Family Reunion at Val Morin

Family Reunion at Val Morin
​Oil on Canvas 24x30
Painted: 2021
Original Image Taken: 1953
 
In the early 1950’s, just a few short years after my mom immigrated to Montreal, she and her family were often invited to the ‘country homes’ of distant cousins who had arrived in Canada a generation before them.  How awkward these reunions must have been.  Well-intended relatives wanted spark friendships amongst teenaged cousins whose lives and experiences were so very different. The suffering of the Holocaust hovered over these gatherings but nobody wanted to talk about it.  The newcomers tried their best to fit in with the ‘Canadians’ but I suspect it never really felt natural for anyone.