Canada Proud

On the evening of June 13, 2017 I proudly attended the of launch of The Spirit of Canada, the Chicken Soup for the Soul edition honouring Canada’s 150th birthday and celebrating the diversity of our country. I am proud to be Canadian and proud to be one of the book’s contributors.  Together, the stories provide a mosaic of Canada’s diverse geography and cultures with the clear message that Canada’s greatest treasure is how  people connect with each other. The Canadian spirit extends a hearty welcome, it shares freely and is always there in times of diversity. It is in every family’s experiences; it is in our laughter and our sorrow, in the ordinary and in the extraordinary.

In my story Where Ravens Fly Backwards, I recalled my experiences as a young teacher in Payne Bay, an Inuit community in Northern Quebec. However, on the day of the book launch my thoughts were flying back even farther. My father, Sidney Smith, was third generation Canadian—his great grandfather had come from Scotland. My father fought for Canada’s freedom and my mother, Selma (Kater) Smith, was welcomed to Canada in 1946—a Dutch war bride eager to embrace her new home.

Heritage Proud

My mother lost her mother, Johanna Roels Kater, in 1939.  I lost my mother in 2004. To honour my mother and the grandmother I never knew,  I wore a precious family heirloom.  When my mother, and later her sister Hetty, came to Canada each had one diamond earring from a set that had belonged to their mother. The earrings had survived the war because even diamonds had no value when there was no food to be purchased during that terrible winter before the Liberation of the Netherlands.

I recall, as a teeneager, thinking the the two earrings should be reunited but neither my mother nor my aunt would part with their precious earring.  Eventually my mother’s diamond earring was made into a necklace and that is what I wore. My mother and her earring were close to my heart as I signed each copy of The Spirit of Canada.