Our First Visit to Belleville, Ontario

 

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We went to visit our friends who have recently moved from Toronto to Belleville, Ontario.

We had an overnight stay at our friends' brand new home and our friends took us around town.

There are many big box stores within an easy 5 minute driving distance to our friends' house. 

These include: Lowes, Rona, Staples, grocery stores, dollar stores, Starbucks, Tim Hortons and restaurants etc.

My most favourite store we visited in Belleville was the Taste of Country Store. 

It is located close to where our friends' house.

I love visiting and shopping at country stores!

This country store offers a great selection of store made frozen dinners, family size packages of frozen fruits, veggies, freshly baked pastries and desserts. 

The country store also has a year round Christmas store!

It is stocked with items such as blankets, throws, ornaments, decorative pillows, serving wares and gifts.

There was a nice kitchen offering some delicious soup and sandwiches before.

But due to the COVID19 pandemic, it was closed.

Too bad for us this time as we were unable to try these delicious country food.

But we did start our Christmas shopping early at the store.

Another place we enjoyed visiting was the Zwick's Centennial Park by the lake.

It is a beautiful waterfront park close to the city.

It is free, open to the public and easily accessible. 

We had driven by the city of Belleville many times on our way to Ottawa before.

Yet, we had never stopped by to enjoy what this beautiful small city has to offer.

Thanks to our friends who introduced us to some fantastic places in Belleville on our visit this time to the city.

Killing two birds with one stone is always good.

We did just that visiting Belleville this time and had a great time visiting our best friends.

We also got to know the beautiful city of Belleville a little better!

We look forward to exploring Belleville

 and hiking on its trails in our future visit to this beautiful growing city!

R.T.

Belleville, Ontario

Visiting Our Retired Friends in Belville, Ontario

Due to the COVID 19 restrictions, we have not travelled much since March, 2020.

Therefore it was a treat for us when our friends invited us for an overnight stay at their new home 

in Belville recently.

It felt so good to be driving out of Toronto lastweekend! After visiting my nephew at the rehab hospital in the morning, we gathered our things heading to Belville.

Belville is about 200 km east of Toronto, a two hours drive. The weather was cloudy, but dry and there was no traffic jam.

It was a pleasant drive as we enjoyed the changing autumn colour of the trees.  

It seemed like in no time at all and we arrived at our destination .

It was a marvelous feeling seeing our friends  whom we have known for three decades! 

H. & R. used to live in Toronto but have recently decided to change their life style, and moved to a small town.

They traded their trendy downtown condo in Toronto for a spacious 3 bedroom detached home in Belville..

At the beginning, H. was reluctant to give up his city life.

 But once he has moved into this beautiful home,  he has warmed up to the idea of living in this small town. 

Our friends took us around town to visit their favourite country store. They also showed us other amenities offered by the city of Belville.

We love our friends' brand new house - its spacious, modern and open. 

The best feature is the view of the forest from the dining room as the house is back to a trail leading to a park.

We spent time catching up, enjoying super delicious dishes prepared by Chef  Roger.

I even learned how to make a yummy vermicelli dessert!

We could hardly wait for the next day when we would go exploring the city and the trails behind the house!

R.T.

Belville, Ontario 

Herb Gardening - Developing a New Hobby During the COV19 Pandemic

A few weeks ago, Ontario announced that our cities would gradually open as the government started to easy some of the lock down restrictions. We were so excited! The first thing we did after the Phase 2 opening was visiting a hairdresser! Both my husband and I had our hair cut at the hair salon in Waterloo. It felt so good as we looked better groomed and tidy!

Now, Ontario cities are in the Phase 3 of the reopening and things are starting to get back to more normal, we hope.

Though many of us complained about being isolated at home, I quite enjoy this quiet time by ourselves. With more free time at home, I am able to enjoy our beautiful house and garden.

 Before COVID 19, we were driving around here and there, visiting different places every week. For the past months, I was able to spend more time in our garden. With more time at home, we tackled a long overdue gardening project – turning a wasted space in a corner of our garden and creating a herb garden.

My husband and I worked on our newly created herb garden everyday for a bit, after a couple of weeks, we now have different herbs growing such as basil, parsley, rosemary, thyme, and chives. We even added tomato and hot pepper plants.

In our second home in Waterloo, we also tackled the tiny long neglected backyard by the previous owner and hoping to transform this tiny garden into a small oasis for us! 

With help from Doug and his brother, we laid new patio stones down in an afternoon. We transplanted some perennials from our Toronto backyard and used most of the old things found in our city garden. After a few weeks, the transplanted shrubs are thriving and growing well.

We can’t be too proud about our two gardening projects and grateful for the extra quiet time at home to accomplish the jobs!

R.T.

A Happy Gardener

Sharing Our Best Friends' Celebration in Barrie, Ontario

Due to the many social distancing restrictions imposed by our government, we have not seen or gotten together with our friends for any celebrations for the past four months.

Bus Station, Barrie Ontario

Fortunately, in Canada and the province of Ontario, we have three levels of  responsible  governments that have the common sense of  being guided by science and  listening to medical and public health experts' advice. We are glad to see that our governments have been working together and are able to start lifting restrictions gradually and cautiously.

 Meridian Plaza, downtown Barrie, Ontario, Canada

Since Ontario has entered Stage 3 of the economic re opening and with keeping our social circles in mind, Ontarians are able to start visiting friends again outside of their home city!

Barrie's landmark  - A sculpture by the Kempenfelt  Bay

Downtown Barrie, Ontario

It was such a joy to drive out of Toronto and visit our friends in Barrie, a small town of about  136,000 people, north of Toronto. We visited Barrie numerous times before; however, this time, it felt special! 

 

Visiting our  best friends and hanging out with them was precious!

We wanted to take our friends out for lunch on their birthday.   Heeding the public health guidelines, we preferred outdoor dining anytime we eat out at restaurants. 

However, it was quite a challenge finding a restaurant that allowed for dining in as a lot of them still operating take out business only. 

We went to at least three local restaurants before finding one that was open., The Little D Family Restaurant.

Covered in her mask, the friendly waitress served us outdoor.  The Little D family restaurant served some delicious homemade Canadians  dishes.  We had  souvlaki , Fish and Chips, soups and Canadian hamburger. It was a delicious  dinner and both D & D enjoyed it!

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After lunch, we took a stroll in downtown Barrie and along the waterfront.  We discovered Barrie's remarkable landmarks such as the Sea Serpent, a beautiful sculpture adorning the lake front.

 

                            Sea Serpent, a beautiful sculpture adorning Barrie's waterfront.

No matter where we are, we always have so much fun with our good friends whom we have known for over three decades.  

After the visit to the waterfront, we went back to their house. We presented to them their birthday gifts and we had the birthday cake for dessert.

 

We missed each other a lot and we had a fun time together. I think the most difficult part of the pandemic was not able to see our loved ones and good friends. Seeing our friends again during the pandemic was precious.

I was glad of making the drive to Barrie and celebrated our friends' birthday with them in person!

R.T.

Barrie, Ontario

08212020

A Daughter's Sorrow - Story of a Chinese Canadian Head Tax Payer

I am a descendant of  a  Chinese Head Tax payer in Canada.  Chinese Canadians were the only ethnic group discriminated by Canadian law and required to pay a hefty sum of head tax when they landed in Canada between the 1920's to 1940's. The families of Chinese Canadian head taxpayers were asking for the Canadian Government to redress this great injustice in the late 1990's. Many head tax descendants submitted their stories to the Parliament.  I wrote about my Grandpa and titled my story - A Daughter's Sorrow. Later. my story was chosen and submitted to the Canadian Parliament. Recently, some friends asked me about it and I would like to share my family story with you:

                                                         A Daughter's Sorrow

Postman! You brought such great sadness to my family every time I saw you.

Ever since I was a little girl growing up in Hong Kong in the 1960’s, there was nothing I worried more about than the sight of the postman trotting down our street with the mail in his hands. 

The scene that followed was all too familiar to all of us: Mom would sign for the registered mail and the postman would hand over a thick letter from Canada to her.  Mom would go into her room, open the letter and sob while she read and re-read carefully every single line from her parents who were living in Canada. My mom clung to every word in those letters as if her very own existence depended on it. And who could blame her? Only through these words and scenes that were described in these bi-weekly letters, was she able to get a glimpse of what life would be like with a father and a mother. She could hardly imagine what life would like with a dad. My mom had not seen my grandpa since the day she was born.

I was born in Macau, but my grandparents were from Canton, China. Both of my grandfathers went to North America hoping to better themselves and find gainful employment overseas. In fact, my maternal great-grandfather came to work in Canada and grandfather followed him. 

Grandpa landed in Vancouver, on April 18, 1918, paying the $500.00 head tax upon stepping on to Canadian soil. He was 15 years old, a young man eager to work, learn and start a new life in the land of milk and honey. However, life was not easy in this strange new land. Chinese workers were discriminated against and employment opportunities were limited to difficult jobs with long hours, generally unwanted menial labour or dangerous jobs, such as laundry workers, domestic servants and railroad workers. 

Grandpa worked extremely hard and after years of labouring in Canada, he was able to save enough money to go back to China in 1925 where he found himself a blushing young bride. Grandpa sailed across the Pacific Ocean; he and Grandma were married that year in China. Grandpa might have had a premonition of the political events to come for he stayed as long as he could with his new bride. The new couple had a long honeymoon and Grandpa stayed almost a year in China after the wedding.

My grandpa left China for Canada in 1926, shortly after my mother was born.  After returning to Canada, Grandpa spent every ounce of his energy and waking moments working, trying to save enough money to bring his new wife and baby daughter to Canada. He spent a lot of time and money travelling to town to see the lawyers and he made numerous appeals to his M.P. asking for help, but all to no avail. 

1923 – 1947 – The darkest period in Canada’s history when our government openly and legally discriminated against Chinese immigrants.  Due to the Chinese Exclusion Act, there was no way for Grandpa or any Chinese person living in Canada to bring family members to Canada during this more than 20 year period.

Grandpa was a very determined hard worker. His dream was to be reunited with his family to provide for them. Even with the very limited opportunities afforded to Chinese workers at the time, Grandpa was able to find employment and save enough money to open his own restaurant in Bearmore, Ontario. He consistently sent letters and money to China to support and care for his wife and daughter. Meanwhile, my mother was growing up fatherless in China. Her constant and only hope since childhood was that one day she would meet her father and get to know him, a wonderful, generous and caring man, as everyone who knew Grandpa kept telling her. 

My parents got married in 1945. But there was no possibility for my mother or any one of us to immigrate to Canada.

After WWII, the Chinese Exclusion Act was finally abolished in 1947. Grandpa was granted full Canadian citizenship on February 5, 1952. He could now apply to bring his family to Canada. 

After a separation of 27 years from her husband, having raised her only daughter on her own, and going through many red tapes, Grandma was finally allowed to come and join Grandpa in Canada in 1953.

I could never imagine what was going through Grandpa and Grandma’s mind when they met each other again. The last time they saw each other, they were a newly married couple. The second time they saw each other again, they were grandparents themselves with grey hair.

How much suffering and loneliness had they endured? How many possible happy memories and precious time had been stolen from them in these 27 years?

Unfortunately, my Grandparents were not to be reunited with their family due to further immigration restrictions. My mother, who was then 26 years old, a married woman with children of her own, was not allowed to come to Canada. The reason: she was an adult, no longer a dependent, therefore, she was not qualified to come as a dependent child.

Again, the letters went back and forth between Canada and Hong Kong – still the only link between Grandpa and Mom. More tears were shed every time when the postman arrived.  Grandpa kept trying to bring us to Canada and to fulfill his life-long dream of seeing his only daughter and now his 7 grandchildren as well.  However, the immigration process was not going smoothly even though by then Grandpa was very well established in the community and was a proud owner of a very successful restaurant employing many workers.

The Canadian Government started to open the doors to non-European immigrants in 1967 when we could apply as a family to immigrate to Canada. However, the selection process was lengthy and the criteria were strenuous. 

Finally, we received news at the beginning of 1971 that our whole family, all nine of us, had been granted immigrant status. There was a lot of excitement preparing for our move to Canada. My mother was bubbly, elated and hardly able to contain her girlish anticipation and happiness of meeting her father at last for the first time. “Oh, there is so much catching up to do! And your Grandpa will spoil you children rotten since he has never had a chance to play with his only child. But he will have all 7 grandchildren to play with!”  Mom was sharing her happiness with us as our family prepared our move to Canada in July, allowing us to finish school in June.

1971 - A day in March, the saddest day in our family history. The postman came and the familiar scene repeated for the umpteenth time. Except this time, within minutes after Mom went into her room, she let out the most horrifying and ear piercing wailing I had ever heard.  My mother was sobbing uncontrollably. My Dad and my older siblings went into her room to find out what had happened.  More crying and sobbing came from the rest of my family. Oh, my God, what had happened? Why was everyone crying as if the sky had fallen?

“Your grandfather had a heart attack and died recently. He was 65,” my father announced to us.  I had never seen my mother so sad in my entire life. Her life-long dream of seeing her father was shattered.

 Her whole world was caving in and she did not see any meaning in life and she saw no hope at all. Mom stayed in her room all day and night and sobbed for days. She refused to eat; she refused to come out of her room or to be consoled. She didn’t understand why life was so cruel to her. All her life, she didn’t ask for wealth or anything, but just a chance to say, “Hi Dad, how are you?” in person. She had been robbed of a father, deprived of a normal family life and an opportunity of knowing the most important, wonderful and caring person in her life.

O Grandpa, thank you for everything you have done for us. I am sorry I never had the opportunity to meet you or know you. I know you must have been a terrific person and the best Grandpa anyone could have. Even though you have been gone since 1971, on many occasions, and recently, I still run into people who knew you from before and they couldn’t stop talking about your kindness, generosity and your restaurant.

 

Grandpa, I know you would have been very proud of Mom and your 7 grandchildren and many great grandchildren. We have all grown up and we are doing really well. Thank you for being coming to Canada, and enduring so much suffering and pain so that we can enjoy our rights and privileges now.  We love you and we will never forget you!

Your granddaughter,

R.T.

Granddaughter of a Head Tax payer

Toronto

April 20, 2006

p.s. This piece was submitted to the Canadian Parliament to Redress the Chinese Canadians' Justice issue