This afternoon we visited Fyvie Castle. Photos were not allowed
inside unfortunately. I had hoped for suits of armor – maybe another day. They
did allow me to use their 'toliet'. Finding my way out was another matter and
finally followed the scent of baking and hot soup to the restaurant. Can you
just imagine living in a castle?
We are meeting the Argo’s (David Argo and his daughter Helen Smith and
husband Rob) at five pm. Heather and Ciaran are both caught up in the story of
WW1 Soldier David Argo and are as excited as I, to meet his nephew named after
him and his family!
After our Monday performance at Ellon Academy, teacher Donald Morrison walked
us over to the town war memorial to look for David Argo’s name.
It was natural for local communities to remember their dead, even the boys
who had emigrated. We searched the giant cross, but David’s name was not under
the list of Canadians. We wondered why.
Ted Bartlett, a photographer from a local paper was taking photos of us
yesterday. Once he heard about our visit to Tillymaud he asked if
he could come too.
With David’s daughter, Helen’s directions we found the lane to
Tillymaud. There were several houses so we picked one called Nether
Tillymaud – we found out later meant “near Tillymaud.”
I rang the doorbell just as a distinguished gentleman in a suit came around
the house. Reaching out to shake his hand, I think I am meeting David Argo's son
in law. I said, “You must be Rob”. He smiled and said, “Hi, I’m David Argo.”
Through the car window Ciaran was trying to get the camera to work to capture
the look on my face as I realized who this was.
It was lovely to meet David and his family. He explained he was in fact named
after our Scottish born Canadian David Argo killed on the front about a month
before he was born. He remembered his grandmother – our David’s mom whom he
spoke of in his letters to Mae, that I archived for the Museum of the Regiments
back in Calgary, Alberta.
It was surreal to play the power-point slideshow of the Stones of Calgary’s
Signal Hill for David and his kin and sing the songs I wrote called Tillymaud
and My Dear Mae, about WW1 David’s letters. Later Heather and I talked about how
touching it was and how difficult to stay focused and not get teary.
I presented them with a CD of the power-point shows we used in our school
presentations as well as some other goodies for them to remember us by.
And Ted who had earlier helped us through a four corner traffic jam, took
photos and made notes. It turns out he is a free lance photographer and Heather
is excited at the opportunity to commission his photographs for a story she
wanted to write about our whole adventure for a Scottish magazine.
David gave us a tour of the family dairy farm and proudly walked us through
the barns and buildings. Then just a few miles up the road and as the sun was
about to drop from view, we photographed the war memorial in Udney Green.
The mystery of where our soldiers name was engraved was solved. Also listed
under ‘Canadians’ was David’s brother Alex and their brother George who had
emigrated to New Zealand and died on the front.
