6 entries.
The LONE STAR quilt completed by my husband's grandmother. She would have been age 16 when it was completed. Her daughter lettered the following information on the quilt -- 'LAURINDA MAUD RALPH MACK 1876-1964 QUILT TOP MADE 1892 OF HER DRESS SCRAPS
July 18th, 2024
Driving home in a panic, I was trying to think clearly about where all our most important belongings were. You assume a fire evacuation will be temporary, but we were out of our home for an entire month.
In that moment, faced with uncertainty and fear, the first thing that came to mind wasn’t passports or jewelry. It was a single photograph of my Grandpa Lorne. That photo became the very first thing I packed into my bag.
A fire evacuation has a way of forcing you to reassess what truly matters. It strips everything down to the essentials, not in terms of survival, but in terms of meaning. So many of the material things we surround ourselves with suddenly feel irrelevant. What remains are the people we love, the memories we hold, and the few tangible items that connect us to them.
My grandfather was everything to me. He and my grandmother raised me, and his presence shaped who I am. He passed away in 2019, but the impact he had on my life is still deeply felt.
In the photo, he’s wearing a giant moose hat, something they place on the birthday person at Montana’s Restaurant. He’s grinning ear to ear, his high cheekbones -features passed down to me - on full display. That joyful expression, that familiar warmth, brings comfort even now.
His smile, captured in that one moment, holds more value to me than any possession ever could. It’s a reminder of love, of connection, and of the things that truly matter when everything else falls away.
It’s a photo I simply couldn’t bear to lose.
When I evacuated, I brought my lion. Unlike most people, I don’t have many important belongings because I’ve lost most of my valuables through a series of tragedies. This has led to a fairly simple life free of many things. However, many people don’t know that I have high-functioning autism and have also survived a head trauma. Sometimes, when things are really stressful, it’s hard to cope, so I have a stuffed animal to help me. I bought it at IKEA—a big enough lion that can hug and comfort me when I’m scared or tired. I discovered how important it is to have these sorts of things because I’m an immigrant who became a settler-citizen and I’m alone like an orphan in the world if I have no one with me and it can be hard out there in the concrete jungle. So I brought my lion and since then I also have a really beautiful owl blanket because it’s really scary out there when you’re all alone. Thankfully, I’m not alone anymore. The wildfires were really hard and I was really happy to have my lion with me and I know I made the right decision to bring it along. so if I ever have to do it again, I’ll take my lion and my owl.
Libby's toy flower. We got it almost half her lifetime ago, in the year we first moved to New Denver. Libby has been through so much with me, and I really don't know where I'd be without her. And this toy is going to outlive her. It has always been the toy that she chooses when she knows a play with her would pick me up. It's my favourite one.
Where play is what gave Libby purpose, when she's gone, her toy is what's going to help me continue live mine, and remind me that I can keep going even through hard times. If I have to live a portion of the rest of my life without her, I don't ever want to be without Libby's toy flower.
I chose the tractor as a very high value item when we were evacuated as it is used most days, winter and summer, for our off-grid life. It sees use in the garden, for road maintenance, chipping brush/ trees for fire mitigation, splitting wood, mowing, snow removal, and for loading / unloading logs and lumber on the mill. Many aspects of our life rely on this very useful tool!!
This first entry is reserved for my own!
My most precious belonging, something I really don't want to loose, is the first illustrated journal that I kept in the first year of my work of Kokanee Glacier Provincial park. Even though it is also a published book now, the original is unreplaceable. It contains countless memories of my time in nature and the drawings take me back to my special spots in the park. It reminds me of how lucky I am to live the life that I do and this journal started my artistic career here in Canada. I want to keep the journal safe, because it feels like a small extended a part of myself, and something that my family could treasure when I am no longer around.