Today, a month later, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive a three page single-spaced hand written "letter" (anyone remember those archaic forms of communication?). Yes, she admitted that during our conversation she did not fully realize that we were 'second cousins" through our mothers. And, yes, my hunch was correct and they did operate a cafe in rural Saskatchewan as did so many other Chinese immigrant families. Hopefully someone in her family might be able to dig up a photo of the cafe for me to use in my book... that would be so personal!
So,my persistent detective work paid off. I learned a lot about my family tree and the role of the Chinese restaurant in it, a very personally rewarding outcome of my Chinese restaurant history research indeed!