Charles E. Gardiner 1926-2009

Last week my father-in-law died. Charlie was a great father-in-law. If he ever had any doubts about me as a son-in-law he never voiced them to me. On the contrary he was always supportive and/or had constructive advice. He was a man with common sense and I respected his opinion.

Family was very important to Charlie. He had a phenomenal memory for family stories. It was largely his stories and the old Gardiner genealogy (written by Dr. Frederick Gardiner in 1930) that got me involved in genealogy. I remember his delight when I got him two large family tree charts for his birthday several years ago.

We only got to see Diane's parents about once a year. A couple of years ago when we visited Charlie & I went to the Canadian Warplane Museum in Hamilton. On our next visit I had planned to take him to an auto museum in Oshawa but he had been ill just prior to our visit and wasn't feeling up to it. "Next time' he said. There wasn't a next time. He will be missed.