It’s a gift writing for the areas and people you care so deeply for. Many of those people I’ve known most of my life or have a connection to through their family history in Clearwater and Barriere. I love the feeling of ‘coming home’ and experiencing the same awe and wonder viewing the valley as in my younger years.
When I drive into the valley I’ve known since I was a baby through these forested, velvety green mountainsides, looking upon the rugged river views, waterways and hearing the steady, welcome rains I’m often transported back in time. I think about those gone ahead.
The smells of the damp earth digging in the garden on the side hill at the nursery at Aunt Hettie and Uncle Bob Miller’s sanctuary, the sounds of the birds on their little lake that he called a “pond” with the water lilies floating to the surface watching them dance beneath the droplets of rain. I can almost hear Aunt Het whistling softly to her bird friends nearby, hear the scraping of Uncle Bob’s hoe preparing for new life to be planted, grafted, or lovingly touched. Memories of the simplest things and moments in time you might think, now so significant to who they were and how their essence lingers – something that can never be taken away, sold, traded, or erased. A treasure left for us to experience again and again to remain long after they have left us here forever in our thoughts of them.
This past weekend I was privileged to be in Clearwater to cover a true legacy event and feel ‘at home’ in the arms of Wells Gray Park. The place where this lasting essence of so many incredible families also have their roots reaching deep-set in the park we’ve shared through many generations now.
Family friend, Frank Ritcey’s ‘Moose-Fantastic’ event took place on Saturday May 25 starting in the morning at the old schoolhouse at the TRU Wells Gray Park Education Centre and moving further into the park for a rainy but well attended hike. The occasion was facilitated by Frank’s dedication to preserving many of our own family historical memories through the films, journals, notes, photos and documented records of our remarkable Aunt Hettie and Uncle Bob Miller, his own amazing parents, Clara and Ralph Ritcey and long-time colleagues like Herb Green who travelled from Smithers with his own family to share in the remembering.
Yes, it was about the ‘real’ Jerry the moose who these family members had such a close connection to through moose research in Wells Gray in the 50s and 60s. A historic project that involved the tagging, monitoring, and study of a young bull moose named Jerry and the Ritcey’s pet moose, Calypso, “Lippy” for a significant amount of time. You can read about this further in this issue’s article of the Moose-Fantastic event and the presentation by our valley’s own naturalist and wildlife researcher, Frank Ritcey.
What brought me to tears of pride, joy and melancholy during these presentations of remembering was gratitude. Pure gratitude. For those who broke trail before us. Our own Aunt Hettie, Uncle Bob, Aunt Grace McGaw and partner Dorothy Bell (who founded Dutch Lake Resort), Ed and Eva Buck, our filmmaker brother Scott Haynes, our beloved Skye, Courtney and baby Buck, cousins Anne and Pete, all having left their mark as the legacy we cherish now. I know others reading will have their own heart felt lists.
To see the film footage taken by Aunt Het and Uncle Bob, hear about the studies by Ralph Ritcey, view the artifacts brought to show us by Herb Green was so moving. They aren’t gone I thought. As Frank held up the original camera they used to carry, meticulously documenting their explorations with such precision and detail I was moved beyond words.
You see, the definition of a lasting legacy is the positive impact your life has on other people — friends, colleagues, even strangers. To me that means they are never really gone. As surely as we could see and feel them as we watched the film presented, we will always be able to see, hear and read their living words, view their movements and hear their voices once again. What will your legacy be?
