KIDS | Brigid's 80th in Ottawa (Postscript Oct. 22)

Brigid and her "Nearly 80" birthday cake.

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, October 10, 2015. It is Thanksgiving weekend in Canada and it is a Marlin family reunion.

We thankfully celebrated the birthday of Hilda van Stockum's second child, Brigid Marlin, at lunch today.

Her 80th birthday actually does not occur until January, but we are taking advantage of the confluence of three Marlin siblings and four more in the next generation to start celebrating.

The cake reads "Happy Birthday Brigid, Nearly 80".

Brigid was coming from the opening in Montreal of an extensive exhibit sponsored by the international artists' group that she founded, the Society for Art of Imagination. She is the author of A Meaning for Danny and The Box House, and illustrated Hilda van Stockum's book King Oberon's Forest.

Château Laurier in Ottawa, where the birthday party was
held with eight people named Marlin and one other. One
more Marlin arrives for dinner with a family of four more,

Randal and Elaine have two sons and a daughter already visiting - Alex, Nick and Margie - and another daughter arriving later today (Christine, with Michael Schintgen and their three children).

The event was in the Wilfrid Restaurant of the Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel.

The birthday party was attended by the three Marlin siblings - Brigid, Randal and me - and two spouses (Elaine and Alice), plus three of Randal and Elaine's six children visiting for Thanksgiving - Alex, Margie and Nick - and Nick's significant other, Taeko. The other five are arriving this afternoon in time for a turkey dinner.

Brigid's "Nearly 80" Birthday Party in Ottawa. L to R: Alex, Alice, Margie, John, BRIGID, Randal, Taeko, Elaine, Nick.

Not Wilfrid Laurier - Randal Marlin.

Both the restaurant and the hotel are named after Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, a great man in Canadian history.

Who was he?

Wilfrid Laurier was not the man at the left, who is Randal Marlin, a professor of philosophy at Carleton University, an expert on propaganda (author of Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion, now in its second edition) and my brother.

Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, 1916.

Rather, Laurier is Canada's Quebec-raised 7th Prime Minister (1896-1911) -its first francophone Prime Minister - the man in the carriage at right, who was prime minister of Canada immediately before World War I. One of the two ladies next him is his wife Zoé, Lady Laurier, after whom the piano bar-lounge at the Château Laurier is named.

Laurier was a Liberal, elected and re-elected  over a 15-year period until the Great War. Conservatives then ruled until 1917, when the Liberals came back and stayed in office until 1984. (Postscript - October 22 - the Liberals are back with Justin Trudeau.)

Laurier was voted Canada's best-ever prime minister, according to a 2011 poll by Maclean's Magazine. His portrait is on the Canadian $5 bill.

Here is a photo of the Marlin Family in Canada in 1950 or 1951. If it was May 1951, I was nine and Elisabeth was six.

The Marlins in Montreal, about 1951. Our ages ranged from six to 16.