Family
Family, the people we meet and make and the people who make us. The glorious expression of being part of something bigger than oneself.
THE FAMILY
The Olsen family is a lot bigger now. And there are more. Adam, Emily, Silas (and McKenna) and Ella. Joni, Nick, Madi (and Paydon), Reuben (and Ava) and Joey (and Millie). Heather and Cory, Yetsa (and Max), Jack and Felix. And, of course, Joac.
It’s time for a new photo. But here they are. And here’s one way to tell the short story of my family. We started out perfect. My kids were perfect. I mean it. Adam, Joni, and Heather were the easiest kids to raise. Then the marriage split up and we all became a mess. Raising kids with trauma and amid trauma is hard. When the youngest graduated I sent a letter to the school. I told them what I’ve just told you. And then I thanked them for sticking with us through drugs, eating disorders, rebellion, a 14-year old’s pregnancy, English as a second language. We stuck together at the end of it all. Their dad, Carl, the kids, Joac, me and Yetsa, our first granddaughter, who came along when no one expected and then the rest of the grandkids. I’m the old grandma now. I watch young families with enormous respect and want to tell them, “It will be okay or it won’t. But you do what you do, and they are who they are. And that’s okay. Raising kids is a case of striving to recreate life into the best you can make it while, at the same time, accepting life just the way it is.” My kids are First Nations kids and for that I am thankful. They have a deeply respectful First Nations relationship with their old people. They take care of us.
JOAC
In 1990 our family lived in Kelowna for a year. We wanted to give the kids the experience of living off the reserve. While we were there we met a boy, Jose Joaquim de Castro Alves, who had come from Brazil (another story) and had since been kicked out of the home he was living in. He had lived temporarily with friend of ours and then in foster care. None of his homes worked out. He ended up at our home (another story). We brought him in. He became our permanent foster son and brother. He was 13 years old. Our home worked for him and he was the perfect addition to our family. He never left. He’s 51 now and lives in a cool cabin on the same property as Adam’s and Joni’s families. Joac’s kidneys failed when he was 25. He’s had 2 replacement kidneys. He’s worked almost full time throughout all his illnesses. He doesn’t quit. He is the best son, brother and uncle in the world.
THE BOYS
Jack and Felix, or ‘the boys’ as their mom, Heather, calls them, are the youngest of the eight Olsen grandkids. They are lacrosse players. They eat and sleep the game. They never tire of practicing, exercising, playing, and travelling to tournaments. Life, for the boys, is lacrosse. Jack is changing schools so he can get in line for Claremont Secondary…the lacrosse school in the Victoria region. They are poster boys for dedication…to say nothing about their mom’s hard work to make it all happen. In a time when people are worried about kids and their devices, I see a very different side of my grandkids. All the big kids work and have interests and enthusiasm for all sorts of things. Yetsa dances, she’s at university, Madi sings and makes music, Reuben designs music electronically and other things I don’t understand, Silas is into theatre, front of stage and backstage, Joey is an artist, he’s a hand crafter, with leather, wool, paper, silver…anything that starts as one thing and his hands can make into something else, Ella is as dedicated to acting as the boys are to lacrosse. She has her heart set on Broadway. Grandkids are the best.
952 STELLYS X ROAD
Carl and I raised our family at 952 Stellys X Rd, on Tsartlip First Nation. We pulled a modular home into the property the day Adam was born 50 years ago. We built a greenhouse, an Indian sweater shop and a shed on the ¾ acre. Over the years the family remade the sweater shop into Yetsa’s cabin, the shed into a house for Joac, the greenhouse into a house for Adam’s family, and the modular home into a 4-suite house for Joni’s family (which includes Salish Fusion Knitwear and Roosa Records recording studio). The space between the four buildings has a greenhouse, smokehouse, cobb oven and outdoor kitchen, badminton court and a gazebo in front of Adam’s house that morphs into the stage for the Creaky Deck outdoor music concerts. It is housing on steroids, and it is home for anyone and everyone who lives there or visits.
Tex & Piper
Tex and I got married in 2017. He had never been married and had no children. So, I don’t need to say that it required a massive rethink about family for him to become “Grandpa” to the Olsen clan. He does a fabulous job of it. But Tex and I have a little family of our own. Odelia and Neekah (our friends) gave us Piper 8 years ago when Piper was about 10 weeks old. Neekah wanted us to continue to call her Princess, but Tex couldn’t bring himself to call his dog such a name. Given Tex is Malcolm McLeod he thought a more appropriate name for the puppy would be Bagpipes. Piper for short. Piper is a glorious expression of being a multi-breed. She is the Saturna Lodge mutt. She welcomes guests with a bark and then leads them to their rooms. And, most exceptionally, Tex and Piper won the bronze medal (or the 3rd place ribbon) in the lookalike category, at the Saturna Island dog show.