Stage Eleven - The Other Presentations or "What I never knew about Telegraph cove"

Living bones arriving to sit under ancient bones

Once my part of the presentation was over, I could still my shaking hands and heart beat enough to hear the others speak, and it was a surprisingly revelatory and moving afternoon.

A nervous me oblivious to what's above my head

Eeep - about to be swallowed by a whale!

Clara's nephew David had never been here before, had never even considered this place in the context of his family history and he read out his absent uncle Patrick's presentation clearly moved.  Not only was this part of his family's existence, it was also part of his country's history given that his family were among the Jaanese interned during the Second World War.  Knowing this, he will would never be the same again.

Marvin Farrant, probably the sweetest man I ever knew and no stranger to family heartbreak, spoke quietly and calmly as expected about the mill and its value to the Cove and the entire region. He arrived in The Cove as a child, the second eldest of seven, just after the first World War.  He was the only one to stay on through adulthood, and worked as the Boom Man (great title!) until the mill closed.

The two youngest Ziggiotti sisters were hilarious and I don't think they planned it that way. They spoke off the cuff about living in The Cove with Italian immigrant parents and their 3 other siblings, remembering a rather rough and tumble upbringing.  They could get a gig storytelling.  Honestly, they were so funny recounting their stories and experiences, some of which I already knew and some of which were not exactly happy. I laughed as if they were new to me and I wonder if they were really as unrehearsed as they said! 

Jim Borrowman spoke to the rise of tourism, lead by his whale watching enterprise and also the boating and camping contingent that came when the new highway up island was built and opened.

I always considered Gordie Graham the 'new guy', the one who moved in and bought the place after Grrandpa died, who oversaw the end of the mill and the general store and the departure of everyone who had lived here.  But I had forgotten that that was 25 years ago, an entire generation, and there were people who only knew the Cove as connected to him, and who saw it as he transformed and presented it, cleaned up and ready for tourism be it for whale watching, fishing, camping or boating.  He and the others who were part of this quarter century were witness to the new road that now links the north part of the island to the south.  It was because of them that people I meet at cocktail parties in Vancouver tell me about their summer kayaking trip in this quaint little place called Telegraph Cove.  When I was akid and told my friends about my summers here they thought I was getting the name wrong as no one had ever heard of the place.

One of the best parts of this afternoon of shared histories was seeing him so moved at having so many people here, from all over the province and over the decades, soley because this place has touched them.  He was proud too, to have been a part of it himself, despite difficulties and challenges encountered along the way.  The future, as always, is as yet unknown, for places as well as for people, and the best we can do is serve the places in which that we live and work, and then move along unflinchingly, letting others imprint their own visions and work and time and family on the place.  Sometimes things of rare value are lost, but other things just as valuable are created.

 



Clara (nee Ogawa) and Gordie Graham exchange notes.
Two citizens of the Cove from different decades and different worlds.