FLOWERS OF THE FOREST

Gillian and Patrick Blair of England

President Andrew Thibodeau wrote, "In 2006 almost 50 Clan Ross members had the privilege of spending a weekend with sisters Janet M. Jones and Gillian Blair and Gillian’s husband Patrick. Janet and Gillian were the great great granddaughters of Dr. A.M. Ross, Canada’s greatest abolitionist and the focus of our 2006 National Gathering. It is with great sadness that Janet shared with us the passing of her sister and her brother-in-law within 3 months of each other. When I got the phone call, I recall a line from one of my favourite songs by the group Rush, 'when I heard you were gone, I felt a shadow cross my heart'. I have such fond memories of hosting these 3 special people as our guests of honour as we began the process of erecting a plaque in their ancestor’s honour. I am so happy that we made the effort to reach out to invite them to come all of the way from England. In life, it is so easy to not make an extra effort, not to ask the question, and to doubt yourself with statements like 'they won’t be interested'. But, that wasn’t me or our 2006 AGM team and executive. We thought big, and made the effort to invite them, and we considered ourselves so blessed that these 3 made such a tremendous effort to visit Canada. A special highlight was Gillian reading a poem written to her gr gr grandfather about his work as an abolitionist while she stood in the church at Uncle Tom’s Cabin historical site in Dresden. If Dr. Ross could only have seen where his legacy and efforts would take his descendants!"


[L to R: Shannon Prince, Janet Montague Jones, Gillian Blair, Spencer Alexander, Patrick Blair]

Al Casey of Bedford, Nova Scotia