Gone to the Dogs: Today I received a letter from Grandad...

When you live in the North, chances are you surround yourself with close friends and call them your "Northern Family". It's simply because most of us come from somewhere else, finding ourselves far from our real families. Now that I am a Mum, I pray that my girls grow up to love this place so much that they never stray too far from me...Perhaps this is a selfish wish & one that my own Mum dared to wish when I was still innocent and tiny....In the later years of my time at home, I can say confidently, she was beyond ready for me to hi-tail it & FAR away !! I've hear it said that "teenagers" were created so that parents could separate from their children more easily! For now I'll savour the every breath of my baby girls!! The many years to come will be here soon enough...In the mean time...I am still a daughter! Not the infant, not the teenager, rather, a grown up (well...most of the time) who lives thousands of miles from her parents. Most of the time I am fine with the distance. Sometimes I'm not...Today I'm not...I miss them...I miss seeing them hold my children...

Today I received a letter from Grandad (my Dad) It was 18 pages long & was accompanied by a number of stunning photos (I should mention that Grandad is a brilliant photographer!!) of a recent trip he & Grandee (my Mum) took up the West Coast of Canada, to nearly-out-of-reach places...

My father is a romantic man. He is an articulate man. He is an adventurous man. He is a storyteller. When he visits a place, he leaves an impression. When he speaks, people listen. If he wrote a book for the world to read, the world would read it. And to think, he is my Dad.

My mother is a loyal Mum, fierce like the grizzly sow. She is the glue that binds a family, separated by miles & personalities. She is a pillar of strength. She instills strength. She is capable. She is constant. She is my Mum.

Today I received Grandad's 18 page letter. In reading it to my husband and daughters, I laughed & cried & remembered & learned! I was touched. This letter took a great deal of time to create. His heart when into it...It will be put into a box I have in the babies' room, into a box that is reserved for only the most special things. A box that I've been slowly and methodically placing things into, for the girls!

Dad shared his journal entries, from their recent voyage, in this letter. It was like I was there on every leg of the journey, experiencing the thrill of a dream come true. A Dream of finding the Kermode Bear. I must say, I have very cool parents! They don't sit with "umbrella drinks in coconut shells" on white sandy beaches! They explore places that others dare to dream of! Is this the very reason that I have gravitated to the Northern reaches of Canada? Did I search for the legends of Service because of my parents influences? In spite of my teenage years, did they leave me the gift of an adventurer's heart, as they sent me packing? When I look at them today, I think this MUST be the case! If not for them, I'm sure I'd not have found the strength to find my place!

In reading Dad's entries, I learned that Mum is something of an adventurous spirit herself...I think I always knew this on some level but perhaps not as clearly as I do tonight! Hot springs & bear dens? Hunters & rain forests? I can't wait to see the rest of the photos that document her journey!!

I spend so much time blogging about my children, my dogs, my Friends. That IS, after all, what my blog is about....my life in the North...something of a journal of my Northern Family, of my girls' development & of my own development as a new Northerner & new Mum ...But I have a REAL family 3000 miles away & they are important - Even MORE important now that I've given them 2 new Grand-babies! I need my children to grow up knowing my parents but I'm not sure how to do that with them so far away! I've resolved to hold a photo of them whenever we are on the phone so that the girls start to associate their faces with their voices & their names "Grandee & Grandad" I wasn't sure what photo to hold until tonight when I opened the letter from Dad...

& here it is ...