Words words words

Today will be a contrast in the use of words. The Petawawa Grannies are having a fund raiser at Heritage Manor in the afternoon:  Good words for Africa.  Fun scrabble benefit. Members of the community are helping raise money for the Stephen Lewis foundation.
we will be visiting and playing with the residents plus hopefully a 12 year old scrabble whiz will educate us!
in the evening I am going to attend Yuk Yuiks comedy show at the Petawawa  civic centre.

Paul Hanna September 18 1983 to October 3rd 2005

Today is always hard for our family. My son was bipolar. He was diagnosed when he was 17 and spent many months in  Manitoba Adolescent Treatment centre in Winnipeg. We moved to Ontario in 2001 and he completed is high school. He went on to Fleming college in Lindsay where he completed the two year program in Environment technician. He appeared to do well. However he was found in his room on Monday October 3rd 2005 in the beginning of his third year.

Fall changes

This September has been wet. I  went for a walk after dark today and  found it very spooky.. Lighting in our subdivision is poor -few street lights, lots of trees and no are few side walks so I walked with an old flash light which did not give up much light. The side walks were wet from the rain and so was the road. Everywhere it was misty. Little traffic however a cop car drove down  Laurentian as I was walking home. I think that the leaves will just fall this year. They have started turning but we have not had a good frost yet. Some of the maple leaves are only turning brown or orange then falling due to the rain and winds. I hope that the weather brightens up tomorrow.   

Constant change at St. George's chapel- service and officiants not always as expected

Do you like surprises? Is your denominational back ground, Presbyterian, United, Anglican, Methodist, Baptist or Apostolic? Well it is possible that you will find a home at the Protestant base chapel. I  have been attending it since 2001 and am constantly surprised. Today we had a beautiful bulletin created by the Presbyterian chaplain Padre Daniel Forget. However on the front cover it said Officiating chaplain Padre Murray Bateman. At the end of the bulletin there was a special note from Padre Forget thanking   Padre Bateman, who is Anglican for taking the service. The note said:  I am glad that Padre Bateman was kind enough to replace me at the last minute, allowing me to represent the chaplains of CFB Petawawa at the Funeral service of the mother of our Chaplain General Padre Dave Kettle. Padre Kettle is Presbyterian.


Padre Bateman preached on Perhaps and being a simple saint= being a servant and being of service. It was a very meaningful service. We are fortunate to have chaplains willing to fill in at a moments notice.

Variety is the spice of life

I attend the Protestant chapel at CFB Petawawa. I am not military,however my father served in the British army and Merchant Navy during WW 2 and my father in law served in the Canadian Air Force during WW 2 so I have some family connection to the effect military life can have on relationships. I decided to attend the chapel at it follows the chaplain branch system of having a Catholic chapel  and Protestant chapel that caters to all the other denomination. So I enjoy the variety of services that each chaplain brings to the congregation.In the last few weeks we have had an Anglican Communion service, a Lutheran service with a baptist "Dedication" of a baby  and a Wesleyan Methodist service. We have been fortunate in having duets sung at two of the service by the choir members.  

St. George's chapel planning a series of Prayer services for the troops -first one was on July 17

On Saturday July 17 St. George's chapel held their first evening prayer service for the troops in Afghanistan.It was fun event as Sandra Easter the Chapel Life coordinator  make the service upbeat by interspersing prayer with  well known songs led by Ian Easter.  Members of St. Francis of Assisi chapel clergy participated in the service. My friends Cheryl and Bill Jackson from St.Luke's church in Pembroke knew all the modern songs which impressed Ian Easter.!  We sang " How Great is our God", "Holy, Holy, Holy", "It is well with my soul" "Gracious and Compassionate" , "Blessed be your name" and "Shout to the Lord", a good mixture of Ancient and Modern. Sandra Easter used prayers from the Lutheran, Catholic and Baptist traditions.She  also made sure there was a direct connection with the chaplains and soldiers in theatre as she  contacted Padre Carol Bateman who is Afghanistan and asked her to tell us who we should be praying for.  I really like the connection with Padre Bateman as she is very practical in her approach to religion and life. The most poignant part of the service bulletin was the front cover as there was a photo of "The Padre Prayer circle following a Canadian ramp ceremony at KAF" Sandra Easter had taken the time to point out the Canadian chaplains who were at the ceremony and the culture of the other UN forces in the group.
The next Task Force 1-10 prayer service will be on Thursday August 19th. It will also be a reminder of Dieppe.
 

Life at CFB Petawawa from 1938 to 1955

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Camp Petawawa developed from a place for soldiers only to a community with schools, churches, stores, movie theatres, curling rinks and hospitals. In the early years families lived in h huts. Slowly there were homes built. however life in those years was military structured and close knit. it was a unique life style that created a life long bond between the civilians and the military who lived there. I would love to hear more stories about that life. I plan to write about it for the 150th anniversary of Renfrew county. If anyone is interested in telling me more tall tales please phone me at  613-687-1476 or email me.