After we were married, Cam and I spent many family times there with his parents and siblings. Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter as well as May 24 usually saw us at the cottage. My mum was also welcomed and she became very close to Auntie Vera, staying with her each July when Vera became a sailing widow. Even when my aunts visited from Wales a visit to the cottage was top of the agenda and they loved it. Having been an only child, the cottage was a place where I saw the very best of a large family. Music is central to the Taylors so many a night saw Cam's siblings playing guitar and singing while his dad strummed a wash tub base.

Once our daughter Jessica arrived we used the cottage for getaway weekends. She took her first steps on Kingsmere beach and spent hours with her great aunt across the way colouring; Auntie Vera patiently removing the papers from the crayons because 3 year old Jess said they were dirty! All of the children were fascinated with the old player piano -- how did the keys go up and down when your hands weren't on them? For each of our three children the cottage was one of the first places they visited.

When we left Canada in 1984 Grand Bend became the place to which we returned each summer. Because Cam's dad sadly sold his cottage in 1986 when he and Helen moved to Grand Cove for a year, we rented in North Kingsmere. By then the old Becker cottage used by Cam's uncle had been bequeathed to his cousin Pat whose children matched ours in age and disposition. And so that branch of the family returned to the fold through yet another generation of Taylor cottagers. Pat and I, alone for much of the summer with three children each, made use of the Busy Bee program in Grand Bend run by the town recreation dept.