There are all kinds of “hidden gems” in the interior of B.C. The most inspiring finds for me as a journalist are the unique people. Let me introduce you to a couple who will lift your spirits and keep you smiling as they share their story.
Jack Perry and Esther Sellers are a true love story. They have built a creative, happy life together here in the North Thompson Valley that was brought to my attention by a good friend and neighbour, Loyd Smith. He gave me a call one day recently, asking “Did you know that we have a champion gold panner here in Clearwater?”
Following our initial phone call and a brief meeting in Barriere, as they were passing through with their daughter Lenah, I had the opportunity to visit with Jack and Esther at their charming home in a quiet subdivision in Clearwater.
As I drove up the little inclined driveway I was greeted by a smiling Esther, waving at me from beside her flowering peonies. She directed me up the driveway and I noted the many eye-catching bear statues in front of the house, the manicured lawn and the colourful flowers.
They welcomed me with a warm hug as Esther said “You have to have the tour!” Turning around, I followed Jack, who was putting on his gold panning hat and heading towards a long home-built wooden sluice box, built waist high for him and full of water.
From under his arm, he pulled out a hand-painted gold pan and held it up for me to see. The painting in the pan looked exactly like him, hat and all, and I asked if it was Jack. Esther laughed, saying “No, but it sure does look just like him, doesn’t it?”
The pan, and a small box holding a real gold nugget, were given to Jack at the B.C. Open Gold Panning Championship in Enderby during this year’s May long weekend annual competition at Riverside Park, where he placed first in two events.
The Vernon Placer Mining Club hosts the championships, and participants each receive their own barrel containing pre-sized, pre-weighed nuggets: 15 in total, Perry tells me, to pan in each event.
“They have 10 half-barrels set up filled with water and everybody gets a bucket of gravel, all the same. In each bucket of gravel are 15 pieces of gold with the pans numbered, and you step up to the same-numbered barrel to start panning. Once they say ‘Go!’ you have eight minutes to pan as many pieces of gold as possible.” In both competitions he participated in, Jack found all 15 pieces, earning him the title of 2023 B.C. Gold Panning Champion.
Perry told me that placer mining is what you find doing panning in a creek, and is the practise of separating heavily eroded minerals like gold from sand or gravel. He’s been panning since he was a young teen in Hope, B.C., something he learned by watching an elder friend who mentored him when he first got started.
Esther stood close by, smiling proudly and picking flowers around their gazebo, as Jack showed me the small gold nugget that is part of his winning prize.
“I compete too. It’s a lot of fun,” she said. “We do everything together. We even have a shared studio.”
After taking a few photos of Jack near the sluice box, the tour continued around the property, starting in Jack’s instrument repair shop. He is a luthier, someone who expertly repairs stringed musical instruments, and is well regarded in this field.
The soft-spoken musician, known to many in the Clearwater and Barriere areas as a guitarist with the local musical group the Silvertones, followed Esther into their shared studio, where she told me he plays and she paints.
”He has the floor and I have the walls,” she said, laughing at her description of this creative room full of paintings, instruments, old photographs, a microphone, native handmade drums and artwork.
Esther is an Indigenous artist and author, and I could tell that she was focusing on her husband’s talents even though is is equally talented. They have 10 grown children between them. “We each had four kids and adopted one each before we ever met,” she said, smiling fondly. “Another thing we found in common. We’ve lost count of all our grandchildren and great-grandkids.
“We met online, when we were 60, and were both single, having lost our spouses,” Esther recalled. “We emailed back and forth. The first time we met in person he asked if he could hold my hand. Well, then, he had me.” When Jack came to visit her home for the first time, he brought a guitar and played “Under the Boardwalk.” and the rest was history.
Everything was equal between them from the start. “The only time I can refer to her as a gold digger is when we gold pan together,” Jack said, causing them both the laugh.
Esther moved from Prince George to 100 Mile, where Jack had lived for 46 years, and they decided to explore a move to Clearwater not long after, where they found a property that seemed to fit them perfectly. They enjoyed the people and area while forming friendships quickly with other musicians and artists in the valley.
They bantered, laughing often, as we sat together outside their studio space. Daughter Lenah arrived home from work as security with Simpcw First Nation. The three enjoy living together with their two small dogs and two cats. They have two specially-designed outside “runs” with doors they can open on their own during the day from the house to outside, to keep them safe from predators while enjoying their own freedom.
Esther showed me her children’s book, a family story that her grandmother had shared with them as children, called Chye Chye Skudigus that she has published. Jack is proud of her artwork, boasting “Esther did all of the illustrations for the book herself.”
As our visit came to an end, with still so much to learn from these two engaging people, I knew I would return. They walked me around the front of the house to show me the stage they built there. A green carpeted platform faced the neighbourhood street, and on the front lawn there were chairs lined up for guests, under a new canopy tent for shade.
Each Wednesday at noon, weather permitting, local seniors arrive to listen to the Silvertones playing loved tunes. “Even the neighbours sit out on their decks to listen. We just enjoy ourselves, that’s what life’s about,” said Esther, putting her arm around Jack affectionately.
That pretty much sums it all up, I thought to myself as I started the van. I looked beside me and saw that I was taking away a mason jar full of vibrant peonies that Esther had quietly slipped in for me, wrapped in paper towel and firmly held in my cup holder along with a copy of her book.
As we waved goodbye, I felt inspired by the fact that they have found true “gold” in each other here in their own paradise claim here in the North Thompson. Yes, that’s what’s life should be about.
I appreciate the willingness of this couple to open their home and hearts. If you have a story to share, please reach out to Black Press. Why not be the source of inspiration to others in your region?
