The Storyline Productions Story
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veryone has a story – a unique personal journey. We know that along the way there are moments of joy and sorrow, love and loss, triumph and failure. Telling these stories and the lessons that they imparted is one of the most important qualities of being human. We share our lives with the people we love with the hope of being understood and to help them learn from the path that we have been walking. A path called life. We named our company “Storyline” because each and every project we undertake begins and ends with you; your voice, your hopes, your memories, and your passion. We have committed ourselves to telling your story with stunning video production that sheds a beautiful light on you and the people and ideas that you care about the most.
Wasim Baobaid, Founder - Storyline Productions
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asim Baobaid is the founder and director of Storyline Productions. A veteran of the video production industry, Wasim has been involved in all areas of videography for nearly two decades. He led three departments and a team of 10 at Ajman TV before moving to E-vision, a sub-division of Etisalat, the biggest and most complete communications company in UAE. In the city of Toronto, Wasim served as Master Control Operator for the Asian Television Network (ATN). While in Halifax he worked with Immigrant Settlement and Integration Services in an altruistic video production capacity helping new Canadians develop critical skills. Mr. Baobaid directed, produced and edited several broadcast-quality documentaries. His “Yes, I Can” documentary was screened at the Montreal International Film Festival and is currently taught to students in India by WorldKids Foundation as an important part of their “Entertainment with a Purpose” program. Wasim’s “Sax Appeal” documentary aired on CBC Ottawa in 2012, was featured at the Wakefield International Film Festival. Indeed, Wasim’s documentary films have graced prestigious screens from coast to coast and have achieved international acclamation. As the founder and head of Storyline Productions, Wasim Baobaid continues his visual and service excellence in the Metropolitan Ottawa area. Although a full service commercial video production house, his business pursuits have now merged with his humanitarian imperative. Wasim presently uses his talents to bring joy to families by creating interview videos and posterity documentaries of family members wishing to pass their memories on to all future generations.
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An Amazing Cen An Amazing L
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Catherine Ann McCuaig Clavette April 7, 1901 - Sep 26, 2004
By Ken Clavette
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atherine was born at the bringing of a new century. It was on a Sunday April 7th 1901 in a log home in Lochiel Township, Glengarry County, Ontario, or as she said it “just east of the Six'd of Kenyon". She was a daughter to Malcolm "Mackie" McCuaig and Mary Ann MacKinnon after the birth of her two older brothers, John Angus and Daniel.
It was a time before flight, a time before automobiles. At a time people could only dream of travel in space. Queen Victoria had only died a few months before her birth, having served 65 years on the throne. Mind you compared to the life Cathy was to live she was a youngster at only 83.
When Cathy was born, Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier was the seventh Prime Minister of Canada – she lived though 14 others: Borden, Meighen, Mackenzie King, Bennett, St. Laurent, Diefenbaker, Person, Trudeau, Turner, Clark, Mulroney, Campbell, Chretien and Martin.
On the day she was born the newspaper headlines reported on the Boer War in South Africa that Canada was involved in. Smallpox was breaking out in Ontario and Nova Scotia resulting in several deaths.
Catherine McCaig
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ntury Life
Cathy McCuaig & Albert Clavette Wedding Day Aug 29 1927 Greenfield
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The Canadian government was buying the Plains of Abraham from an order of Quebec nuns to make it a national park. Milk would have cost her parents 2A tickets for $1. A shirt her father would have bought was on sale for $1. A petticoat for her mother that regularly sold for $1.25 could be had on sale for 25 cents. The newspaper that told us this cost 1 cent. Born in April there were always Easter sales in the newspaper on Cathy’s birthday. The population of the country was 5,371,000 in 1901.
A young women:
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y her 25th birthday in 1926 much had happened in her life. Cathy had lost her mother and little sister when she was only seven. Her family had been broken up with her and brothers, John-Angus, Danny, Joe and Ranald, being sent to live with neighbors. She was placed with the O'Neill's, William and Bella, a childless couple. She would only see her brothers on Sunday after mass at St. Catherine of Sienna Church in Greenfield. It was at a time when the language spoken in the church yard would be the Gaelic of the old country Scotland, as much as English. Cathy's mother Mary Ann McKinnon and her sister Hattie Mary McCuaig (1908-11) she died of croup
g and Albert Clavette 1939 Storyline Magazine
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After her mothers death Catherine McCuaig (1901-2004) was raised by William and Bella O’Niell on their farm. Albert and her bought the farm raising their children there until Albert’s death in 1948.
She worked hard as a child on the O'Neill farm, in her own words she said "cleaned the land, picked stones, I did everything." She attended a one room school house near the farm but didn’t complete grade 7. She saw the historical events of the 20th century as every daily events of life, the changes and the tragedies. One day in 1916 while working in the yard she smelled smoke. She wondered who's home or which neighbour's barn was on fire. It was only the next day she found out the smoke had come from the burning Parliament Buildings in Ottawa, miles and miles away. Maddie Clavette with Bella O'Neill Catherine's foster Mother.
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REMEMBERING YOUR
FAMILY LEGACY
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FOR GENERATIONS
specializes in documenting the life story of your loved ones. Save the precious memories of older generations with our fully customized documentary signature. Please contact us for the packages and pricing www.storylineproductions.ca info@storylineprodcutions.ca (613) 400-4247 Storyline Magazine
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courtesy of http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ It was during the First World War that she saw an airplane for the every first time in her life – it was flying between Montreal and Ottawa over the fields she was working in. It was a war that brought so much death and destruction and it also visited the young men of Glengarry. Cathy would talk of one young man, William Joseph Filion, a neighbour boy, who was killed in France on September 28, 1918 just as the war was coming to an end. His life ended at 20 years of age and he was buried in France. The whole community grieved his death she said. As a young women Cathy went looking for a better life, she left the O’Neill farm with some of her friends and went to work in Cornwall where she stayed for a couple of years. She worked first at the Horovitz Pants Factory and then the “Silk Mill”. Courtauld’s Mill was an English manufacture of a new fabric called Rayon, or what was called man made silk. She worked in Cornwall making a grand sum of $7 a week. Her and her friends all lived together boarding with one of the friend’s aunts where one of the other young men living there was from Greenfield, his name was Albert Clavette. On Cathy’s 25th birthday in 1926 the newspaper headlines reported on: problems with Farm Immigration to Canada from Europe, an assassination attempt on little known Italian Dictator Mussolini, the victory of the Montreal Maroons over the Victoria Cougars to win the Stanley Cup. If Cathy had gone with her friends to a movie it would have cost them 20 cents for a ticket, 10 cents for a matinee. New dresses were on sale for $8.75, and a coat would have cost $16.50. An umbrella for the spring showers would have set her back $1.98. The price of that newspaper was 2 cents. The population of Canada was now at 9,451,000.
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That young neighbour Albert Clavette was to play a major part in Granny's life. He must have been quite the sight courting her first in Cornwall and then with his horse and buggy calling on her at the O'Neill farm, heading off to house parties around the county side. They were married in Greenfield August 29, 1927. Together they had seven children Madeline, Annabelle, Edmund, Wilfrid, Irene and Alice (losing one at birth). Together they farmed first with the O’Neill’s then renting a farm in Baltic before buying the O’Neill farm where Cathy was raised. They made their living from a few milk cows, some pigs and chickens selling some maple syrup - all the work done by them, by their hands, with the help of their three horses and a growing family. How their kids danced on the grass to music the day her and Albert brought home their first Victrola record player powered by a hand crank. Cathy and Albert bought their first car-a used 1929 Ford from a dealer on the second floor of the old Chair Factory in Cornwall. They had no idea how they would get it down from there, or get it home, as neither knew how to drive. While they now had a car it was horse power that made the farm run. Cathy never lost her love of hoses and at 101 she took the rains of a horse drawn wagon that was taking residences of her nursing home on a hayride. They survived the Great Depression and another World War. When asked how they did it her reply was "you do without what you'd like to have" and they did. She would resole her children's shoes from Albert's old leather boots. As for the depression and Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, she said "he was no damn good" but she did like Mackenzie King.
Catherine and Albert make Maple Syrup in open pots in the Sugar Bush c1936
Before her 50th birthday tragedy had struck the family. A lightning fire in 1948 that destroyed the family barn also caused Albert's death; the result of a fall when he, and his brothers and brother-in-laws, where attempting to replace it. Cathy was a widow with four children to care for.
Catherine with brother Johnny McCuaig at his wedding to Albert's Sister Clara. Albert with Catherine's father, Mackie McCuaig and grandfather Malcom McCuaig.
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THE FAMILY LEGACY DVD GIFT BOX A timeless gift that connects the generations!
Legacy DVD Gift Box can be order for a family member, childhood friend or for a professional organization who wants
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to document their journey.
for more info please contact : www.storylineproductions.ca info@storylineprodcutions.ca phone: (613) 400-4247
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Looking for
Videographer We offer complete videography services including:
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Documentaries Family Legacy Corporate Wedding
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Special Events Music Animation Real Estate Video
and much more...
Please contact us for more information www.storylineproductions.ca info@storylineprodcutions.ca (613) 400-4247 14
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Catherine, sister-in-law Clara, her children Wilf, Alice and Irene.
A life in town
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ith the death of her husband great changes were happening in Cathy’s life and that of her children. Her daughters, Maddie and Annie where on their own in Cornwall, and son Eddy, at the age of 15, had stared working for the Bank of Nova Scotia fallowing his father’s death. Together with her three youngest children, Wilf, Irene and Alice she moved to Maxville in 1951 where she celebrated her 50th birthday. Cathy loved music and the house parties that she and Albert enjoyed continued in Maxville. Musicians performing in and around Maxville could always find a late night meal in Cathy’s kitchen. Some of her favorites were Bob King and the Happy Wanderers and the Family Brown. She was a great fan of Hank Snow and of Wilf Carter (aka Montana Slim) from Port Maddie, Ed and Anna Bell on Hilford, Nova Scotia. With her son Ed she the day of their fathers funeral on the farm. attended one of Carter’s last concert tours when she was in her 90s.
The headlines on her 50th birthday covered stories on: the Canada’s involvement in the Korean War, problems the US government was having with General MacArthur, strikes on the docks of England. A loaf of bread would have cost her 13 cents. Dry cleaning of her Easter skirt would cost 35 cents. A trip to the movie theatre she could have seen Jimmy Stewart staring in his new movie “Harvey” - that’s the one with the invisible rabbit. The price of a newspaper was 5 cents. Ottawa Vally musician Bob King with Catherine in Maxville.
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A growing legacy
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Catherine with her great-grandchildren
he next twenty-five years Cathy’s family grew. The children married, the first of 15 grandchildren were born - starting with Bev and Carol. With her daughter Alice she moved to Cornwall from Maxville to work at the Hotel-Dieu hospital.
Cathy has always worked hard. When asked how she did it, suggesting she was stubborn, she said no she was just strong-minded, “I would just go ahead and do it.” She retired from the hospital at the age of 66 because of a mix up in the year of her birth. But that was not the end of her work life. For each summer after she retired she went to Jasper Park to work in the laundry of the Lodge. When the Canadian National Hotels did not offer her work when she turned 75 she was very upset claiming that she could do twice the workload that her much younger co-workers could do.
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Without work she returned to making the hand sewn quilt of her youth. Many family members are lucky to have a quilt she made them. She loved a good bingo game and was always ready to go fishing rain or shine.
On her 75 birthday newspaper headlines reported: Tories under, Joe Clark was leading in the polls over her all time favourite Prime Minister Pierre Eliot Trudeau, and ground beef cost 98 cents a lb. Popular movies were - “All the Presidents Men” on the Watergate crises, a young Jodie Foster was staring in “The Bad News Bears,” and “One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest” with Jack Nicholson was drawing in crowds. The price of the daily newspaper was 15 cents and the population of the country was 23,449,000 people.
One of Catherine's hand made quilts.
Catherine with her children. Wilf, Ed, Maddie, Annie and Alice.
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Catherine and her children, Wilf, Annie, Irene, Ed, Maddie Alice.
In the 25 years leading up to her one hundredth birthday she saw the birth of 23 great grand children. Cathy saw so much change in her lifetime - the numerous wars, the eradication of small pox, the coming and going of Canadian, and the world leaders, that most have only read about in history books.
Marconi’s wireless radio broadcasts was made the year she was born and she lived to see satellite TV and computers. She was born in the age of the horse and lived to see space travel. She lived an amazing life in an amazing century. “Little Granny�, as her great grand children took to calling her, lived an independent life - surviving loss and hardship - to say nothing of car accidents in her 80s and 90s. But she was always looking forward with admirable strength.
Granny with brother Danny
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It was on her 75th birthday that Cathy started planning her 100th – always looking to the future and going forward because she is that type of person she was. On her 100th birthday she was living in the Woodland Villa in Long Sault when her family gathered around her, including her older bother Danny. With a cake and the bagpipes she was celebrated, and then she danced. She was still looking forward to a party and a good time.
When a local paper reported when asked what she attributed her long life to she said “work hard, no sitting around”. But with a laugh she also said it wasn’t all work there “were lots of nights of dancing.”
That day the headlines of the newspaper read of terrorism around the world and that Canadian troop were serving in Bosnia. Items cost a bit more, a refrigerator was on sale for $699.99, and a bottle of Aspirin was selling for $5.49. The paper to find this out cost $1.75. The population of Canada was at 31,021,000.
Cathy lived into her 104th year passing away on Sept 26, 2004 in Long Sault surrounded by her children and some of her grandchildren. The US was at war in Iraq, Mount St Helens was experienced Earthquakes, Paul Martin, Jr. was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada and Cathy’s 14th. The population of the nation was 32,048,000.
So much had changed in her life time, in medicine, science and transportation. Her family continues to grow adding members to what Albert and she started together in 1927. Many that are still to come will only get to know her, the struggles and joys of her life, because of we continue to tell her story.
Cathy at her 100th birthday with grandchildren. Storyline Magazine
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Memory last forever
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