Before long, John's brother Otto joined him in Canada. When a friend wrote and told John of a job in Terrace that paid 90 cents an hour, the two men boarded another train and slowly made their way north.

They stepped off the train in Houston on Halloween Day in 1948 and were taken to Barnett's ranch where a friend worked. They stayed for three days before travelling on to Terrace.

John stayed in Terrace working for the winter, never forgetting the beauty of the Pleasant Valley and Houston. By spring of 1949, he left his brother Otto behind and made his way back to Houston where he met and married his wife Henny in the same year. Today he has ten children and a seemingly ever-changing number of grandchildren, many of whom still live in the area. He says he thinks he has them "counted up" and then they tell him he is wrong.

The family ended up on the very private lot across the river from the Northside Ball Diamond. Although told he was crazy for doing it, John built a bridge across the river so that his kids could take a much shorter route to get to school. He had always dreamed of living on an island and this was the next best thing.