QotD: A Chat With My Past

Which one of your ancestors would you most like to talk to? 
Submitted by Kathy.

Off the top of my head, I think I'd like to spend some time talking to my great-great-great grandfather, Patrick, who left Ireland in 1850 and came to upper Ontario, on Lake Huron.  He left terrible poverty and famine in Ireland and came to a place that was untamed wilderness, part of a determined group of settlers.  I'd like to hear what it was like to leave, knowing he'd never see his family again, and travel for 3 weeks in a "coffin ship" across the Atlantic Ocean.

I'd also like to chat with my great-grandmother. She was the glue that held her family (husband, my grandmother and mother) together during very difficult times and left a lasting impression on all who knew her.  I was only 5 years old when she died but I have very vivid memories of sitting on her bed while she read story books to me. My mother still cries when she talks about the Christmas tree made of green construction paper, and how Gammy made her school clothes of out her old dresses.  She found a way to make do and make wonderful memories from hard times.