It was an evening at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa shared with many people with a common bond. Somewhere in their ancestry was a British Home Child. For some, it was a recent ancestor – a mother or father (in my case my father) – but many were further back in the family tree.

MP Phil McColeman who performed the opening and closing ceremonies – his uncle was a Home Child. The keynote speaker, Senator Gerry St Germain, had a Home Child in his family tree, too. In his case it was his maternal grandfather.

After Senator St Germain spoke, the postage stamp commemorating Home Children was unveiled by Douglas Jones, Senior VP of Operations at Canada Post. And guess what? He had a Home Child in his family, as well.

The film Childhood Lost: The Story of Canada’s Home Children was screened by the roughly 200 attendees. What an emotional roller coaster that was to watch. I felt myself get weepy many times throughout the viewing.

We even had a Home Child in attendance – Syd Baker (who identified himself as such) anyway when Phil McColeman finished his closing remarks, Syd took over the microphone very briefly. He said his was a very long, long story but he did reveal he grew up at Barnardo’s. He didn’t come with a party of children but later in life as a married man and it wasn’t until he was in his 60s that he found his siblings.

Afterwards, it was a chance to mingle with the attendees and meet up with old friends, visit with other family members before finally calling it an evening.

This is my husband and me posing in front of the large storyboard set up outside the auditorium where the ceremony and film screening took place. On the floor behind us encased in a clear, protective Lexan cube was a Home Child’s trunk  along with a small Bible on its lid.

We scrub up pretty good… at least I think so.

Tonight I’ll be attending the reception to launch The Year of the British Home Child in Ottawa. Since my father was one of the 100,000 sent out from the British Isle between 1869 and 1938, I wouldn’t miss this for the world.

I fleshed out another bothersome transition yesterday. Reads much better now (at least I think it does). Will have to send it off to my critique partner for her input since she was the one who first thought this one was too abrupt.

After getting that fixed, I did get some other writing done but not as much as I’d hoped. Maybe a bit later today, I’ll be able to get on a roll and get something accomplished.

Met with the girls in my local writers’ group yesterday. During the course of the morning meeting we got on the subject of writers’ block and how I’d not written a word in some time. Well, I came out of there with a fresh outlook not to mention some excellent ideas.

I managed to write for about 5-6 hours yesterday. Woo hoo!!!

I ordered four books from Amazon.ca last week. While checking to see if my order had been shipped, I discovered I’d added a book to it that I already have. Luckily, I was able to delete it but wasn’t able to add the title I wanted.

One of the three books that remained on the order was Victorian and Edwardian Fashion – A Photographic Survey. I’m hoping that having it will bring back the inspiration and motivation I need to get this revision of Sarah’s Gift finished.

Oh, and the other two books? Both Stuart MacBride titles… books three and four… Broken Skin and Flesh House. And even though I’m a self-confessed Stuart MacBride addict (well at least his writing), I’m resisting the temptation to read these right away. The writing has to come first.

See my previous post entitled Writing to Deadline?