McBride

At one time we talked quite seriously about emigrating to Canada. Our son was in Alberta, so he could sponsor us, and we had been to the country a couple of times and liked so much about it - not least, the spectacular scenery but also the easy way of life and the pleasant people. It struck us as a country which, with its immense natural resources and relatively small population, had a very promising future.

So when we took our road trips with our son and we stopped off in various towns, particularly in the mountains of British Columbia, we sometimes asked ourselves whether this was the sort of place we could settle. This is one of them. It's a small town not quite on the Fraser River, sandwiched between Highway 16 and the railway, a town with all the facilities one would expect to find in a typical small Canadian town like a hospital, library, shops and hotels, and schools.

I recall walking down the road shown in the picture and thinking that McBride was exactly the sort of place where we could settle and live happily, despite the harsh winters and the fact that it was many miles from the nearest city.

We talked of emigrating but the talk came to nothing. In retrospect, it was probably a wise move not to make an attempt to build a new life in our late years, and we might not have found a small Canadian town quite the idyll we had expected. So this particular adventure never happened.... sadly.