Roy, Roblin Hotel remembered

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2014 (4303 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marie Sharpe Schnerch’s Another kind of father (June 14) was very evocative and timely.

Thomas and Liliane (née Blais) Roy of the Roblin Hotel were truly generous and resilient people. The family history has links to the francophone and Métis community of Manitoba, while the Roblin Hotel was an important political and business landmark in the province the late-19th and early-20th centuries.

Unfortunately, the building did not survive, but the stories of its occupants have been preserved for posterity in Schnerch’s new publication, The Roblin.

 

DIANE PAYMENT

Winnipeg

 

Another kind of father captures the humanity and the spirit of the Roblin Hotel, as described in Laurel Anderson-McCallum’s letter Uncle’s Tale Resonates (June 19).

Even the button-eyed stares of mounted moose heads (as any who visited the hotel’s lobby can recall) seemed omnipresent among the moving stories of how the hotel provided a place for our potentially vulnerable elderly who strove to remain as contributing and independent as possible in their life circumstances.

I was sorry to see the Roblin go. Its owner and residents were the backbone of our city.

 

SHIRLEY KOWALCHUK

Winnipeg