May in Vancouver

What happened in May will probably be at the very end of my book about Dad (he's already read the first 40 or so pages of the script's rough draft).

I never thought I would witness, in my lifetime, TWO happenings of which people would say, "This happens only once in a thousand years!"  The first "happening" was last year's earthquake and monster tsunami, and the next was...

After the Graduation Ceremony

Daddy never thought one of them would happen in his lifetime, either.  In 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Japanese-Canadians were seen as a national security threat and relocated to internment camps, sugarbeet farms, eastern Canada.  Most had to leave home and business behind in the mass evacuation.  76 students of the University of British Columbia had their studies interrupted when asked to leave this way--Daddy, then 21, was one of them.  But in May of 2012, the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) held a special graduation ceremony granting honorary degrees to those 76 students, giving them full alumni status.   The emotional closure it offered as well as the camaraderie felt at the get-together of former rugby players and classmates had Daddy on a high for a long time.  (Well, he hasn't really come down yet.)  Of course, most of those students have passed away; friends and relatives received the degrees in their place.  Most of the former students are now in their nineties; many were not strong enough to come to the occasion.  But there were eleven who participated--Daddy was one of them.

He paid for my way, so I was able to enjoy a few days in Canada with the family!