Going to Scotland this year wasn't in the cards for us. After all, we'd been in both the previous two years. Funny how things work out.
In January, I received an e-mail from Alastair Ramage, curator of the Heatherbank Museum, telling me of an exhibit they were preparing on Child
Migration scheduled to open on May 1st. While the subject matter was interesting, it wasn't enough for me to drop things and board a flight.
Almost exactly one month later, I received an e-mail from one of his assistants. She was looking for help for the exhibit. I told
her what I could and who in all likelihood could help with the things beyond my knowledge. She also told me the exhibit would display "fact files"
on individual children. I couldn't let this opportunity pass without sending her the link to my "then" website and my father's story.
I'm not sure if I did that subconcsiously expecting it to be included but when I got an e-mail back wanting a short biography on "me"
to include with it, I knew I was going to Scotland.
Before I even got on Scottish soil, the media interviewed me. I did a phone interview with Jim McBeth from The Scotsman on April 30th.
I say this now because Alastair asked me if I would be all right with media coverage of my visit to the museum.
I wasn't there for the opening on May 1st but I did get there for the 15th. When we arrived at the museum, we were greeted with "You're
half an hour too early for the TV. I hope you don't mind." In the end it was both TV and newspaper and I never did see the exhibit, I was so
busy being a "media darling".
In addition to having my fifteen minutes of fame, we lived by our motto "we're here for a good time not a long time" so
packed as much as possible into the week we were there tours into Glasgow, an overnight trip to Montrose to stay with a friend I'd met via e-mail
during the planning stages of the exhibit, trips to Loch Lomond, the Wallace Monument, the Glengoyne Distillery and the Bannockburn Battlefield site.
As always, it was sad to leave Scotland but good to be back home. Still, I can't wait to get back to the Auld Country.
