Lilian C Pedley, née Wallingford Passes

 See below for tribute from the Pleasant Manor Radiant Care Memorial Service! (below the program cards below.





                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     Tribute by my niece Kim Salierno for  the grandchildren:

Memories of Grandma Lilian from her Grandchildren

Sesame snaps, apples, cod liver oil capsules, sugar free, extremely tart 
Vitamin C tablets, the occasional spoonful of molasses and goat’s milk.
 Now that your mouth is watering, I’ll let you know that these were the typical
 snacks that we enjoyed, learned to enjoy, (or at least pretended to) at Grandpa
 and Grandma Pedley’s house. There were no typical, kid approved snacks like
 chocolate or potato chips to be found on Prideaux Street, not even at Hallowe’en.
 Brent remembers always being very un-excited to trick or treat at Grandma’s for
 Halloween because he knew that every year, instead of chocolates or licorice we'd
 be getting sesame snaps or apples. Brent does however, remember getting the
 occasional treat of a spoonful of molasses, which he loved.

Chris describes Grandma as was way ahead of the curve when it came to a
 healthy diet.  She was very particular about what to eat...the catch phrases today
 are organic and farm to table. Grandma Lillian had a plentiful garden of vegetables

and fruit and may have single-handedly kept the health food store on Queen Street
 in business. Perhaps this diet regimen which also included eating several small
 meals rather than 3 larger ones contributed to her longevity, making it past the
 century mark. Even though we wouldn’t describe grandma as overly affectionate,
 Brent says that one way that her love for her grandkids certainly shone through
 was by ensuring we ate healthy under her watch.
Chris remembers serving her pizza for the first time (he believes she was in her
 70's then) when she exclaimed "Oh my, that's good!"  Yes grandma, most of the
 world agrees! Grandma was always very appreciative and complimentary of the
 chef during the meals that we enjoyed together as a family. This was not always
 the case however. I can recall several instances where she would remind us at
 the dinner table that she tried to forewarn my dad before they were married about
 my mother’s limited cooking skills. Over the years however, Grandma made sure
 to point out that this was clearly no longer the case. She seemed to take great
 delight in our family dinners together, regularly remarking on how wonderful the
 meal was. As you can imagine, dinners at the Wiens' house are typically not quiet,
 in fact the opposite is usually true....but if the volume level ever did dip down for
 any amount of time or the topics of conversation didn’t peak her interest,
 Grandma always found interest in music, humming a tune, or spontaneously
 breaking out into song, singing "alouette" or other French-Canadian children's
 songs or fingerplays. In the recent past, when Grandma wasn’t feeling all that well
 or didn’t have much pep (as she would call it), she would tell my mom, “Sylv,
 today I don’t even have a song in my heart.” This is when we knew when she
 really was down and out as music was a part of my Grandma’s heart-beat, her
 natural daily rhythm, I would say it was part of the fabric of her being.
Speaking of fabric, I can recall feeling fascinated by my grandmother’s loom which
 seemed to fill an entire room in their Prideaux Street home. In addition to weaving,
 grandma enjoyed other traditional textile arts such as knitting and needlepoint.
 She often carried with her, a bag filled with balls of yarn and knitting needles and
 was happy to involve us in a few rows too from time to time. We grandchildren
 have been the recipients of custom knitted hats, mittens and socks over the years.
 Our walls were adorned with quite a few works of needlepoint as well that
 Grandma spent countless hours creating. I truly admire these skills.
Grandma and Grandpa’s home on Prideaux Street holds so many fond memories
 for me such as taking naps on their front porch while being lulled to sleep by the
 sound of the wind chimes and exploring with wonderment their attic filled with
 treasures, each one the potential spark for a tall tale to be imagined and items
 that helped to tell Grandma and Grandpa’s life stories.***
Brent describes Grandma as the original environmentalist, long before
 environmentalism was even a word. When Brent and dad would go to cut the
 lawn and rake leaves, they would put the clippings and leaves into her compost
 pile for her vegetable garden. Except she had 2 compost piles: 1 was "clean
 compost" that she could use for the vegetables, and the other which was
 "dirty compost" consisting of leaves or grass clippings that came from near the
 road, which could have been contained with gas or oil. That was not to be used
 for something that might end up in our bodies.
Grandma’s lifestyle of natural living and minimizing environmental damage also
 included a rain barrel which collected water for washing her hair and watering the
 gardens and very often walking instead of driving. My mother has accused me of
 being like Grandma Lilian in my efforts to choose natural products for cleaning
 and skin care. I consider this high praise. Brent has determined that Grandma
 definitely left the earth with what in modern times we would call a negative carbon
 footprint, which she explicitly stated was for the future generations. He also
attributes his love of nature to Grandma for which he is eternally grateful.
She loved to play cards and board games and was a fierce competitor (I’m not
sure about you Uncle Charles, but this trait seems to have been passed on to


 your sister). Grandma was a member of a bridge club that would meet once a
 week. Chris recalls getting destroyed in a game of scrabble once that they played
 on her porch. In his words, “She torched me!...although were those all, really
 words??” He took her word for it but still thinks some of grandma’s choices were
 a little suspicious. Grandma took great pleasure in her winnings even when her
 competitors were youngsters, gloating while at the same time attempting to cheer
 us up. Chinese Checkers and Backgammon were a few other favourites. Losing
 was never fun, but we now appreciate these opportunities which instilled in us
 perseverance, resilience, competitiveness, planning and problem-solving skills.
 Board games and card games are still family favourites for all of us and we have
 our grandmother to thank for this.
Chris remembers how Grandma was a great caretaker for her blind husband,
 Grandpa Wes...always helping him first before helping herself. The love she had
 for her husband was always on display and she worked hard to do the extra things
 that came with having a blind partner. Don't get me wrong though, Grandpa Wes
 could handle himself and more (playing musical instruments and even building
 with tools), he was amazing...but things like giving him a tour of his dinner plate
 (potatoes are at 2:00 and ham is at 9:00 for example) and navigation, announcing
 when steps were coming, taking his coat and hat and putting them away for him
...all the little things, Grandma was always there for him.
Above all, my brothers and I agree that our fondest memories with grandma
 involved music. We would often receive gifts like harmonicas or recorders for
 Christmas which most certainly thrilled our parents because what parents aren’t
 overjoyed for their 3 young kids to all receive noisemakers at the same time? Who
 could forget the Newark Folk Singers’ band practices in our living room with
 Grandpa, mom, and Aunt Joanne singing and playing guitar and Grandma and
 Aunt Ella on backing vocals? A really special moment for me was performing with
 their folk band at Simcoe Park for the NOTL Bicentennial celebration. Watching
 and listening to mom, some of her closest friends and our grandparents practice
 and perform was always a highlight for us. I can safely say that Chris, Brent’s,
 mine and my cousins’, Ann and Rebecca’s love of music has most definitely been
 shaped by the Pedleys.
My cousin Rebecca, her husband, Scott and their sons, Ian, McGregor and Nathan
 live in Delevan, New York and my other cousin, Ann, her husband Jon and their
 sons Nathaniel and Andrew are not able to join us today. They wanted me to
 share a special memory that they had with Grandma Lillian last year. 

Rebecca describes their last visit with grandma as a holy experience. These are
 her sentiments. 

”We're so thankful for it. She sang and prayed a blessing over all of us that we had
 never heard before. It is a memory we will never forget. We are both mourning
 and rejoicing with you at Grandma's passing into glory. Grandma Lillian was a
 hero to me. She is missed already, but I'm so very thankful to picture her dancing
 in heaven.”  

Thank you Kim!

Amen! (Rebecca's Dad, Charles)

Rocky Mountain High Trip !!!

Mom & Dad never had much money but were careful with it. So when Dad passed away and especially when Mom moved to Pleasant Manor in Virgil, we wanted to help her spend it on things that she would have never done alone. So I kept asking her every once in a while what she would like to do next with the money from selling her house in Niagara on the Lake.

She replied that she had always wanted to ride on the domed sight-seeing train that went through the Rocky Mountains.

So I arranged the trip and she absolutely loved it. It turned out that was the last trip for her and macular degeneration was setting in and she would have never been able to view the beautiful views, some of which are shown below.

The train goes from Edmonton to Vancouver and we made it in just about 23 hours, many of which of course when we were sleeping. But the Via Rail train had set up  the trip so that the best views could be seen before dark on the first day of the trip. If I get a chance I may include the slideshow using these photos and including John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" :)
 

 This is in the West Edmonton mall where Mom and my wife Ellen posed with a rather stiff permanent resident :)







































 Vancouver at Last!



                                                                         
It was a wonderful trip. Mom loved it and of course so did we.
Now from heaven, she can see again!

Of course we flew home :)

-C G Pedley 2019                   








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The Halifax Explosion Song Written by Daniel MacIntyre

Honouring the Life of Charles Wesley Pedley


Honouring the life of Charles Wesley Pedley, My Dad, a grandfather, a great-grandfather after his death.

What do I say about my dad?


He was from that old English stock, a gentleman, a blind man who learned to be cheerful and happy in spite of becoming blind, a musician, a composer. a wise man, a father who had no father, well at least not after his 11th birthday when the Halifax Explosion took him.


He did not talk much about his personal feelings. That was a characteristic of the age he grew up in. I do not ever remember him saying that he loved me. I don't remember him hugging me. I had to start those two things with him as I grew older and longed to hug my dad.

It is not that he didn't love me or my sister, Sylvia Wiens. He did. You could tell that by his other actions. But he lived without a father-example, he became a man in an age of revealing personal feelings as perhaps being weakness. And as a parent, you COULD NOT be weak.

I loved him, admired him but I just didn't know him on a personal level until he was dying of oesophagical cancer when he said, as I watched over him, "They are all dead now." I asked. "Who?" "All my old friends like Joe Wilson, and Harry Lowrey" (the farmer on whose farm my dad worked and the man who treated him like a son I am told) in Eastern Ontario.

Then he said, the most revealing thing, that even my mother who is 92 as of March 29, 2010 said, she had not known until I told her. He said, "I prayed for them, every day!"

For my nieces and nephews on my sister's side of the family, he was the only grandfather they had ever known and they loved his cheerful sense of humour. My sister's husband, Ted Wiens lost his father when he was young [??], and he grew up I guess much the same way but in a different age.

The picture here is probably my dad's most cherished memory and perhaps the highlight of his folk music career. He got to write the official ballad of Niagara-On-The-Lake's Bicentennial, [included later] AND got to sing it for the Queen Mother!

She shook his hand and he told my mother, "I'm not going to wash it for a week!" He was a monarchist. A historian. A man of passion under control. A Christian. A man who learned to cope so well with his blindness, that when someone explained something to him, he would say, "I see!"

He became a comfort and source of cheer to another blind man, in Niagara on the Lake, Mr. Jones, I believe.

Without knowing it, on a subconscious level, because he was always so healthy, his cancer sneaked up on us. I took him too much for granted. He got sick and passed away, in 1989, January, a few short months after seeing his oldest granddaughter, my daughter, Ann get married to Jon Guinn of Attleboro, Massachusetts. [It is so hard to say 'died' for some reason, maybe because we want to hold on to his memories as all that is left of this humble but accomplished man!].

Suddenly I thought of the times I had neglected phoning him, of visiting him. I resolved NEVER to do that again and let my mother be so alone. But I had regrets for some time that I had to deal with because of my neglect of him.

So if you are reading this, please do not neglect your parents, your mom and dad. They will not always be with you. I don't want you to have the regrets that I had to deal with for some time.

And now it is time to celebrate his life!

The life of Charles Wesley Pedley, MUI

[My dad had to go to work when he was 16 because of losing his father, so he never completed high school and of course, not any college. But he knew all kinds of stuff and he used to joke that he had his MUI. "Master of Useless Information"]

-Charles G. Pedley, the son
-For Sylvia Wiens, his daughter
-For Lilian Pedley, in 2010, in her 92nd year in March!
-For And all the grandchildren and great grandchildren that he never got to know and who never got to know him.

-I hope some others will contribute memories of dad, or grandpa as well. His oldest grandchildren were perhaps just pre-teens. Therefore they do not have many memories except the ones I mentioned about him having a very good humour about his blindness.

Halifax Explosion Actual Video

Explosion 1917: Explosion Now! 2000's

Halifax 1917: Shattered City

Halifax Explosion: Where My Dad Lost HIS Dad 1917

Halifax Explosion: Where My Dad Lost HIS Dad 1917