THE RECORD

April 17, 1996

BACK TO THE EGG

Suzanne Trevis

Thirty years ago, this month, a young man, his expecting wife and his two year old daughter boarded a ship in an English harbour and sailed to the New World.

They had no home to go to. No job, no friends, just a dream and the hope to give their children a better life than they had had.

I find myself here now, at about the same age, wondering how they did it. Packing up everything they owned, leaving all of their family and friends, everything they had ever known, to go half way round the world, to a place they'd never seen. It took a long time to find work, and in a strange place with a baby on the way, I can't even imagine what it must have been like.

I can still remember waving up to my mom outside the hospital when my brother was born (they wouldn't let me in to see her). My dad was away, working in Prince Rupert, trying to find a place for us to live. And pulp towns being what they are, we found ourselves here with a new mill starting, less than four months later. They rest, as they say, is history.

More than ever these days, with three kids of my own, it crosses my mind that children don't appreciate the things their parents do half as much as they should! I've known and appreciated what my parents did then, and while we were growing up for a long time, but thinking on it very hard I probably have never told them so.

There's never a good time. The right moment never comes up. You really hate all that mushy stuff anyway, and you figure, well, they know . . . . don't they?

I want to take the opportunity on this anniversary to make sure they do know. I want to say thank you for bringing us here. I can't imagine what my life might have been like otherwise. Thank you for being such great parents. I might not have always felt that way but now that I'm older and know better, I can say we all turned out okay. I think. We did didn't we? And last but by no means least, thank you for being such good friends now. I'm happy to have you close, to talk to and share ideas with. I'm happy my children have the opportunity to know their grandparents as we never did.

It was a good choice. It must have been a very hard choice, but I'm so very glad you made it. I don't know if I could.