WEST CAPE –
Tish Lidstone said she expressed one wish when she learned her great-great grandson, Morgan Wallace, was going to be a father.
“All I said when they told me Morgan was going to have a baby was, ‘Oh, God, just let me live that long,’” recalls the 92 year-old West Cape resident.
She did, and on Saturday she welcomed one week-old Kartar Wallace into her West Cape home for his first visit.
“It started here pretty nearly 72 years ago, in this house, and I’ve been in this house ever since,” said Lidstone. It is where she and her late husband, Keith, raised five children and it is where she met Kartar the little boy who has made her a great-great-great grandmother. In fact, all six generations gathered for the rare milestone event.
Kartar’s great-grandmother, Janice Annand, said she’s checked and, as far as she can determine, her grandmother might very well be one of only two great-great-great grandparents in all of Canada.
“I didn’t know it was as big of a deal as it is,” remarked the new dad.
Six generations
1. Great-great-great-grandmother, Tish Lidstone
2. Great-great-grandmother, Diane Annand
3. Great-grandmother, Janice Annand
4. Grandmother, Sherri-Lynn Wallace
5. Father, Morgan Wallace
6. And baby Kartar Wallace makes six
“I don’t think it really dawns on you that you’re going to live that long, and it just seems like yesterday he was like that,” said Lidstone, pointing to her 17 year-old great-great-grandson. Close by are Morgan’s girlfriend, Ashley Banks and their contented son, Kartar.
Mom said she was pleased to learn of the generation span. Kartar makes three generations on her mother’s side and four on her father’s side.
From Lidstone’s four surviving children, she has 19 grandchildren, 34 great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren and Kartar as her first great-great-great.
She keeps them all straight in a scribbler and buys Christmas gifts for them all.
“I can’t see that happening again,” Lidstone said of the likelihood of having more great-great-great-grandchildren as her other three great-greats are younger.
It’s easy for the six generations to visit back and forth. “Gram, Gramma and mom all live here within walking distance, really,” said Sherri-Lynn Wallace who became a grandmother with Kartar’s arrival. The fourth, fifth and sixth generations all live about 15 minutes away, in O’Leary.
