Introducing….Me

I am the daughter of an educator and a scientist. I was raised by both of my parents, though they divorced when I was three. I have one sibling, my sister Emily, and between us we have seven children. I was a teen Mom, my firstborn joined my life when I was 18.

When I was 23, in 1996, after years of campaigning against deforestation, my Father committed suicide in the cascade mountains of British Colombia. A crushing blow to our family, everything was completely torn apart in his aftermath. My oldest, at the time, only son was 4. I met and had children with my first husband; in July of 1996, and had my second, and third sons when I was 24, and 28. I ended up a single mom by the time I was 30. The dice were loaded against us from the start, due to our inexperience and broken hearts, having both survived much loss on our journeys.

In 1999, I met and became understudy to an Indigenous Medecine Woman, and spent the next twenty years to present studying Reiki, herbal medicine, and wildcrafting with her. I was blessed to have been invited to join and learn about their sacred ceremonies, the Sacred Sweatlodge.

I went to school and became a Pharamcy Assistant, and raised the three boys on my own.

We moved to the northwest of BC for three years where work was plentiful. I worked as a community support worker with Indigenous youth, and also in the Safeway Pharmacy. We spent a large part of our time in the North, living off grid on an 80acre river frontage along the skeena river. We learned to fish and forage, snowboard,(the boys not I 😂) hike and fly fish in full hip wader outdoor gear. We cooked delicious fresh caught salmon on river banks, we helped raise two litters of Pyrenees cross pups. Some may have been half wolf.

I returned to the south coast in 2013, to re connect with family, and begin a new life, for the third time. I met who would be my second husband in 2013. We started a business together. A junk removal and recycling business. We beautified many, many, properties between 2013 and 2018. We also worked with, and did charitable donations of furniture and household items to Habitat for Humanity; as well as paid deconstruction projects with Habitat for Humanity. People who were renovating would donate kitchens and bathrooms, and we would remove and deliver these items for the organization to sell in their “Restores.” It was incredibly rewarding and fun work my future husband and I accomplished together. While he and I built our business, he built a connection with my 12 & 16 year old sons. Sons that were in no way easy to win over.

I married the love of my life at 43 in 2016, with the blessings of my sons. We got married In our garden under two of the most enormous pot plants I have ever grown. In 2018, when, by some miracle we had our own son, my husbands firstborn, my fourth, & the third of my four sons born in April.

Today I am the proud Grandma of a four year old boy that makes my heart swell with happiness and pride. Watching my youngest and him play is the best thing I have ever seen. I have had many many challenges along the way, but I have always, always, found that support appreared. Guidance and maybe a little luck, and I have survived the pitfalls of life on earth to this point with my spirit intact and my heart full of love. If I needed any further proof of miracles, I have most definitely received it. So this is the end of a little more of a deep dive into who I am.

Many thanks to Lisa Gerard Braun, for her very community building prompt to the writers in our community of vocal Facebook pages. You can learn more about her here.