finished with the papers the clerk advises me that I will now have to serve the papers on Mr Hermant, and I wasn't ready for that, because I felt very angry and was afraid of what I might do or say when I saw him, but what the hell, in for a penny, I head off to Mr Hermants Office to serve him the papers, loaded for bear. Mr Hermant wasn't there so I gave the papers to his secretary, who was very upset when I did, and she wouldn't sign a receipt that she had gotten the papers. I go back to work and call the Court and tell them that I couldn't get a signature for the papers, that Mr Hermant's secretary wouldn't sign the receipt. The Clerk at the court tells me I will have to visit another Lawyer and swear out an affidavit that I had served the papers, and I'm thinking oh no another charge. I no sooner get it straightened out what I have to do and Anne calls me on the phone. Mr Hermant has called home cursing and swearing threatening to cancel the whole deal and carrying on something aw full. I ask Anne if she had thought to record the call because this was a little early for the call I knew would be coming. Anne said that she had and if we got it it should be pretty good, because of the way that he carried on. I told Anne not to do anything with it until I got home and we would rewind it and listen to to it. After getting off the phone from Anne I called Hermant's office and when he heard it was me let out a string of invective that made my ears burn, but as soon as he finished, or maybe before I started on him calling him everything I could think of under the sun at the top of my voice and everyone in the office, which was a large office with perhaps 25 people stopped talking and started to listen to me thinking that I had gotten into a fight with someone. When I am finished yelling Wayne Jackson comes over to me all concerned, and not knowing who I was talking to and asks me just that, who was I talking to and when I tell him, my Lawyer he turns white, I guess worrying what will be the outcome of this monumental outburst, by me. I tell him not to worry that everything was under control, and a brief explanation of what just happened. After finishing work for the day I head home and find that Anne has taped Mr Hermant and gotten the entire litany of threats on tape. I tell her that I was going to have to visit with a Lawyer and swear out an affidavit that I had served Mr Hermant, thinking out loud who would I use as I never actually had a Lawyer. I'm thinking that when we bought our house, Mr Norman Todd was the Lawyer for the vendor and that when we closed out our second mortgage he seemed nice enough, so I would call him. It was still early so I called him, and he said that he would be around for a while to come over. I went to his office on Yonge St and he notarized the papers for me and asked me what it was all about. I told him at the same time as wondering what he is going to think about me taxing another lawyer, and he never seemed upset about it at all, and because of his reaction or lack of, I tell him the charges and that I think they were to high for that job, and what he thinks of it. Mr Todd thinks about it and tells me that if he really wanted to screw me he could run the bill up to $75.00 or $80.00 dollars. I tell Mr Todd about the tape recording of all the threats, and he tells me to take it to court, and offer to play it to the judge, but if the judge doesn't want to hear it just forget about it. Mr Todd then asks me what I do for a living, and when I tell him that I work for the railway, the CNR he perks up a little and proceeds to tell me that his father was a conductor for the CNR working out of Mimico on the SOD and was actually the General Chairman for the Union. When he found out I worked for the railway he wouldn't let me out of his office regaling me with his stories and wanting to hear my stories, and all the while I'm worrying I hope he isn't going to bill me for his time.
He didn't bill me for the time we spent talking about the railroad , in fact I think he only billed me for the affidavit that he did for me. Mr Todd did tell me one funny railroad story though, and it bares telling here. It seems that he worked for the railway at Mimico in the summer while school was out and he was working filling up the Steam Engines with water as they came in for water, but that entailed filling the tower as well and as the gauge on the tower was not working he would have to watch that the tower never got to full or it might collapse, under the weight of to much water. Mr Todd told me he got talking with someone and forgot to watch how much water was going into the tower, which was like a large wooden barrel on legs and the legs collapsed and the whole thing came down. This was the end of his railway career, we had a good laugh about that, and I went on my way to prepare for the Taxing event. For some reason or another I thought it would be necessary to get a copy of Mother and George's will so I went to the Courthouse the day before the case and got a copy. When I read it for the first time I was totally surprised to read what it said, and began to think if we could have challenged it. Essentially it said if Mom or George died the other would receive the estate, but if they died in concert Anne my half sister would be the sole beneficiary, if Mom George and Anne died in concert then Heather my other half sister would be the sole beneficiary, and if they all died in concert Rosemary Max and myself would inherit the estate, which on the face of it might seem OK, if you didn't realize that when this will was made out Rosemary would have been about 14 years old and Max maybe 16 years old, and it was my mother and George, mostly mother who coaxed me to go and bring them from the orphanage to Toronto, in other words Rosemary would have ended up back in the orphanage with Anne or Heather inheriting and estate probably with the insurance valued at $500,000 dollars with Mr Hermant as the administrator.
It gives one pause for thought, believing as I did that Mr Hermant was a crook. If we Rosemary Max and myself had not been mentioned in the Will I could see this but as soon as we were mentioned would it not que Mr Hermant to ask who are these three kids anyway, and what relation to you are they, and as soon as finding out for Mr Hermant to remind them that they had a certain responsibility for them.
Well the big day comes and as Annes mom and dad were over from England for a visit Anne's dad decides to come with Rosemary and myself to court to see what was going to happen and for a little morale support. Rosemary came along as a wittiness in case there was something that she knew that could back me up. The Taxiing Officer "Judge'' ask me to relate my side of the story, which I did and advised him that Mr Hermant had called my home and released a load of invective and bile which we had taped if the Judge would like to hear. The Judge never picked up on it so I never belaboured the subject. Right after starting the Judge stopped me and asked me to slow down as the Court Reported had to take down everything I was saying, and being quite mad and a little excited I was going quite fast. Every now and then after that I would look at the reporter to see if he was getting it down OK and he would nod OK to me, and OK would carry on.
When I finished the Judge asked Mr Hermant to say his part which he did, saying how ungratefully I was, for questioning his fees after all the trouble he had to go to to convince Anne to turn her share of the cottage over to me, and that I had bombarded his office with many phone calls over this case, and bugged Anne over the phone with this case which I didn't. Anne called my house a short time after Georges death without me ever calling her once, and in fact I have only seen and talked to Anne once since this episode and that was a Davids wedding. I never talked to the Lawyer after he called me to his office to get the papers for the new registration, and only once before, yet when he turned up at the taxing he had added about 10 phone calls to his bill and stretched it to $550.00 from the $230.00 that he had originally charged me in spite of the receipt he gave me on the flap on the envelope which said paid in full. When Hermant was saying his part I occasionally looked at the Court Reported who looked at me and nodded no, no, as if even at that time he knew Hermant was full of shit.
When the Judge asked me if I wanted to rebut, I said that if it was Anne's wish as his client not to turn her part of the deed over to me, wasn't his duty as her representative to go along with her wishes. Mr Hermant was visibly upset because I suspect he didn't know he had a tiger by the tail, and when we were both finished the Judge proceeded to chew him out asking why he even did the transfer the way he did, it wasn't a complected job. The Judge ordered him to repay me $130.00 and cancel the further charges with in 30 days, and after that I was so angry I asked the Judge to excuse me so I could go into the hall and cool down, as it was all I could do to refrain from reaching over the table and punching him which would have done me no good.
A few minutes later Rosemary comes into the hall with Leonard Anne's dad and tells me the Judge asked her what I did for a living, and when she told him I was a clerk on the CNR he told her that I should be a Lawyer. The next day I was still very angry and called the Court Reporter to ask how much it would cost me for a transcript, at which time he wanted to know why I wanted it. I told him that Mr Hermant had lied repeatedly during his presentation and that I could prove it and would love to have him disbarred. The Reporter told me that he could do it but that it would be expensive, that in his view that Hermant had been given a good chew out by the Judge, and that I should leave it lie. As I said at this time my check for 230 dollars to Mr Hermant had cleared out my bank account, and that perhaps discretion was the better part of valor so I decided to leave it go and go on from there. I got my refund from Hermant and that was the last time I ever heard from him. Anne went on to go through two or three hundred thousand dollars insurance money and the three hundred thousand dollars she got for the house and within a couple of years was back on welfare which she was on when she got the estate.
A couple years later when we had gone to Kitchener Market one Saturday we decided to go to the Cemetery to check and see if our fathers name had been engraved on the stone as it was supposed to have been, and when we couldn't find the site again so we went to the Office for instructions. We sent Allison into the office to get a map or something and when she came out she dropped a bomb shell on me. Allison said when she asked as to the site for Nicholas Miloff the woman in the office checked and there were two Nicholas Miloffs, one was in the infant section and had died at 3 days old and one in the regular section. Allison was then given the date of internment for the one in the infant section and it was in 1942 about a year after Rosemary's birth. As I have said I never gave it any thought, or to much when mother said about having triplets and them all dieing because she lied a lot of the time about personal stuff like this, and now that I saw some actuall paper work, I began to think about this situation more in depth, and it seemed to make a little sense about why she would take on two kids that weren't even hers. A short time after we got home I confronted Aunt Shirley with the information. Aunt Shirley was Uncle Johns wife who wasn't on the scene when this thing happened, if it did. Aunt Shirley told me that mother had told her that she had the triplets and that on e of them died, and the Doctor told her that she couldn't take care of the ones she had now, that he would find a good home for the remaining two children. Doctors at this time were looked on as from on high and people mostly just agreed with what they said. If this were the case it would explain why mother had taken two kids that weren't even hers, it was to make up for the two that she had given up, and probably at that point couldn't even find.
It was around this time that all the negative fuss about orphanages across the county was beginning to reach a cacophony and I was beginning to pay attention, thinking I was in an orphanage and it wasn't so bad to me. As I have said when I was in the home I was best friends with Irvin Beare who also had two siblings with him Ray and William both older than him. I had been trying to find him for years I had found out that he had been in the Navy RCN and that eventually I would contact the Navy for his possible address.
When up at the cottage hunting one year Emile my brother in law came up a couple days later and said that Aunt Ruth had died in Toronto, and that he had met my second cousin Dennis who told Emile that any time we were in Waterloo to visit him and gave Emile his phone number and address. I had gone to school with Dennis in Waterloo for a couple years before I found out that we were related by marriage, and had completely forgot about him in the back of my mind, but it all came rushing back.
One day when we were in Waterloo we called him and went to his house for a cup of tea, and had a good chat but he did seem a little aloof and disinterested. I asked about all the old school chums, some of which he knew about saying that he would bump into them from time to time. I asked him about Irvin Beare and he said that he hadn't seen him in many years, but if he did see him he would get a phone number and tell Irvin that I was trying to get him.
A year or so later I got a call from Dennis saying that Irvin's mother had died in Kitchener and Irvin had come down for the funeral and he got Irvin's phone number for me that he now lived in Ottawa. I gave Irvin a call and we made an arrangement to get together at my place in Richmond Hill. A couple weeks later Irvin came to Richmond Hill with his wife and we had a very nice weekend chatting about old time and reminiscing about the orphanage. I asked Irvin what his thoughts about the place were and his were very much like mine, that it was a good place and that we were well taken care of. Irvins mother Agnes actually worked at the orphanage while he was there, and had to leave when Ray his oldest brother reached 16 years old because that was the rule, when you reached 16 you had to leave. Irvin said that he was interested in looking back and particularly if we could find some pictures from those times and I said that the archives of the Kitchener Waterloo Record were in the University of Waterloo and that we could go down one day and have a look at what they had and maybe find some. Irvin said he did have a grade three picture of Miss Uffleman's class which I was in and that he would get a copy of it for me. One day subsequent to this We were in Waterloo after going to the markets and I began to think about this situation again and thought that if any one had school pictures it would be Michael Putnam, who came from a relatively wealthy family, our familys couldn't afford them if there were any. I thought I would look up Michael's name in the phone book and sure enough there it was M Putnam so I called and it was an answering machine so I left a message saying who I was what I was looking for and that if he remembered me would he give me a call when he got a chance. When we got home Anne's mom who never went with us this time said that we had gotten a call from Michael and that he would call back a little later.
Michael did call and asked me what did I mean if he remembered me, at which time I said Michael it has been forty or so years, and there has been a lot of water under the bridge. Michael told me that he had been to the 50th anniversary of Elizabeth Ziegler School and the booklet given out had our class picture on the front page, and that he had gotten an extra booklet and if I wanted it he would give it to me. I told Michael that I would like to meet him for a couple of hours if he wouldn't mind and I could get it then. A few weeks later Anne was recouperating from an opereation and I called Michael and asked it it were possible to see him then. Michael who now lived in Port Dover gave us his address saying that he had a couple hours to spare, the subtext of which was if it didn't go well there would be a good reason to cut the meeting short. I said that was fine because I had another friend who lived in Port Dover at the time, and he was overdue for a visit. We got on just fine and were asked to lunch and never did get a chance to see Jim Hunter down there that day. Michael and I agreed we would have to meet again. I had told Michael that I had been in touch with Irvin and he was quite interested so I said that we would meet in Kitchener for lunch one day.
posted by Allan at 6:29 AM
6 comments
