05-07 McCleneghan-Gray Memories

My wife's parents, Gerald McCleneghan and Marion Gray are shown here after their wedding ceremony on July 27, 1929. What fun to revive memories of the past through photos. Both their granddaughter, Jennifer Leavitt, and their great-granddaughter, Annie Leavitt, look a lot like Marion. Such remarkable memories over the years, playing bridge or watching baseball with Mary's folks.
Their two children were firstly my wife Mary, who can be seen in the photo at age 11 on her roller skates.  Her little friend is actually older than her.  Love the way girls spurt ahead before boys at that age. Kind of cute looking, if I say so myself.  Our two children are Peter and Kelly.
Tom McCleneghan, Mary's younger brother, is seen here at age four. Tom as an adult became a civil engineer and married Becky Smith. They have three children, Dierdre, James and Jennifer.
Mary went into nursing at Wellesley Hospital in 1952, and in the nursing photo, she is seen with one of her classmates. Those nursing students hated hospital food. On our first date, Mary was so hungry she ate all the buns in a basket on the table. I was living at home at the time, and my brother Ian asked me how my date with Mary went. I told him she was terrific but had the appetite of a lumberjack.
So many of our McCleneghan-Gray memories are associated with visits at our old cottage on Lake Simcoe. Well into his 70's, Mary's dad would play a vigorous game of badminton and even got up on water skis. A touching photo is shown at our home in 1985 of Mary’s mom and dad with our son Peter.  Peter died at age 35 in 1996.  He is remembered by us always.
One member of our family that we loved and miss so much is Aunt Helen, who spent all of her holidays with us. She is seen in this country photo during a trip to England with Mary, Kelly and myself.
When Kelly was 12 years of age, she said to me with great angst, "Oh Daddy, my nose is too big." And I told her that she had the nose of kings and that when she was older, I would take her to see the profiles of the kings of England in Westminster Abbey. And that is what we did with Aunt Helen. Kelly was so excited. "Dad", she said, "They've all got my nose." "You're my English beauty," I explained.