24th of August, 1904

33 Mayfield Gardens

"Just a line to say if a dry day I will be along tomorrow afternoon. I will try to be before you go back from at your dinner hour."  Tennie

Mr. A. Campbell

c/o Mrs. Moir

15 Cathcart Pl

Edinburgh

The postcard picture was by E. Longstaffe with distribution by S. Hildesheimer & Co., Ltd. London, Manchester. Printed in Bavaria No. 5171.

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Christina sent this view of Pass of Llabberis from Edinburgh on August 24, 1904.  It is one of two postcards to her brother that were returned to her and have survived numerous travails – most of them involving water. 

Christina Campbell & Mother, Jane Grant Campbell circe: 1909

Christina Campbell left Scotland in about 1910.  The last postcard in her collection is dated 1908.  She married (September 13, 1911) Alexander Dewar, an immigrant from Stirling, Scotland.   

Christina left her family in Scotland and made the voyage to Canada alone – by ship, over water, of course.  With her, she brought her 350 odd postcard collection.  One can only speculate that she was tied to the views of Scotland or to the memory of all those people who had contributed to her collection.  For her to have brought them along, they must have had a sentimental value.  Or perhaps it was status in a domestic world where possessions were few and far between. I don’t know. Whatever the reason, they resided with her in her home on Inkster, in Winnipeg, until her death in 1948. 

Catherine Dewar & James L. Graham June 28, 1947.

Which is where my mother, Catherine Stewart Dewar Graham, steps in.  She married my dad, James (Jim) Lynch Graham June 28, 1947.  They continued to live in the upstairs of the Dewar home on Inkster which was a good thing.  I was born April 6, 1948, and my grandmother collapsed shortly thereafter and was cared for in her home by my mother until her death October 13, 1948. Mom then inherited my Grandfather. According to Mom, the day after my grandmother’s death, a brilliantly splendid warm Winnipeg fall display of coloured leaves ended abruptly when all the trees simultaneously shed their foliage.  But, be that as it may, upon Christina's death, Catherine Stewart Dewar Graham became the guardian of the postcard collection, and numerous other contentious items.  My mother had a sister. My Grandmother did not have a will.    

Spring of 1950 saw rising flood waters on Inkster and many streets throughout the city of  Winnipeg.  My mother, with her 2-year old daughter, me, left Inkster by boat in the wee small hours of the morning.  Dad was out sandbagging, to little avail. I don't recall ever being told where my grandfather was. Perhaps he manned the boat, or was also sandbagging. I know he spent the merry month of May with us - us being Mom, her sister Jean, my cousins David and Andrew, and me - in Matlock. They had moved everything they could to the second floor of the house before evacuating.  Somehow, I suspect that is where the postcards spent the flood.  They remained dry.  Next stop – St. James, where my dad reckoned we - he, Mom, Grandad and me - would be high and dry.

But back to this postcard.  It is a beautiful view of an old stone bridge with mountains in the background, rocks, stream and flowers – could be heather, possibly mixed with daffodils. There are two people on the bridge.  They look young.  A young boy in blue with a red tie, and a slightly older girl in yellow.  The background is slightly hazy.  The sky is idyllically blue with cumulous clouds drifting by. It’s a safe bet to say that this postcard is warm and cozy with it's bright colours and appealed to my grandmother on that day in August, 1904 when she selected it to send to her brother. 

The text on the back is short.  The return address is once more top right justified.  And again we see that abrupt omission of phrases that creates imperatives – Just a line …. Curious to see that she leaves a word out of the second sentence – ‘will try to be ______ before you go back …,’ but feels compelled to correct ‘from’ to ‘at’ a somewhat minor nuance of meaning. 

And again, we see Christina ending sentences with time references:  tomorrow afternoon, dinner hour.  This message is an attempt to arrange a meeting, so it is expected that there will be some mention of times, but as in the first postcard to her brother, Christina consistently ends sentences with time references. 

Perhaps there is more going on here than co-incidence.  Perhaps this is an indicator of marked speech patterns.  Fortunately, we have 3 more cards belonging to Christina to look at.