Pass time with photos

Summer is half over.

This is quite the depressing thought. I am loving my time out of class, and I feel like I am actually beginning to regain my sanity after the whirlwind that is the first year of CreComm.

There are still two months left of summer, and I want to use this halfway point to my advantage. Below are some photos of some of the things I have been doing to keep myself busy...

Assiniboine Park. Playing guitar along the river. Usually, we try to get out as often as possible, and this was an especially beautiful day in May.

When the water was really high at the beginning of the season, it went all the way up to the bank.

I'm enjoying myself, and Jeff is capturing the moment, but he doesn't hesitate to remind me every five seconds that he'll throw ME into the river if I drop his guitar.

The Fort Garry Hotel. Sam and I decided that we might as well check it out since we were in the neighbourhood. It totally feels like the set of The Shining, and I was hoping I would run into one of the many ghosts that are rumoured to haunt the interior.

The elevators in the Fort Garry Hotel were especially cool.


Upper Fort Garry, with a view of the Fort Garry Hotel in the background. There are plans to re-create and build up a provincial park around the ruins, which I think is a fantastic idea.

The gated entrance to the fort. I love this door.

Inside Union Station on Main Street.

Another interesting shot of Union Station. Both Sam and I fell in love with this curved bench.

And finally, here's Rocco, the newest addition to Tyler and Kristen's household. Hes a rottweiler, and about six weeks in this photo. He's already doubled in size, and I'm more that a little nervous about when he reaches his full height!

Peaceful protest?

I was going to let this event slide by without comment, but after watching the countless videos posted on Facebook, I had to write something.

The June 27 G20 protest in Toronto was supposed to be peaceful, but there are videos and photographs everywhere of police officers rushing the crowd as soon as they finished singing our national anthem. The intersection at Queen and Spadina is usually filled with tourists and local residents, but a few days ago, it was filled with police officers carrying shields and wearing Kevlar.

I honestly don't know how I feel about this incident. I was in Toronto a few years ago, and I remember that intersection well. It's strange, and almost surreal to watch a mixture of people and police officers running and yelling down it. I can't imagine how scared the protesters must have felt, because they had intended initially to be peaceful.

There are so many accounts of what happened circulating out there, so I won't even begin to pass judgement or choose a side. I also won't place blame on the government, the mayor of Toronto, or anyone else. It was a tragic situation, and nobody won.

I'm also not going to post the video on my blog, because I don't want it on here forever. If you haven't watched one of the videos, I suggest checking out this one.

There are a number of iconic photographs that represent the event very well, and one of the places you can view those is at Macleans online.

I wonder if this is one of those events that will be remembered for a long time, or if it will fade as we worry about more "pressing issues" like the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico or the World Cup. I personally hope it isn't forgotten, because I don't ever want to see police officers rush a group of Canadians again.

Things I've learned about writing so far...

• A pot of coffee gives me strength to accomplish literary miracles.
• Writing comes in waves. It's impossible to predict when a moment of genius will appear, so don't even try.
• Write it fast the first time, and save editing for later. It’s all about getting words on the page, and the unnecessary stuff can be cut out afterwards.
• Sometimes, the words suck. Save them, because they might cease to suck at a later time.
• Read books if you're writing a book.
• Inspiration is everywhere.
• Friends and family make fantastic characters. Just change their names if it might pose a problem later.
• Constant blogging will keep creative energy flowing.
• A little Hunter S. Thompson isn't a bad thing.

And here's an update on what I've accomplished this summer...

• Books read: 35
• Completed IPP stories: 2.5
• Posted blogs: 36
• Cabin weekends: 2
• Dinner's cooked: 10
• Happiness level: 9/10

Public transportation and loud music don't mix

This morning, I sat beside a man on the bus who was listening to his iPod very, very loudly. Usually, this doesn’t bother me, but this particular individual bothered me off for two reasons...

1) It was 7:15 a.m., and I was still half asleep.
2) He was listening to Rammstein.

As I tried to ignore the idiot and focus on my morning bus routine – which is reading fmylife.com – I started thinking about all the different types of music I have heard people listening to while using public transportation. I took the bus 10 times a week for 8 months during my first year of CreComm, and in that time I experienced an array of diverse music. Here are my favourites, for your reading pleasure:

a) Sheryl Crow. (I absolutely hate country music. No exceptions. I’m from Calgary, and if I wanted to hear country music, I would move back.)

b) Celine Dion. (Enough said.)

c) Backstreet Boys. (This actually made me smile and dance around...)

d) Bad polka music. (I didn’t know that polka music still existed. The kicker is that the person listening to it was a 14-year-old girl.)

e) Spice Girls. (OK, I was dancing around...)

To each their own, I guess. I wonder what would happen if I brought a “boom box” on the bus and turned on a Backstreet Boys song. I think people would either find it funny, or I would be beaten up within an inch of my life and my boom box would be stolen or broken.

It would be an interesting sociology experiment...

My online world is expanding

Sometimes, people actually read my blog.

Yesterday, I received an email from my mom, informing me that one of my blog posts had been re-posted on the May Works 2009 Festival website. Apparently, my review of an Aqua Books event last month was so well-received that the individuals critiqued in it wanted a larger audience to read my comments.

Fantastic. That’s exactly what I want. Exposure!

I also discovered that a few stories I wrote for Canada’s History magazine had been posted online. The first was a writeup for a photograph of two people poling down a river. The second was a profile of Lord Durham.

Now, all I need is for the editor of a publishing company to read my blog, call me up, and offer me a large book grant.

It can happen. People read my blog.

I'm 23 and still can't apostrophe!

I have been saving this blog post for the last week of class because it is something that is very embarrassing to admit. In school, we dedicated an entire unit to the apostrophe. We learned when to use it, when not to use it, and what it means. I was paying close attention during this unit - because the apostrophe is something I have always struggled with - but the rules didn't stick.

Honestly, I was beginning to believe that I was one of those people who were destined not to understand how to properly use this very important piece of punctuation.

Then, Lindor Reynolds from the Winnipeg Free Press wrote a column that discussed the apostrophe specifically. She called herself the "Cranky Grammar Lady," and she made some valid points (even though she did make some spelling and grammatical errors of her own). After discussing the article in class, I decided that it was time I learned how to use the apostrophe correctly once and for all.

Over the last few days, I have conducted a self-help apostrophe session. I read the Canadian Press Stylebook, re-read the grammar book from Writer's Craft, and searched online for websites that offered additional information. I think I've finally got it figured out, and now I will explain how exactly the apostrophe works.

To the best of my knowledge, that is...

Let’s start from the beginning. In the dictionary, the apostrophe is defined as "a sign that is used to indicate the omission of letters in a word, to indicate possession, or to show contractions."

Here are some examples of each:

1) When indicating omission: she’d, it’s, ‘30s, couldn’t, won’t, and he’d.

2) When indicating possession: the children’s toys and a person’s legal rights. But, dealing with possession is a little bit more complicated than that.

• Use an apostrophe + s (‘s) with:
• Almost all single nouns: Mr. Bates’s House, the class’s record, and a fox’s bushy tail.
• Plural nouns that do not end in s: women’s rights, the people’s voice, and the geese’s flight.
• Use an apostrophe (‘) alone with:
• Plural nouns ending in s: the two girls’ coats, the boys’ gymnasium, and the parents’ car.

3) When indicating contractions: can’t [cannot], what’s [what is], we’re [we are], and so on...

• Do NOT use an apostrophe:
• With possessive personal pronouns such as his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs, and whose.
• With ordinary plurals or verbs: stores, stars, etc...

The Canadian Press Stylebook has additional information about when to use an apostrophe and when to exclude it, but it’s just too much information to remember at once. My recommendation is to look up specific situations on a case by case basis.

A good way to check if you need an apostrophe is to try and substitute the use of “of.” For example: In the sentence: “Amanda’s house was well-organized,” think of “the house of Amanda was well-organized.”

If you still are confused about proper usage of the apostrophe, here are some games below that can help. They are mostly for children, but are still quite helpful. Try using the “of” rule as you go through and answer the questions.

Basic Sentences game: http://bit.ly/aBnLlp
Re-write the sentences quiz: http://bit.ly/dnVWaf
Apostrophe trivia game: http://bit.ly/cJuiVx

I heart public transportation

Last weekend, a few friends and I took the bus to a birthday party at a house off Corydon Avenue.

Since I started attending Red River College, I seem to be taking the bus everywhere. My recent move to Pembina Highway from WhyteRidge has increased my public transport travels even further, and I can’t remember the last time I drove a car.

Taking the bus is not only easier than driving downtown, but it is less expensive, less harmful to the environment, and less stressful on me. Also, it is one hundred per cent more interesting than driving every day. This may seem like crazy talk to die hard automobile lovers, but hear me out before passing judgement.

When I was in Europe last summer, and Chicago last month, public transportation was the only possible method of travel. I am too young to rent a car, and honestly, why would I want to? Drivers in large cities are absolutely insane, and there was no way I was going to try to brave the busy streets behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. I was perfectly content taking the subway or bus, and I even bypassed taxis whenever possible.

There is something both romantic and exciting about public transportation. Instead of sitting in an air-conditioned, closed-off from the world box, a person taking the bus or waiting for the subway is fully immersed in his or her surroundings. Sights, sounds, smells, and conversations all become part of the experience. One never knows who they will meet, what will happen, or, in some cases (like when travelling in foreign cities), where they will end up. There is the fear of getting lost, or running into undesirable characters, but that is all part of being involved in the world.

I will play Devil’s Advocate with myself and admit that public transportation isn’t always a pleasant experience. Sometimes it’s freezing outside, or raining quite horribly. Occasionally, I am forced to sit beside a person who hasn’t bathed. And, once in a blue moon, I encounter frightening individuals who make me genuinely nervous. That happened once, and resulted in a call to the police and subsequent police report.

(For more information on the last scenario, read an earlier post from February titled WARNING to female bus travellers).

But more often than not, public transportation works for me. Taking the bus makes me feel alive, and makes me feel like I am fully experiencing life. The good days outnumber the bad by far, and I won't start driving again unless I absolutely must.

Tips for bloggers

Last Tuesday, Wendy Sawatzky – online content manager for the Winnipeg Free Press – spoke to our Editing for Print and Online Media class. She discussed her job, what it entails, and what it is like working for the Free Press.

Sawatzky also provided a list of tips and guidelines that a writer should follow when publishing anything to the web. I hadn’t really thought too seriously about my blog posts – and how I format them – but after talking to Sawatzky I realized format is everything. Online editions of newspapers are competing against everything else (Facebook, television, phone calls, email, etc...); therefore, the content must be designed in a way that is easy to read, interesting, and eye-pleasing.

Below, I have included a list of tips for online writers and bloggers...

When writing something to be published to the web:
- Keep paragraphs short (100-ish words or less)
- One idea per paragraph
- Break up copy with subheads
- Bulleted lists are great
- Use active verbs

When writing a headline for the web:
- Keep it short
- Keep it factual
- Include specifics (such as geographical information and names)
- Use key words (this will make a headline more searchable)
- Make your headlines “Elevator door” headlines (If you had to explain the most important information about a story to another person, and you only had the amount of time it takes an elevator door to close to do so, what would you say?)

When including links:
- Make sure they work
- Make sure the site you’re linking to is reputable
- Clearly explain what the reader will find at the link (meaning, don’t simply write “click here”)
- Only link to sources outside your own website when necessary

When including images:
- People look at images of things they want to buy and/or consume
- Most people ignore online advertisements
- Ordinary stock images that look staged are ignored
- Moving graphics and photo galleries are beneficial, but only if the reader is in control of how and when they move (none of that automatically-changing stuff)

When adding a video:
- Keep it short
- Keep it relevant
- Clearly explain what the video is about

Hopefully these tips are helpful! They sure changed the way I format my posts.

Save that extra info

In class, we have been talking about different ways to edit effectively. I have been writing my IPP full-time for just over a month now, and I want to share one of the most important editing tools that I utilize.

One of the first tips my journalism instructor gave me when I started CreComm was to keep everything I write. If an assignment called for 400 words, and my initial draft was 600, he said to keep those extra 200 words because one never knows when it's possible to fit them into another assignment, story, or document.

I started doing this, and continued to do so for the entire first year of school. I kept one Microsoft Word document labelled “Cut Pieces” open at all times whenever I was writing something. Every time I decided to leave a piece out, I would copy and paste the information into this file first. At the very least, that extra stuff might make a decent blog post, I would always think to myself. Now, at the end of the year, that first Cut Pieces document has over 10,000 words in it.

When I started my IPP, I created another Cut Pieces document, just in case. I have been shuffling through my stories lately, adding a thousand words to one, three thousand to another, and removing quite a few paragraphs in the process. Then, on Friday morning, I decided to read through the Cut Pieces document to see if there was anything good worth expanding on. I found a blurb that I wrote three weeks ago. It looked fairly promising, so I copied it to a blank document, and started writing...

It took seven hours, but the blurb I found turned into a draft of one of my six short stories. It is currently 13,500 words, and I’m quite happy with it.

The moral of the story is this: keep everything you write, because you never know when something that was decent in the past will become perfect in the present.

Before I end this post, here's another tip: When revising a document, make a copy and label it as the second edit of that particular piece. Keep the original as it is. That way, you will have a preserved copy of your first draft, in case you can use it later for something else, and also a second copy to make edits on.

My favourite hockey announcer quotes

I have enjoyed watching the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year, as I was recently in Chicago. I watched a few games on television, in a Chicago bar, surrounded by local Blackhawks fans, and it was fantastic.

My favourite part of watching hockey is listening to the announcers provide a play-by-play of each game. They are fast, efficient, and quite often very imaginative and quirky in their phrasing. As the final round of games progressed, I started compiling a list of my favourite announcer quotes.

Below are my top five. They were said during the last four games, and each one made me smile...

1. "There was a mass of humanity jostling in front of him..."
2. "He lost his stick, so he became a human Zamboni."
3. "When you want to put pressure on the opposing team, you throw the kitchen sink at them."
4. "It's helter skelter here at the start line."
5. "He had great ice awareness..."

And...

6. "No word on the arrival of the Stanley Cup yet. It's always fashionably late."

Congrats, Blackhawks. I wore my "One Goal Chicago" shirt during every game, and I like to think it contributed to the win!

(For more information on the shirt I'm talking about, see an earlier blog post titled Chicago: Part Two from May)

An interesting hobby

Last Thursday, I went to watch my mom’s clogging class.

That’s right, clogging class.

She clogs.

I sat with a group of spectators while 30 women (and two men) danced up a storm for two hours. There were beginner, intermediate, and advanced routines. People would stand up and do the dances they knew, and sit down and watch when they were unsure of the steps. The music was a combination of Celtic and Highland classics, and also modern, popular music including the theme song to Footloose and “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire.

When I was younger, I took tap dancing lessons. I loved it, but gradually lost interest. Clogging is something very different from tap dancing. Many of the steps are the same, but the overall flow has been altered. When tap dancing, the whole body is used to DANCE to the music. When clogging, the feet are the primary tool.

To better illustrate what I mean by “clogging,” I have included a video below. These are not the people I personally watched last Thursday, just in case you were wondering.



It’s pretty cool! Some dancers in the class wore red shoes, others yellow shoes. The instructor had crazy pink-and-white shoes, and mom told me she has about five different pairs. I would love to do something like this for recreation, and it would have been an interesting idea for an IPP. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time during the school year. Maybe after I graduate...

I wanted to visit mom’s clogging class to see what all the fuss is about, and I’m glad I went. Next, I’m going to visit her Japanese drumming class, and see what that’s like.

Yep, Japanese drumming.

Mom has interesting hobbies.

Why teachers drink...

The above title was the subject line of an email my mom sent to me yesterday. What follows are a variety of photos that catch students who did not pay attention in class - more or less. I imagine that marking assignment after assignment can get boring after awhile, but dealing with the following answers is enough to make anyone crazy!

Well... theoretically, this is correct. The question didn't specify that six different animals had to be listed...

I really, really like this one. In class, we talked about the proper usage of words- such as to, too, two, and there, they're, their - so it's funny to see a student who knows what they want to say, but they just can't seem to find the correct meaning of the word!

Correct wording issues again. Maybe this student thought "fibula" was the technical term for the word "fib."

CreComms can't do math, and I'm pretty sure this was my answer in class a few times over the years.

This I don't have a problem with...

And this person was probably beaten up after class. Bike racks, three o'clock...

If you can't read this one, the question is "Explain why phosphorus is polar." The answer is "God made it that way."

CP Style perfectionists... majority or minority?

Last week, I was helping my friend Kristen write a letter asking businesses for prizes for her upcoming wedding social. As we were racking our brains to find the right wording, I also instinctively ensured the letter followed proper Canadian Press Style. Kristen asked me what exactly I was doing when I changed the number “9” to “nine,” so I explained the rule behind numbers. I also explained a few other general rules, such as spelling PM as p.m., and when to use a comma versus a colon. Kristen listened – bless her heart – and commented that it’s crazy how many different rules there are for proper spelling.

Then, last night, Kristen and I were talking. She mentioned that she now notices how numbers are spelled when reading articles, and that she thinks back to my little mini-lesson about CP Style. I thought it was great that someone actually took the time to listen to me and remember one of the rules.

We started discussing the “general public,” and mused over whether or not most people have even heard of CP Style. News writing is experienced in print and online formats by people all over the world, but do readers know the amount of effort that goes into each story to ensure it is both technically and grammatically correct? After a lengthy debate, we both agreed that no, most people don’t know, and probably don’t care, how “nine” or “p.m.” are spelled in the article they are reading.

So, why bother in the first place?

This question has been stuck in my mind all morning. If most people don’t care how a story is written, why do journalists take such pains to ensure they follow the proper format? The CP Stylebook is almost 500 pages long, and it includes everything anyone could ever think to ask about how to write correctly. Numbers, grammar, pronunciation, cultural sensitivity, it’s all there. Both the right and wrong way to write something is clearly defined for any journalist to look up and follow.

In my opinion, Canadian Press Style is extremely important. Print journalism is a major news source, and it presents local, national, and international issues to the public in an objective and easy to understand format. If journalists are able to write as they please, and follow any format they like, the medium is not consistent.

And consistency equals credibility.

In CreComm, we have something called an Auto Fail. If we spell a proper name incorrectly, or have an obvious spelling error, we automatically fail the assignment. This may seem cruel and unusual, but it forces us to get it right the first time. There are enough errors in news stories as it is, and our instructors want to make sure that once we graduate, we will always get it right.

Next time you are reading a story in a newspaper or online, take a look at how the piece is written. What do the numbers look like? What about punctuation? Someone had to go through the story and edit it before it was published. They checked facts, double-checked proper names, and ensured every word properly followed Canadian Press Style.

Just in case you’re still curious about what rules I’m referring to, I’ve included a few from the CP Stylebook below...

1. In general, spell out whole numbers below 10 and use figures for 10 and above.

2. Percentages should be written as per cent, and do not use the symbol. But, write out the word percentage (as in “percentage points”).

3. Follow spelling of official names, even when it is at odds with Canadian Press Style (e.g. Tim Hortons is actually incorrect).

4. Monetary units should be preceded by a dollar sign, and do not write the word “dollars” after the amount (e.g. $2 not $2 dollars).

5. Write p.m.

6. Use figures for numbers up to 999,999. Above that, switch to words (like million and billion) if absolute precision is not required.

7. BUT, when writing a headline, many of the above rules are null and void. Just to make things a little more complicated.

Confused? It happens. But at least you’re one step closer to understanding the importance of CP Style!

Can you read this?

We have been talking about eye tracking in class this week, which is how a person experiences words and visuals on a page. One of my classmates mentioned a website that used the below passage as an example, and I thought it was quite interesting. See if you can read it...

I cnduo't bvleiee taht I culod aulaclty uesdtannrd waht I was rdnaieg. Unisg the icndeblire pweor of the hmuan mnid, aocdcrnig to rseecrah at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mttaer in waht oderr the lterets in a wrod are, the olny irpoamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rhgit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whoutit a pboerlm. Tihs is bucseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey ltteer by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Aaznmig, huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghhuot slelinpg was ipmorantt! See if yuor fdreins can raed tihs too.

And, just to compare, here's the correct paragraph...

I couldn't believe that I could actually understand what I was reading. Using the incredible power of the human brain, according to research at Cambridge University, it doesn't matter in what order the letters in a word are, the only important thing is that the first and last letter be in the right place. The rest can be a total, mess and you can read it without a problem. This is because the human mind does not read every letter by itself, but the word as a whole. Amazing, huh? Yeah and I always thought spelling was important! See if your friends can read this too!

Pretty interesting, eh?

Whatever happened to Audrey Hepburn?

Today I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's, and fell in love with Audrey Hepburn all over again. I decided to do a little bit of research about her, and here are the highlights:

• Born May 4, 1929 in Ixelles, Belgium
• Died January 20,1993 in Tolochenaz, Switzerland
• Some of her most popular films include: Roman Holiday (1953), The Nun's Story (1959), Sabrina (1954), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), and My Fair Lady (1964).
• Her last film appearance was in Steven Spielberg's Always in 1989.
• She received $1 million for playing Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, making her the third actor ever to receive that amount for a role in a film.
• In 1999, she was ranked as the third greatest female star of all time by the American Film Institute
• She started working for UNICEF in the 1950s.
• She married twice: first to Mel Ferrer (an American actor) and second to Andrea Dotti (an Italian doctor).
• She turned down a role in the film The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) because, as a young girl in Holland during the war, she had witnessed Nazi soldiers publicly executing people in the streets and herding Jews onto railroad cars to be sent to the death camps. She said that participating in the film would bring back too many painful memories for her.
• Her measurements in 1953 were: 34A-20-34
• She has won an Oscar, a Tony, an Emmy, and a Grammy.
• She has two sons, one from each marriage.

Seriously... I can cook

This post is ninety per cent for my mom and ten per cent for everyone else, but I hope you enjoy...

Cooking has always been a weird thing with me. When I was younger, I ignored it, and opted to spend my time reading and writing. As I got older, I just didn't care enough to learn. Gradually, I became a 23-year-old who moved out of her parent's house and still didn't know how to cook.

Now, it's not my mom's fault. She tried, and tried, and tried over the years to get me to exhibit even the slightest interest. It never worked. This must have been frustrating, because my mom is the best cook I know. She recently gave me a Betty Crocker recipe book, and the stuff in it is actually pretty good.

Last night, I decided I was going to turn over a new leaf. I cooked dinner, by myself, and am proud to say I didn't injure myself or anyone around me in the process. This is what I made:

Marinated pork tenderloin, wild rice, and Caesar salad. Boo ya! It was actually pretty simple. You just follow the recipe.

The point of this blog post is to document the fact that I cooked dinner. And, if I ever do it again, I'll let you know. Aren't you proud, mom?

What's an IPP anyway?

Lately, I've been writing about my IPP a great deal. In an earlier post, I promised an explanation of what exactly the project is, but have yet to deliver an answer. So, It's time I address what the acronym stands for before I move any further with my summer blogging.

IPP stands for Independent Professional Project, and it is something all second-year CreComm students must complete in order to graduate. The project takes the entire eight months of our second year, and in many cases, the summer as well. The sky is the limit for what a student can choose for their project. One student is visiting and blogging about every provincial park in Manitoba (and there are a lot). Another student is travelling to South Africa to film the World Cup soccer tournament. Me? I'm writing stories.

The collection of stories I am writing is based on the life of my late great-aunt, Rose Mary Sykes. This is a topic that is very important to me, because my aunt was one of the most influential individuals in my life. I was lucky enough to sit down with her the year before she died, and take notes while she told me about her life. The story I received was incredible, and her tale contains issues I believe most people will find interesting. She told me about travel across oceans, tuberculosis sanatoriums, love, marriage, divorce, abuse, mental institutions, fire and gangsters. Rose shared a truly compelling tale, and she did so with a clear-headed precision that was impressive, considering she was ninety-one years old at the time. Her husband passed away years ago, and she had no children, so I feel it is up to me to tell her story.

Below, I have included the eulogy I wrote and presented at her funeral in 2008. I wanted to get up and talk about her because she was so important to me. The eulogy was one of the writing samples I submitted when applying for admission to CreComm, so I guess it's fitting that I can only graduate after I complete a project that's largely about her. Enjoy...

Today we are here to remember and celebrate the fulfilling life of my great-aunt, Rose Mary Sykes. To be perfectly honest, I really did not know much about my aunt’s life until recently. Being many years younger, and living two provinces away, I rarely had an opportunity to learn about her. I was only aware of simple details, such as the fact that she grew up on a farm and lived in a log cabin. Thankfully, I was given the chance to learn about not only her life but my family history when I visited Armstrong with my mother last August. For roughly six hours, over two days, I sat down with Rose, and avidly took notes while she proceeded to tell me her life story.

The narrative I received was filled with descriptions of family, turbulent times, travel, and most importantly, love. I learned things I never knew about my background, such as the fact that Rose was a first-generation Canadian whose parents immigrated to Canada from Czechoslovakia at the outbreak of the First World War. In fact, Rose and her siblings spoke Czech before English. I learned interesting facts as well, like Rose’s spontaneous decision in 1998 to ride in a hot air balloon. As she relayed her story, specific events and experiences stood out from the rest for me. I will share those memories with you now.

In 1968, my aunt planned a trip to Norway and Sweden, and fearlessly embarked on the adventure alone. Her first husband, Oscar, had planned a vacation for himself, yet failed to include Rose in the travel plans. Refusing to be left out, and because she couldn't be told not to do something, my aunt took out a small loan, purchased a plane ticket, and spent three weeks travelling from Oslo to Stockholm. When I asked Rose what the best part of the trip was, she replied “being able to do it my way!”

In 1996, Rose planned another major vacation. There were numerous differences, however, as this time she did not travel alone, and she crossed the Pacific, not the Atlantic Ocean. The destination was Hawaii, a place Rose had hungered to visit her entire life. Luckily, it was my family of four and my grandmother who were invited to accompany her on this vacation. It was on this getaway that I really “met” my aunt for the first time, and what an impression she left on me. I was initially amused by her love for horticulture. She continually made remarks such as, “I wonder what that plant is called,” and “ohhh, how do you grow that one?”

I was also awestruck by her spirit. I still remember vividly one morning about halfway through the trip when Rose announced we were all going up in a helicopter and flying over the dormant, yet still very alive volcano of Haleakala on Maui. I was terrified, and opted to remain on the ground with my grandma. But there seemed to be no fear in my aunt’s mind, and she hopped onto that helicopter without a moment’s hesitation. I will always admire her for that, because as I proved by remaining on the ground, travelling 10,000 feet above sea level in a tiny aircraft is a feat for anyone. At the time, Rose was eighty years old.

But the event in her life which I want to place the most emphasis on was her fourteen year marriage to Frank Sykes. Rose’s first marriage to Oscar ended in divorce in 1972. One year later, she met Frank. The two fell in love and were married on June 12, 1973. When I asked my aunt what Frank was like, she became emotional, and responded simply with “he was the most wonderful man.” She spoke of him so fondly, and with such admiration that it was difficult to believe he had passed away nineteen years prior. Rose told me that Frank was her soul mate, and that she was blessed to have found true love at age fifty-eight. Rose also took the opportunity to teach me a lesson which had taken over half of her lifetime to learn. She told me never to give up on love, and not to settle until I found that one person who would change my life. My aunt said the years spent with Frank were the happiest of her life, and I will always hold her advice on love close to my heart.

I will forever be grateful to have had the opportunity to visit Armstrong, BC, and learn all about Rose’s life. As I reflected back upon the scribbled notes I had written almost one year ago, I could not help but smile at the picture her story painted. Overall, I would describe my aunt as a strong, determined, witty yet kind woman who was always dedicated to those she loved. When I have children, many years from now, I will tell them all about my great-aunt Rose, and she will continue to live on throughout my family’s collective memory for generations to come.

Thank you.

Hopefully, I'll be able to make her proud with my IPP. Currently, I have 12,000 words and nine blogs about my efforts. By the end of the summer, I will have created a collection of stories about a truly remarkable woman.

Stay tuned. I'm just getting warmed up.