Hello everyone

It's been a year with significant ups and downs, fortunately mostly up.

We'll begin with the event that turned the world upside down for a time...Lauren's breast cancer diagnosis in May. We had some tense weeks waiting for test results.

Fortunately, all the subsequent news was good: no chemo, stage I, no spread, low onco-type score. She had a lumpectomy followed by radiation and has a low risk of recurrence. Lauren handled it all with remarkable grace and humour. We are so proud of her.

Her radiation treatments extended into September, so she & Collin had to ditch plans to walk Hadrian's Wall with us...but of course, we are just so relieved, and grateful to live in a country where prompt and appropriate treatment doesn't depend on income level. All was done and dusted and she was back to work by October 1.

We'll do the kids in reverse order this year. Lauren continues as an occupational therapist at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. During her cancer treatments and convalescence, she (re)began bead weaving, and is creating a profusion of wonderful little pieces. Check out her dedicated Instagram here. Collin successfully defended his thesis and graduated in June. We are very proud to be able to call him Dr. Chepeka. In addition to his ongoing work at at The Research for Social Change Lab at Trent University, he is enjoying teaching his first course at Trent: The Philosophy of Gender & Feminism.

Biniyam remains in Saskatoon. He continues to do independent events and from what we hear, if you need someone for a gig he's very good. We've seen him more than usual in the last year and a half. After Lauren & Collin's wedding and Christmas last year, he flew out for cousin Matthew White's wedding in Kincardine this summer. In fact, he's been so great at flying out to see us that we are planning a family trip to Saskatchewan next August to show him the road and airways go both directions.

Gosaye has also changed things up. He left his longtime job in the kitchen at Chesterfields in Ottawa and moved over to Sleep Country on Strandherd in Barrhaven. Anyone need a new bed or mattress? With his new job he is finding more time for outside pursuits such as guitar lessons. Always looking to learn something new, he's also working on sign language. We continue to provide foster care for his dog, Lucy.

Meghan continues with Morgan Stanley in Montréal where she was finally converted from contract to full-time employee. She keeps up busy schedule of extra-curricular activities, particularly bouldering, which has turned into something of a passion. She has also earned her first belt in Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art, under her instructor Contra Mestre Kunta Kinte and enjoyed meeting the broader Montréal Capoeira community at the grading.

A family highlight this year was the aforementioned White family wedding of our nephew, Philip's son, Matthew, and the lovely Sharayah Wencel in Kincardine. We had a great AirBnB with a firepit in the yard. It was a wonderful and relaxed opportunity for some family time for siblings and cousins.

And for Hugh and Leslie, a 2025 highlight was the opportunity to take part in the Nine Ships - 200 year anniversary of Peter Robinson bringing nine ships of Irish immigrants to the area of Peterborough, Ontario. It happens that this is why Peterborough is called Peterborough. It also happens that Hugh is Peter Robinson's 3x great-grandson, and Leslie 4x gg, and so on. It was fun to meet the organizing committee for whom this year of celebration was all-consuming, but also a new Robinson cousin from California and many Irish descendants of the Peter Robinson Emigration. This was an experiment in which the British government paid for the passage and establishment of over 2000 immigrants in 1825. It was a great success...but one that was never repeated.

Travel this year was a long-anticipated trip to the Orkney Islands, the ancestral home of Leslie's father's paternal ancestors who were hired by the Hudson's Bay Company in Stromness, a regular recruiting stop for the company. Meghan was along for this trip which included visits to Edinburgh, Inverness and Culloden and finished with a seven-day walk across Hadrian's Wall, 84 miles from Bowness-on-Solway to Wall's End. We booked with Walk the Wall, a great little company that reserved our accomodations and moved our luggage. Lauren and Collin had planned to join us for the walk, but had to pull out for Lauren's cancer treatment. So we will get busy planning the next adventure.

And everyone else? 

Leslie’s father, Hugh, and Andrew’s mother, Margaret, remain healthy and active, both having turned ninety-one this year. On a sad note, we recently lost Hugh's sister, Pat Matheson, just days before her 93 birthday, a much beloved aunt.

And us?

We continue with our ordinary, busy lives. Skiing as much as possible during the winter, yard & garden work and a bit of cycling in the summer. We added solar panels to our house this year, which involved removing a few trees to reduce shade, creating a whole new wildish garden to fill with an emphasis on native plants. Andrew keeps busy with seasonal pursuits: curling, golf and lawn-bowling. Leslie keeps busy knitting, sewing and keeping up with her commitments to the Valley Artisans' Co-op which recently included moving the website to a Canadian host and rebuilding it for the fourth time. Early in the year, we hosted another Rotary Student, McQueen from Taiwan. A young man who loves to cook, who overcame his fear of dogs and the formidable challenge of heading out to the school bus at 7:30 am in the dark depths of a Canadian winter, facing the real risk of having your hair wrecked by your touque,

We wish you all the best as this year draws to a close. We hope you and your loved ones are well, safe and secure. We hope that 2026 brings you and yours health and happiness, a little adventure, and time with those you love.