Earlier this year I decided to do something with my mother’s photos and other treasures. I found an article about her aunt’s 100 year birthday in 1998 and Joy Metcalfe was interviewed for it. I knew we were related to the Metcalfes of Boundary Bay fame but I hadn’t taken the time to look into it.

I figured that someone as well-known as Joy Metcalfe would be easy to find and she was. I wrote her an e-mail and she responded. She suggested I contact her brother-in-law, Len Metcalfe, and his wife Dushka.

I called Len in late February and we talked a bit. We made tentative plans to connect in the near future. As my biological mother’s health deteriorated, I contacted both of my sisters to encourage them to come out to be present for her death, but only Miriam came. Since she was only going to be in Vancouver for a week, I suggested we contact Len and visit him. As he was the first cousin of our mother, we are first cousins once removed.

Miriam and I went to Richmond on Friday, April 26. We learned a lot about the Evans family, including more information about their wealth. He showed us a photo of the house that his grandfather — our great-grandfather — built at 15th and Hemlock, just across the street from General McRae’s mansion, Hycroft. We learned that the Evans children played with the McRae children.

Later that evening I received a phone call to let me know that our biological mother, Betty (nee Evans) Fleming, had died.