The Wait Is Over

Never-before-seen photo of my maternal grandparents
on their wedding day in 1920(?) in Poland:
Emma Schmidt and Bruno Lohse

My American Cousin

A person I've never met and still would not be able to pick out of a crowd e-mailed me this past week. She and her dad and her uncle match a portion of my DNA, which I have made available for all to see on 23andMe.

She thought we might be related, so she asked for some information.

I gave her what I knew of my mother's father, the deeply mysterious Bruno Lohse, who, other than a notice of his death in the paper and a record of his son Alfred being wounded at Dieppe, had left no trace of his tenure on the planet that I could find.

She sent me some photos, including the ones above and below, showing the members of a comfortable-looking bourgeois family. According to her, the Lohses had a textile factory, destroyed in WWI, in Alexandroff, Poland.

Bruno had five siblings. He was the youngest. His oldest brother, Reinhold, landed in Ellis Island, with a new name - Loos - in 1903 when he was 23 years old. Reinhold was my contact's great-grandfather. He was twelve years older than Bruno.

Bruce's Last Day On The Job

Bruce's stellar career came to an end on Thursday June 28, after 35 years, 7 months and 22 days at the Canadian Tax Foundation.

Holy cow. Bruce and I have been together for a long time.

Doug Ford's First Day On The Job 
  
I get ridiculous pleasure from being right about how some political decisions turn out. Amid the massive cloud of speculation around Doug Ford's cabinet, I had said that Vic Fideli would likely get a big, shiny portfolio like Minister of Finance.

I was right.

I'd like to make another prediction: the massive cost in political capital and actual dollars of cancelling cap and trade will be Ford's signal out-of-the-gate mistake.

Thanks for reading!

Happy Canada Day!

Karen