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Penticton, July 2004 to June 2005

June 12, 2009 by nlhills

(pictures at end)

Summer 2004 started with a big event:  A huge family reunion, with lots of extra guests, for Marj and Bill Wright’s 50th wedding anniversary!  While the actual anniversary was of course August 14th, the family took advantage of the July 1st long weekend to host the big celebration at the Baptist Church in Summerland.  Folks came from far and wide!  Norma, being close by, was in charge of getting the food together and set up.  Of course the Hill kids came from far and wide for the big event.  Oddly enough, Norma only has two pictures in her album of that time, and it isn’t even the actual anniversary, but instead of picture of Marj, Norma, and Sarah, Taryn and Tony visiting at Marj and Bill’s apartment, and a picture of Tony with his Great Grandpa Bill.  So Norma needs to scrounge around and find some snapshots of the actual events.  Maybe cousin Jamie Wright might be the person to contact, since she took endless photos and put together a wonderful album of the entire event!  Uncle Graham Wright made up a great slide show of Marj and Bill’s lives, and gave all the family video copies of it!

And then July 15th brought Wendy’s 17th birthday.  Her buddy Tyler came over to help the family celebrate.  Lionel and Norma were delighted to have their kids home for the anniversary and for awhile after, and so of course they got pictures of themselves and their babies!  And a week or so later was Norma’s 49th birthday – of course always slightly less than one year behind her mom and dad’s anniversary number (11 months after the wedding).  One of Norma’s birthday gifts was her favorite softdrink – good strong ginger beer!  Yummmm!

In September, Taryn, Andrew and Tony went to Victoria on the ferry – to see the King Tutankhamen display at the museum there, as I recall.  Taryn took a snapshot of Andrew and Tony on the ferry.  Looks like Tony really enjoyed that ride!  Also on that trip they toured other touristy places, and took a snapshot of Taryn and Tony in front of a display.

Bill had been fortunate to get Marj into an experimental drug program for a new treatment for Altzheimers, and as she took the drugs, she actually began to feel better, and went through a time when she and Bill could again enjoy life together more like the old days.   Bill was of course delighted.  The family realized that while this drug brought a reprieve in the short term, it was not a cure, so as often as possible they went to visit Bill and Marj at their apartment home at Angus Place in Summerland, and one of those times, Norma took a snapshot of their building.

September was off-to-school at BCIT for Robyn, in the Architectural and Building Engineering program.  Of course, she still had her scholarship money from high school, and working at Excel as a phone operator (as well as selling AVON products; she had also worked as a page at the Keremeos library in 2002-2003, as well as in the SESS office as a student assistant), she had saved, even while living on her own, enough money to buy the top-of-the-line laptop she needed for her auto-cad and other classes!  She had also applied to the Old Massett Band for education funding, and was told they were very proud of her great record from high school, and that they would be happy to fund her full program (she intended to take the 2 year program, work for a year or two in the field, and then ladder into the Bachelor’s program).  They would pay for her tuition, books and fees, and living expenses.  So she worked through the summer at Excel, and finally resigned less than two weeks before her classes at BCIT were to start.  She had accomodation reserved on-campus in the student dorms.  She was busy packing to leave for school, when a day or two before she was to go, she received a call from BCIT that they had not yet received her funding from the Band (though they did have her scholarship money, and her first month’s rent for the student residence).  She called the Band and they said, “Oh sorry, the Band is in debt by several million dollars, and so we’re using the education funds for the next few years to pay off the debt.  We’ll only be funding a few of the students who are already part way through their programs.”  What to do?  Lionel and Norma told her, “You go anyway.  We’ll work this out.”  Lionel was getting his holiday pay in September, about $3000, so he gave it to Robyn, and it was enough, being very careful, for Robyn to make it through the first semester.  Poor girl, not only did she have what was widely considered one of the most difficult programs at BCIT, she was now also under the shock and pressure of this financial situation.  So she also had to apply for student loans for the rest of the program.  Although she put in her application in plenty of time, she was still waiting at New Year’s to hear if she had been approved.  Finally, the day before she was to return to classes at the beginning of January 2005, she received word that the funding had gone through.  If it had been a day or two later, she would not have been able to register for her new semester classes!  Norma was praying constantly about this situation – and God did keep answering – at the “last moment,” as it always seemed!  Norma was still learning some hard lessons in trusting God…  seems she was a pretty slow learner!  Anyway, back to the end of summer, Lionel and Norma drove Robyn down to BCIT and got her settled in her residence, which turned out to be called “Haida House!”  (Each of the residences had the name of a different BC First Nation).  The residence had 6 rooms for girls on the upper floor, kitchen and living room spaces on the middle floor, and 6 rooms for boys on the lower floor.

Another event in September 2004 was that Norma started her new job as French teacher at Penticton Christian School, a grade K to 8 school.  As there had been a succession of teachers in that position over the past few years, there was no organized program in place, and Norma could find very few materials in the school, so she had to be very creative!  It was probably a good thing, as her French was extremely rusty, and if she’d actually located the materials at that point, she’d have probably bailed out, being overwhelmed!  Fortunately, the vast majority of the students knew less French than she did, so she did her best to keep learning, and stay a step ahead.  That year, she taught grades 3,4,5  and 6,7,8 – two classes, just 3 or 4 hours of teaching a week, but with almost no materials, and no lesson plans or curriculum guidelines left by former teachers, she spent many more hours preparing lessons from scratch.  Norma also took on the responsibility of  school librarian (volunteer).  At the end of that year, the school decided to join with Penticton Christian Secondary School, and become a K to 12 school.  This meant that the library would have to also be the secondary classroom and computer lab (the secondary program included a lot of computer-based learning), and the storage room was also converted into an art room and science lab.  This meant weeding of the library collection so it would fit into less space, and major sorting in the storage room, as well as in storage closets in other rooms.  And in the midst of all this weeding and sorting, French materials began to appear from every nook and cranny – meaning, of course, that Norma would have much better resources the next year, but would have to spend the summer revamping her whole program – and adding grade 9 French.  She would also be having different classroom grade combinations, but with 2 or 3 grades in each classroom, she also had to provide new programs for each class, as the students in the lower grade(s) that year would again be in the same class.  These situations turned out to be an ongoing challenge year after year!

Taryn, Andrew, and Anthony were still living in the trailer in Keremeos at this time.  Taryn displayed some of her amazing artistic talent that Hallowe’en by creating an amazing Ninja turtle costume for Tony, sewing, drawing, and even using paper mache to create the “shell”!

Fall flew by and Christmas arrived.  And the family all gathered in.  The traditional Christmas stocking picture showed some rather tired-so-early-in-the-morning girls, and Peter being silly!  There doesn’t seem to be a stocking picture for Taryn, Andrew, and Tony, but they must have arrived and opened their stockings at some point, because they definitely do turn up in the Christmas dinner pictures.  There was quite a crowd for Christmas dinner that day, as Linnet and Ellis Edgars, and Joanna and David came (they were now living in Kelowna, and the Hills and Edgars often visited back and forth), as well as Terry Matlock (a friend from Abundant Life church) and Grandpa and Grandma (Bill and Marj Wright!).  It was pretty cozy in Lionel and Norma’s little house, with a grand total of 16 people for Christmas dinner.

And then a big change for the family:  Taryn, Andrew and Tony moved out to Alberta.  The first town they moved to was Warburg, though they didn’t stay there for long.  Within a few months they moved to Telfordville, south of Edmonton.  Telfordville consisted of a half dozen or so homes at a crossroads with a set of mailboxes, and a defunct general store and gas pump.  It was about a 10 minute drive from Thorsby, the office headquarters of WesTower, the company Andrew worked for.  Telfordville was the location of the company workshop and equipment storage, and the property included a house owned by long-time WesTower workers, ____________.  They lived in the ground floor of the house, and rented the upper floor to Taryn and Andrew.  It was a pretty sweet deal, with very inexpensive rent (which included all utilities), a large yard with a swing set, a side patio for barbequing, and a beautiful back porch with a hot tub and swimming pool!  Of course the water in the taps was a different story, smelling extremely sulphurous, with an equally interesting taste – and coming out of the taps in bursts:  one had to stand back when filling the kitchen sink to do dishes, or could end up soaked!  So Tony celebrated his 4th birthday in Alberta.

Thank goodness for the kids leaving their old resumes on Norma’s computer!  It seems that Sarah started working at Real Canadian Wholesale as a “General Merchandiser” (stocking shelves!) in October 2003.  Then in March 2004 she moved over to Canadian Tire where she worked as a cashier for some time.  Then she finally decided to go to school and get her hairdressing license, so she signed up at Penticton School of Hairdressing, and took her course, which she completed with very high marks!  Norma really enjoyed going over there for very inexpensive cuts, coloring, and perms, under the talented hand of her daughter and the careful eye of Sarah’s instructors.  Finally, Sarah graduated, and began to work at a hairstyling shop in Cherry Lane Mall.   Meanwhile, Sarah had moved out of the Hill house, and into an apartment with a couple of other girls from Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.  She stayed there for quite awhile, and went through a series of roommates!  She had the master bedroom suite, and decorated it in elegant Sarah style!  Now Norma is not sure about all the dates of these auspicious events, as Sarah’s resume on her computer only goes to the time she was working at Canadian Tire, so it would be most helpful if Sarah would be kind enough to post dates and other interesting facts in the comments section below.  Go Sarah!

March 2005 brought Peter’s 15th birthday – and Stevie Hunka’s too.  As was their custom, Peter’s Keremeos buddies got together for a birthday sleepover, Brett Gibb coming from Langley, Stevie from his home in Penticton, and Dalton Dupuis and Jack Walker from Keremeos.  They had an excellent time playing video games.  They also went to the downtown dollar store, and bought out its entire stock of cap guns and caps, then spent hours in the middle of the night running all over the local neighborhood, up hill and down, playing war games with their cap guns.  For weeks afterwards, Norma (who had a paper route in addition to her teaching job) found used caps along the roadsides in the area!

May brought the 50th birthday party of Norma’s cousin, Marion Plester, at her home in Summerland.  This was a bit of a mini-reunion, with Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and friends of Marion’s from throughout the Okanagan Valley.  It was a lot of fun.  Norma had a great time visiting and reminiscing with family members.  Lionel also had a good time visiting with the guys.  Some of the guests included Brian (Marion’s hubby, of course!), her parents, Emily and Cecil Holden, her aunts and uncles, Marj and Bill Wright, and Preston and Kerry Mott, cousins Norma and Lionel, John and April Mott, brother John Holden, and friends from Kelowna Free Methodist Church.

As was already mentioned, Lionel’s sister Linnet Edgars, her hubby Ellis, and the kids, David and Joanna were living in Kelowna, and the Hills and Edgar families visited back and forth.  Around May or June, the Edgars family came down to visit the Hills in Penticton, and everybody went over to Angus Place to visit with Bill and Marj Wright.

June brought Robyn’s 20th birthday, and to celebrate such an auspicious occasion, Norma made a birthday cake and picnic lunch, and Lionel and Norma, Sarah and Peter, piled into the car, drove from Penticton to Robyn’s place at BCIT in Vancouver, and took her to Stanley Park to celebrate.  At this time, Robyn, having completed her first year of studies, opted to take some extra courses during the summer, so she stayed in residence (one of the other residences, just for the summer) and also got a summer job working at Sixth Line Solutions in downtown Vancouver, as a Focus Group Host.  Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the picnic was a great success.  The family ate the picnic lunch, and then checked out some of the touristy spots in the park, like the display of totem poles.  It was a wonderful day together!

Meanwhile, over in Albertaland, the family had moved over to Telfordville, the long, cold Alberta winter was finally over, and the backyard pool was filled with water, and Tony and his cousin Ashe were having a wonderful time together playing in the pool!

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Keremeos to Penticton – April 2003 to June 2004

May 23, 2009 by nlhills

June brought another exciting graduation – Robyn’s!  Where or where are those pictures?  Oh well, I WILL find them – and post them and write about it then!  Thinking I’m needing to check out my journals as well…. And those negatives….  And grandpa’s slides….

Another summer, another round of July birthdays.  Tony was delighted to help Auntie Wendy open her 16th birthday gifts!  Another black forest cake – seemed to be almost everyone’s favorite birthday cake choice by this time!  And then Norma’s birthday, out on the back porch, with Tony’s granny Nancy over for the fun.  And in this case a bright pink birthday cake with lots of strawberries on top!

Of course summer in Keremeos included many dips at Red Bridge – including a couple awesome snapshots of Tony and his daddy Andrew!

And about the end of July Norma was having a chat with Gerry Beauchemin, and he asked, “Why don’t you guys move into Penticton?”  And Norma wondered aloud, rather astonished, “Why not?”  So they did!  Finding accommodation seemed to be a problem at first – the only places large enough seemed to be really expensive ($1200+ a month) in townhouse ghettos…. just walking into them, people fighting, everything dirty, all cement almost no green space…   Seemed that was where the Hills would end up… but while Norma was waiting to see the landlord and sign on the dotted line, she was glancing through the classifieds one last time, and saw a new ad for a duplex for only $775!  She ran to the pay phone and called the number – and the landlord asked for if she could meet him at the duplex…  though he did say he’d had many applications already.  So she and Wendy went over there, chatted to him for a couple minutes – and then other people also turned up for the tour.  He told the others to wait, and gave Norma and Wendy the tour – a very thorough one – and then told them he really felt that they were the right ones (even though he’d already offered to someone else – but they hadn’t brought the deposit around), so he asked them to wait, gave the rest of the people a super-short tour in a group, and sent them off with application forms.  Then he invited Norma and Wendy to his home, introduced them to his wife, talked with them a bit more – and right then and there the forms were filled out and the deposit paid!  Norma was delighted – and Wendy approved too.  3 bedrooms, hardwood floor in the dining room with skylight overhead, 1 ½ baths, oak cupboards, appliances, gas fireplace, nice shed, lots of storage space….  So it was back to Keremeos, lots of garage sales, and a move to Penticton September 1st, just in time for school to start September 2nd!

Meanwhile, about the 3rd week of August, Norma had also started a new full time job at Tim Horton’s, 6 am to 2 pm, Tuesdays to Saturdays, working in the kitchen, preparing food, making cakes and cookies and bagels, icing doughnuts, decorating cakes, making soups, washing dishes and floors, answering phones and so on and so forth.  Non-stop work!  Busy, busy!  For $8.50 an hour!  This lasted until the end of December, when Norma slipped on a wet, slimy spot on the floor by the leaking dishwasher, landed with a thud on her head – and had a rather major concussion, which took several months to get over….

Peter went into grade 8 at KVR Middle School, and Wendy into grade 11 at Pen High.  However, she found Pen High pretty overwhelming – a huge change after small schools all her life, and pretty soon she switched to the Learning Center, doing computer-based individualized learning, which suited her well!  She did, however, take a couple of courses at the school, like Psychology and Foods.

The 3 bedrooms were pretty crowded, with Sarah and Robyn sharing the master bedroom, Peter in one small bedroom, and Wendy in the other.  Norma and Lionel slept on a futon in the living room!  Then in October, Norma found an apartment for Robyn, and got her settled in.  It was also fairly close to her new job as a telephone operator, at Excel, which she did really excel in, quickly going up the pay scale (earnings based on performance!).  She was busy saving money, in a few short months earning several thousand dollars to purchase herself a top-of-the-line laptop for her upcoming course at BCIT.

Sarah was trying out different jobs.  She worked for quite a while at the Real Canadian Wholesale Store, stocking and organizing shelves; in fact, for years afterwards, the family always referred to that store (their favorite grocery store) as “Sarah’s store” – even long after she’d moved away!.   Later, Sarah got a job as a cashier at Canadian Tire.   And finally, she signed up at the Penticton School of Hairdressing, and got her hairdressing diploma, afterwards working for a time in a hairstyling salon at Cherry Lane Mall.  At some point along the way, she moved out of the Hill house, and into an apartment shared with some of the girls from Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.

Speaking of Abundant Life, now that the family lived in Penticton, they could be more involved.  Norma helped out in the office, took over the library, and so on.  Her favorite thing to do was running the “café”  at the Saturday night service, which was originally known as “Oasis” but came to be known as “One-Eighty.”  She really loved doing that!  At first she just sold pop, coffee, chips and chocolate bars, but it wasn’t long before she expanded the menu into offering some specialty coffees, as well as featuring different foods such as home-made pizzas, fried bread, Mexican foods, and so on.  She loved the music, the laid-back atmosphere which allowed people to really interact with each other, and the different speakers, especially Scott Lefteruk.

Back in Keremeos, Norma and Lionel had started attending a life group in Olalla, hosted by Debbie and Darren Morrow, and led by Gerry and Julie Beauchemin.  Eventually it had moved to Jim and Debbie Martin’s house in Keremeos.  Now in Penticton, Norma really hoped that she and Lionel could be hosts of a life group in their own home – and finally her wish was granted – but after only about 3 or 4 weeks, the leader moved it to another home which he said was “more suited.”   Norma felt very sad, because she really believed her home was a gift from God, and she really wanted it to become a “light” in her neighborhood.  But apparently being a cell group (life group) host home wasn’t meant to be.  So Norma (and Lionel when he was home from camp) attended in various other homes, making some very special friends along the way, such as Ken and Penny Moorman, Dave and Vicky Laframboise, and others, while continuing their friendships built previously in the Keremeos life group.  Norma also got involved in working on the church newsletter, and through that became very close friends with Pat Martinson, and Lionel became really good friends with her husband Fred.  At first Norma was in charge of the whole newsletter, but the pastor wanted a “graphic” production, and felt Norma did far too much writing.  So Pat started doing the newsletter itself, discovering she really had a talent (or gift perhaps!) for it, while Norma wrote a monthly article (and if you are really interested you can check them out at http://www.geocities.com/norma.hill/life/lifemn.html  ).   Norma also, at some point, started facilitating ladies “focus group” Bible studies, on topics such as Spiritual Disciplines (which started out as a study on prayer, and then branched into other disciplines) and Godly Submission.

That fall of 2003 was very, very busy, and looking back, most of it is a blur to Norma (perhaps also because of the concussion!).  Anyway, December 8 was her dad’s, Bill Wright’s, 80th birthday, which called for a big celebration.  All kinds of friends and relatives met at a Chinese café in Penticton for the big party, which was a great success!
And next thing you know, it was Christmas.  The four younger kids were home for stockings on Christmas morning, and Taryn, Andrew and Tony turned up later in the day, Tony enthusiastically helping Nonnie make pie for dessert!

There was a big New Year’s party at Abundant Life, and Norma made snowman and snow-lady cakes for the buffet table!  Lionel and Norma always enjoyed these New Years get-togethers, playing table games with friends, eating good snacks, and just generally having fun together!

Tony got his first pair of skates for Christmas, and Andrew spent lots of time helping him learn to use them, at the outdoor rink in Keremeos.  Taryn, Andrew and Tony had moved from their house in Olalla to the trailer when the Hill’s moved to Penticton, and Andrew built Tony a pretty amazing fort/ tree house in the back yard!

The whole family came to the Hill house in Penticton for Sarah’s birthday in January 2004.  And Norma continued to make cakes for various people – including a “swimming pool” cake for Angela, her helper at One Eighty, who was actively involved in competitive swimming in special Olympics.

As always, the computer was a very popular spot at the Hill house, and there are lots of pictures of various family members surfing the net, playing games, and so on.  The family got an excellent deal on a computer desk, and after awhile, a new computer, which was specially made for graphics, and also good for gaming.

March 2004 brought Tony’s 3rd birthday – and some more logging camp pictures taken by Lionel.  It also brought another birthday for Peter and friends – where oh where are the pictures?  Marilyn Williams came up on the May long weekend to visit Bill and Marj Wright – and to help Norma plan for the big up-coming family event:  Bill and Marj’s 50th anniversary.  Marj, sadly, had not been doing so well the past few months, and it was becoming quite clear that perhaps her constant tiredness was more than just an effect of her liver condition.  So Bill made her an appointment with a specialist and it was determined that she was indeed suffering from a form of dementia – possibly “Louis-body.”  Still, 50 years of marriage is a great thing, and so the party plans were put into full gear.

June brought Robyn’s 19th birthday, and Grandpa and Grandma (Bill and Marj) joined the celebration at the Hill’s.  By this time, Robyn was accepted into the “Architectural and Building Engineering” program at BCIT, and the Old Massett Band had promised her that she would be fully funded (in addition to the $2000 in scholarship funds which she had received at graduation, being the top technology student at SESS!).

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Eden Lake – net fishing in the river

May 8, 2009 by nlhills

At some point during the Keremeos years, Lionel, Eric Edgars, and Marshall Russ did some net fishing in the river for coho salmon.  They got a lot of fish and put it in the smoking hut — and when they went to get the smoked salmon, they discovered that a bear had broken into the shack and feasted royally!  Well, at least they got some pictures of their fishing.  Other times Lionel also hunted for deer – and one time he went to get his meat out of the freezer to bring home – only to discover that some guy had stolen most of it.

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Keremeos Dec 2001 to March 2003 (with pictures of Eden Lake/ Tartoo logging camps)

May 8, 2009 by nlhills

And then in was Christmas – Tony’s first!  And of course he was the center of attention.  Great-grandpa and Great-grandma (Bill and Marj Wright) came down to Keremeos on Christmas eve.  There were a ton of stockings that Christmas – with Andrew and Tony being added to the usual line-up!  But the stocking opening was done in a couple stages – since Taryn, Andrew, and Anthony had now moved into their own little house in downtown Keremeos!  So just the four younger Hills for stocking opening stage one!  The Andrew, Taryn, and Anthony over for stage two!  And then the gift opening, with Great-grandpa and Great-grandma there, too.  Anthony, like most babies that age, was far more entranced with the wrapping paper than with the gifts!  And later, Stew, Sylv, Grant and Jamie Wright came over for more gifts!  Christmas afternoon included playing video games and table games – Anthony was right in the middle of it all, of course.  Jeremy Auger-Patry dropped by, too.

And then there is a GAP in the picture record.  Well, there are some snapshots taken probably during winter 2002, a get-together at Stew and Sylv’s place:  Bill and Marj Wright, Stew and family, the Hills, and Meghan Dawson….

And then pictures from Sarah’s grade 12 grad, June 2002, at Similkameen Elementary-Secondary School.  (Where, oh where, are birthday pictures from Sarah’s, Peter’s, and Anthony’s birthdays?  hm… perhaps they will turn up, out of order.  Ack!)  Ah yes, there is Sarah, parading into the gym with the other grads!  (oh yes, that reminds me, Sarah got the “most improved player” award for her efforts on the soccer team that year.  She and Robyn both played on the SESS team, and Norma spent lots of hours going to games, in Keremeos and other locations, like Penticton and Oysoyoos,  loudly cheering on her wonderful daughters (likely to their embarrassment) and bringing many home-made pizzas to encourage the team.  Oh yes, and had fun helping the girls practice – of course, they were much, much better players than she was, but she enjoyed it, and kept in shape.

Anyway… there Sarah is, with her “top Grade 12 Acting student” trophy… and receiving her graduation certificate… (and yes!  she also got a scholarship!) and marching off the stage with her fellow grads….  and there’s her friend, Brandy Baptiste with her mom…  and pictures of people congratulating Sarah:  her sister Robyn, her grandparents, Marj and Bill Wright, her aunt and uncle, Stew and Sylvia Wright, various fellow grads, her mommy Norma of course, her friend and fellow grad, Meghan Dawson, and others.  And then snapshots from the prom and grad party!

And then another Keremeos summer.  Visit from Norma’s mom, Marj Wright.  Peter and Anthony hanging out in the back yard.  Anthony keeping cool in his birthday suit….

What the heck!?!?!  No more summer pictures???  Okay, I know the kids were always borrowing the camera…. but really!!!!  Doesn’t SOMEONE have pictures from that spring and summer?  HELP!!!!  (I really, really, really need to go through the negatives… if I have them…).   Well, anyway, there were more birthdays for sure…. Robyn, Wendy, Taryn, Norma….

And then it was Hallowe’en!  And Tony was just ducky in his cute little outfit!

Oh! And there is Robyn in her SESS “Sparks” outfit!

And then it was a BIG event – Lionel’s 50th “Over the Hill” birthday party.  What fun!  Lots and lots and lots of people turned up:  Don and Ceci Bodden, Elsie and Art Friesen, Rick Bell and his daughter, Nancy Qualtier and Joseph and Christina, Mary Hitchcock, Bill Qualtier, Logger Dave and Fran, Sylvia and Stew Wright and Jamie and Grant, Big Dave Sherbina, Nancy Allen, Andrew Allen and Taryn and Anthony, and of course the Hill family.  And quite possibly others who didn’t get in the pictures, eh! Because for sure there were at least 32 or 33 people!

And then it was Christmas again!  And Wendy was very seasonal indeed, with her very red hair – in fact, she was going through a hair coloring stage about that time, and tried out a number of interesting colors!  And… ah yes! that was the Christmas Robyn built Norma a corner display shelf unit.  In fact, Robyn built a lot of wonderful things those last couple years of high school – including a dining table (for Norma!), a corner table (which was for herself, but Norma ended up with, yay!), a bench (ditto), an adirondack chair (ditto also)… yes indeed, Norma’s wish for lots of pine and other-light-colored-wood furniture was certainly fulfilled!  (Though she was still kind of sad about losing the pine cupboard she had built a number of years earlier… tough life, eh…).

And once again, there were a lot of stockings.  But what the heck!?!?!  Where is the annual sitting-by-the-stockings picture?  Good grief!!!!  Ha!  Maybe too many cranky-and/or-sleepy-teenagers??  Ha!  Have to put up those pictures instead then!  Nah… that would be mean…. oh well, how about some happy pictures then (more or less lol)?  Okay!  And as you can see, Bill and Marj Wright were there again!  And oh yes!  That was the year of the crazy quilts Norma made for everyone – all elegantly wrapped in pillowcases!  Well, at least some folks got quilts – others got crocheted afghans…  And of course Taryn, Andrew and Anthony came over… well, actually, everybody went over to their new home in Olalla!  And then they came over to the Hill’s to open their stockings, better late than never!

And since it was a white Christmas, someone took some great snapshots of the yard!  Yay!

And then 2003 arrived – and Lionel headed back out to logging camp, taking the camera along to get some more snapshots.  He got some interesting ones of the seaplane that had come into camp, bringing in the guys, and had flipped in the water when landing.  Everyone got out safely, thank goodness – though one of the guys made the pilot go back inside and rescue his case of booze before the plane sank!  Priorities…. hmmm….  Anyway, eventually the plane was raised from Eden Lake and hauled onto shore, and the guys took lots of pictures of it.  And Lionel also got snapshots of his logging buddies – BillyEdgars, Eric Edgars, Irvin Russ, Alvin Edwards, Brian Higgonson, Eric Crewe, Steve, and others.

Meanwhile, back in Keremeos, the winter carried on.  Lots of snow – and more snow pictures.  And then March 18th and Tony’s 2nd birthday, held at Taryn and Andrew’s place.  And an interesting snapshot of Sarah cutting Lionel’s hair!  (Oh yes, that reminds me…. Sarah had planned, right after graduation, to go to Vancouver Community College to take hairdressing, and even had her funding in place.  The course was to cost $2000.  And then, at the last minute, the government, which had frozen tuition fees for colleges and universities for several years, suddenly lifted them… and the cost shot up over $5000!  There was no way she could find the extra money on such short notice, so very sadly had to defer her plans.  In the fall, she went to the Learning Center and took a couple history courses that she wished she could have fit in her schedule in high school – and did very well indeed!  And then she got a babysitting job over the winter months.

And then it was Peter’s 12th birthday – and hurrah! We actually still have pictures of it.  By this time Peter and his buddies had started a tradition that lasted for a number of years – they all got together at spring break at the Hill’s, for Peter’s birthday, and Stevie’s too, since they were really close together.  Not only did they have a party, but a sleepover and a lot of crazy fun, year after year.  And sometimes the gang would also go out to Brett Gibb’s dad’s horse ranch out past Cawston for sleepovers as well.  This year, Jack Walker had joined the party.  As the years passed, Brett moved to Langley, and Stevie to Penticton and then Burnaby, and Peter to Penticton, but year after year the boys got together at the Hills, in Keremeos and later in Penticton, for the annual get-together.  This year the gang included Dalton Dupuis, Jack Walker, Brett Gibb, Jeremy Auger-Patry and Stevie Hunka – the whole gang.

This great event was followed by yet another 2nd birthday party for Anthony – because his daddy, Andrew, had been out at work on the actual date of his birthday.  And the second party included a hot dog roast out in the yard in Olalla!  (That was that birthday, wasn’t it? hmmm.. wish all the pictures were labeled!)

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Keremeos March 2001: first grandchild! (to Nov 2001)

May 6, 2009 by nlhills

(pictures at end)

The winter was passing and spring arriving.  Norma was busy out in the orchard pruning the apple trees – a very big job! One day, she took a break and took some of the kids to Summerland to visit Grandma and Grandpa at their apartment.

Taryn was still working at Hilltop, but not feeling well, and Norma was worried, so took her to Penticton to see the doctor.  Poor Taryn – she had been sick every day of the pregnancy, and car trips were sick trips, too.  When the doctor saw Taryn, he just said that she must have been eating too much or the wrong kinds of food, because she was “putting on too much weight.”  But Norma argued:  because she had been preparing very healthy food for Taryn all along, and because Taryn hadn’t been able to eat much as she was so nauseous every day.  So Norma demanded a second opinion… and the doctor sent her to another doctor in the same building.  Norma and Taryn went into his office – and he took one look at Taryn, and was very concerned.  Right away he was sure she had pre-eclampsia, and sent her immediately to the lab for tests, telling Norma to take her right home after the tests and keep her on bed-rest.  So that’s what they did.  But no sooner had Norma got Taryn laying down, than the phone rang, and the second doctor told Norma to bring Taryn to the hospital immediately.  They stopped at Hilltop for Taryn to pick up a couple magazines, and ran into Larissa Martin, telling her Taryn was going to the hospital.

When they got to the hospital, Taryn was immediately taken for an ultrasound – and the technician gave her a printout of the baby.  After the ultrasound and other tests, she was told she would be kept in the hospital overnight for tests, so Lionel and the kids who had come along went back to Keremeos, while Norma stayed in a motel near the hospital so she could be with Taryn as much as possible.  Early the next morning, Norma got some breakfast at A&W and then went up to the hospital.   The doctors were very concerned about Taryn, and decided that they needed to get her medivaced to a larger hospital, either Vancouver, Kelowna, or Kamloops, as she needed to be induced as soon as possible, because she and baby were both getting very sick.   Meanwhile, Larissa and a couple other friends of Taryn’s came up to the hospital to visit her, which cheered her up.

The doctors were trying and trying to get Taryn medivaced out, but there were two big problems:  first, there was a nurse’s strike on in BC at the time, and since all the hospitals were short-staffed, none of the hospitals wanted to accept her.  And second, there weren’t any medivac planes available.  The doctors were frantically calling the other hospitals, desperately trying to get a spot for her, but to no avail.  The Penticton hospital really wasn’t set up for this kind of emergency, and had no real “preemie/ high risk” care facililites.  And of course, they too were short-staffed because of the strike.  But Taryn was getting more and more sick, and so was the baby, so they finally moved her to the labor area, and induced labor.   (Lionel and Sarah had come up during the day, but Lionel went back to take care of the rest of the family, and Sarah stayed with Norma and Taryn.  Poor Robyn was away at a basketball tournament, and didn’t hear about all the excitement till she got home.).   Hours went by, and nothing happened labor-wise, so finally they decided they would have to do a C-section; they wanred Norma and Taryn that they could not be sure that either mom or baby would make it.  By this time Taryn was in a large delivery room, hooked up to numerous machines, and the doctors were checking the baby every few minutes with blood drops taken from his head.  Since there was not an extra nurse available (Taryn needed constant attention), the head maternity nurse, who had already worked a 12 hour shift, stayed on through the afternoon and night.  So did the obstetrician-gynecologist and two other doctors, all of whom had been working as long as the nurse.  They were all exhausted, and took turns lying on a cot in the delivery room taking naps.  Finally, they could wait no longer, so started prepping for surgery.  Just then, Taryn started getting contractions, and within just a few contractions, the baby was born.   The next minute or so was tense, as he was blue and limp.  They rushed him to an incubator, and all of them, except the doctor who was taking care of Taryn, worked on him.  Finally, he let out a little wail, and his skin started to take on a more healthy hue.  Poor Sarah, who, with Norma, had been with Taryn through this long ordeal, was so exhausted and kind of traumatized that she actually fainted – right on top of Taryn!  The nurse and Norma got her to a chair and took care of her.  Meanwhile, the baby was rushed into the nursery for intensive care (there wasn’t an intensive care nursery; they just had to put him in a back corner by himself, with the nurse and doctors).   And Taryn was rushed to intensive care.

Norma (who already had been awake for a good 24 hours) went to the pay phones and started making calls – home to Lionel and the family, to Nancy Allen (Andrew’s mom – the baby’s other grandma), to Bill and Marj Wright, and so on.  Nancy in turn phoned Andrew on his cell phone.  He was out in Alberta, just heading into Edmonton on his work truck from being way out in the boonies on the job, so as soon as he got the news, the company drove him to the airport and got him on a plane right to Penticton!  Perfect timing!  And Lionel had just arrived in from logging camp the day before Taryn entered the hospital, and was home for two weeks!  More perfect timing – God was really in charge!   Meanwhile, Larissa had come to the hospital again, in the morning – and she got the first peek at baby, through the nursery window!

The hours were going by, and Norma was really concerned that Taryn should get to see her baby boy as soon as possible, as she hadn’t even had a chance to see him when he was born.  Lionel and the kids, and Larissa, and Nancy, and Norma and Sarah, were all sitting in the waiting area beside the Intensive Care Unit, and finally Norma went in and talked to the nurse.  By this time Taryn was feeling a lot better, so Norma got permission to take her over to the nursery in a wheelchair.  And there, almost 12 hours after the birth, mommy Taryn and baby got to meet each other.  And just a short time later, daddy Andrew arrived.  The nurses allowed the family to tiptoe in and take a quick peek at the baby.  And then Taryn was moved into a room in the maternity ward.  Bill and Marj soon arrived, now great-grandparents!  Everybody was so excited with this tiny 3 pound 13 ounce adorable baby, born March 18, 2001! And Goggie (Uncle) Peter was especially pleased because this baby was his early birthday present – born the day before Peter’s 11th birthday!  (You can read the story of God’s work in this baby’s birth by going tohttp://www.geocities.com/norma.hill/cwrite/a.html )

And he was tiny!  In fact, like most babies, he lost weight before he gained – at one point he was under 3 pounds.  The doctors urged Taryn to try pumping her mommy milk, as it would be so much better for him than formula would be – so she did.  She had lots and lots of milk!  In fact, there ended up being a lot more milk than he could use (he was too small to nurse normally, and had to be fed through a tube), so the extra milk was frozen – and eventually the hospital asked if it would be alright to use some of it for other babies!  The hospital was still short-staffed of course, so there was only one nurse at a time in the nursery – and no extra nurse for this baby who needed constant care.  But fortunately, the previous morning, a young intern, who was training to be an obstetrician-gynecologist arrived for a several week training period at the hospital – and he was there for the birth, and became the baby’s special attendant.  As it turned out, the little guy was in hospital for 5 or 6 weeks – and the young doctor left the same day baby went home!  He said that the little guy was HIS baby, too!

Also, the ob-gyn who was in charge of Taryn asked Norma if she would be willing to write a “letter to the editor” about Taryn’s experience, because the government seemed to think that the hospitals were adequately staffed, and all emergencies were easily taken care of.  So Norma wrote a letter, and emailed it to several local papers.  The Penticton Herald posted it as it’s “Letter of the Week” … and the nurses and doctors were delighted with it.  In fact, the nurses took it with them when they went to the negotiations between the government and the union, and it was one of the prime “proofs” of what the situation truly was, and how dedicated the staff were.

Oh yes, while Taryn was in Intensive Care and baby being cared for those first few hours, Norma rushed down the street to the Real Canadian Wholesale Store, and bought a couple “disposable cameras.”  She brought them back to the hospital and started taking pictures of baby and Taryn.  Later in the day, as each camera roll was finished, she dashed back down to the store and had them developed in the one-hour photo developing.   Later in the day, Lionel brought the family camera up to the hospital, and left it with Taryn.

One of the big questions was – what will the baby be named?  Taryn and Andrew had been tossing names around, but no one expected baby to arrive so soon (2 months premature) so everyone was sitting around in Taryn’s room making “helpful” suggestions.  Andrew suggested ____, which was the name of his beloved cat, but everybody said “NO!” to that!  Sarah was full of interesting ideas, such as ____, which kept Taryn in stitches from laughing so hard.  Norma picked up a book of baby names and everyone was poring through them.  A list was being made of possible names, and Norma suggested “Anthony” and then, looking through the book, also suggested “Reece,” which seemed to go nicely with Anthony.  And so it was finally decided by Taryn and Andrew – their new baby would be named Anthony Reece Allen.  “But,” Taryn said, “It’s Anthony!  Not Tony!”  And so it was for the next month or two – until people started noticing that Taryn herself was using “Tony” very frequently!

Although Taryn had lots of visitors in her room, she was anxious to get out of the hospital as soon as possible, so the doctor let her go after about 3 or 4 days.  And so started several weeks of Norma driving her up to the hospital every morning, and then bringing her home every evening.  And this was another miracle – because it happened at the beginning of Spring Break, Norma’s student was on holidays, and she did not have to tutor during that time!  Sometimes Norma would stay in Penticton, but most days would drive home and then go back to get Taryn later in the day.  And another absolutely amazing thing happened.  The family didn’t have much money – and you can imagine the cost of gas for driving the station wagon into town twice a day every day for 5 or 6 weeks!  And yet, days, even a week or two would go by – and the gas meter on the car would still show nearly full!  Norma figured it must not be working properly – so she would go and put gas in the car.  One time, after 10 days of going back and forth, she put gas in – and it only took about $3 worth!  Norma kept track of these amazing “incidents” … which lasted as long as the baby was in the hospital.  God was doing amazing things!  Taryn also had to go for weekly check-ups, and be on a special diet, for a while, but it wasn’t too long before her body was getting back to good health.  And another wonderful thing:  Andrew’s company gave him time off work to be with Taryn and Anthony.

The doctors and nurses had time to really fall in love with little Anthony, as it was unusual to have a baby staying at the maternity ward for that long, as most high-risk pregnancies resulted in mom and baby being medivaced far away.  But what a wonderful thing for Norma and Lionel and all the relatives, that they could visit Taryn and baby at the hospital all the time!  Taryn got good sleeps every night at home, and went to the hospital every morning with a new supply of milk, and spent all day sitting with Tony in the rocking chair in the nursery and looking after him.  The doctors and nurses over and over commented on what a wonderful young mother she was! And what a responsible young father Andrew was!

As time went by, little Anthony gradually became able to nurse, and the feeding tubes were removed.  When he reached 5 pounds, the doctor asked Taryn to stay at the hospital overnight for a couple days, so that the nurses could ensure that she and the little guy were ready to take him home.  Andrew spent lots of time with them as well.  And of course the rest of the family came to visit too – Andrew’s mom, and Taryn’s family.  Andrew’s mom Nancy was of course also taking pictures of her little grandson, and she placed one of the pictures beside baby pictures she had of Andrew, and of his dad (who had passed away when Andrew was three).  It was amazing – all three of them looked so much alike, one would have thought they were the same baby!

Oh yes, while Anthony was still in the hospital, on Sunday’s Norma decided to check out some churches in Penticton, since there was not time to take Taryn to the hospital and then get back to Keremeos in time.  Most Sundays at least some of the family would come up to Penticton with her as well.  One Sunday the Hills checked out the Vineyard Church (and QB even came with them one time.  In the afternoon, Norma and the kids decided to go for a drive.  They drove down to Osoyoos and across the border.  The border guard looked into the car and saw all the kids – Sarah, Robyn, QB, Wendy, Peter.   He asked Norma, “Who are these young folks?”  Norma replied, “Oh they are all mine!”  He looked surprised, and asked “Really?”  Norma insisted, “They sure are!”  “Well, okay,” he answered, kind of doubtfully – and waved Norma on.  The kids all burst out laughing, and Norma wondered why.  Then they reminded her that QB was in the car too!  Anyway it was a fun ride).  Then Robyn’s friend, Larissa, suggested trying out the church her family attended, Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.  So Norma and Robyn went there – and both really liked it.  After that, they started attending there pretty regularly.

And finally, it was time to bring little Anthony home from the hospital.  It was decided that Taryn and Anthony would continue to stay with the Hills for the time being, as Andrew had to go back to work in Alberta, and because Anthony was so small, it was best that Taryn had someone there to help look after him.  Now it was pretty cozy squeezing that many people into the trailer, especially when Lionel and Andrew were home from their respective jobs.  So Taryn, Anthony and Andrew were given the large bedroom, Robyn one of the smaller bedrooms, Wendy another; the back porch/mudroom was turned into a little bedroom for Peter, and Sarah took one of the “bedrooms” in the garage, and Norma and Lionel the other one.  This worked fine as long as the weather was warm – but in the fall, until Andrew was able to get transferred to work in BC, and Taryn and Andrew and Anthony got their own place, Sarah moved into the living room on the couch, Peter on the other couch, and Norma and Lionel in the mud room!

But before we go on with the story, we need to backtrack just a little.  The day after Anthony was born was of course Peter’s birthday.  Auntie Marilyn had come up with her boys, Zachary and Levi, so they were there for the birthday cake too.  Peter didn’t have a big birthday party that year, because of all the excitement with the baby, but his good buddies did come over and spend lots of time with him during Spring Break – Brett Gibb, Jeremy Auger-Patry, Dalton Dupuis, and Stevie Hunka.  Easter also arrived while Anthony was still in the hospital.  Taryn got an especially large amount of Easter goodies – as hers included a big basket of goodies for little Anthony!  Another event that occured during this time was Andrew getting his hair dyed – by Sarah, no doubt, as she was into cutting, dying, curling, braiding, and otherwise doing all kinds of hairdressing in a big way.  In fact, she had gotten started when she was about 12 years old, and was already had very good skills.  Back in Masset, she was looking into apprenticing as a hairdresser, as Bob Berge was a certified hair dressing instructor, and had offered to teach her.  But before she could get the apprenticeship formally started, the family of course moved to Keremeos.

So now it was May and little Anthony was home with the Hills.  He was of course the center of attention.  When Taryn would take him out, for a walk, or to the store or mall, people would always come up and admire him, he was so tiny and cute.  Unfortunately, a few people, who thought Taryn was 14 instead of 19, made snide comments about “babies having babies” which of course Taryn did not appreciate at all.  Poor Taryn – just like her mom had been at that age, she looked a lot younger.  It would be years and years before she no longer would have to produce ID for all kinds of things!

Right from the start, technology was a part of Anthony’s life!  One of the first pictures taken after he arrived home, shows him sitting on Taryn’s lap, watching the other kids play games on the computer!  In that picture, Jeremy is the one cloest to the computer – he had an amusing habit of giving Taryn useful advice about her pregnancy, and then about caring for the baby.  Only Peter’s age, he was an only child, and apparently spent a lot of time with his parents watching the Discovery Channel, so he considered himself quite an expert on such topics.   Taryn was not always thrilled with all his good advice!

Spring was developing into summer, and the orchard was looking great.  All Norma’s hard work pruning, was having great results!  Lionel of course was still working out at logging camp, and took the camera along to take some snapshots.  And back in Keremeos, Bill and Marj Wright came down for a visit with their new great-grandson!  And then June brought Robyn’s 16th birthday!  And July Wendy’s 14th birthday, and Norma’s birthday, and Taryn’s 20th birthday.  Where, oh where, are those pictures?   Well, there are lots of Tony pictures anyway!

Oh ho!  The summer pictures aren’t missing after all!  They are just out of order:  Norma must have been having a blond moment when she was organizing them!  Alright!  So summer 2001…

Lionel, Robyn, and Sarah took a trip up to Haida Gwaii, to visit, and to pick up some things that had been left behind when the family moved.  Back in Keremeos, there were lots of warm sunny days swimming and jumping off Red Bridge.  And Hmmm…. still no Wendy birthday pictures???!!??  Well, Wendy certainly had a birthday – and then so did Norma… and Taryn!  And then someone actually took a picture of Norma with her grandson!  The Hill family especially enjoyed their summer days at their new home, with the big shade trees, the swing on the back porch, and the creek running through the back yard.  Wendy and Bethany Bernard discovered that a great way to cool down on hot summer days was to sit in the creek on lawn chairs!

Since Robyn and Sarah got a trip to Haida Gwaii that summer, Norma told Peter and Wendy that they could have a special day – and they decided they wanted to go go-cart riding at Penticton with their friends.  Wendy took Bethany along with her, and Peter took  Jeremy Auger-Patry.  After riding the go-carts, they had lots of fun playing in the arcade as well.  And of course the kids all spent endless hours playing video games as well, at home. The family also enjoyed going to the beach – often to Skaha Beach in Penticton.  Tony really liked wading (with a little help from mom, of course!).

At one point in the summer, Andrew, Taryn, and Tony went to Andrew’s cousin’s wedding at Grand Forks, where Tony was of course doted upon by aunts, uncles, cousins, and great-grandparents!

And at some time that summer, Andrew, Taryn, and Tony made a trip to the coast, where Tony had a check-up at Children’s Hospital, and they stayed with cousins Zachary and Levi.  And then a trip on the ferry to Vancouver Island.

Also that summer, Lionel worked out at Husby’s camp at Tartoo.  The bunkhouse was on a barge, fondly referred to as the Tartoo Hilton.  Lionel took lots of pictures!

Oh yes, that summer, Larissa, who had just graduated from high school,  set up her tent down by the creek, and she often stayed overnight at the Hills, with Robyn.  In the evenings, Norma usually sang and rocked Anthony to sleep, either in the big rocking chair in the living room, or on the swing out on the porch.  One evening, Larissa came in from the tent, and walked by Norma and Anthony who were rocking together in the big chair, and Norma was singing “Jesus Loves Me” to Anthony.  She stopped and very quietly and gently said, “Grandma” … and then she added, “Please never stop singing that song to Tony!”  And then she told Norma that when she was little, and things were hard in her life, her mommy would rock her and sing that song to her, and it would help her so much.  Larissa loved Tony so very, very much.

Another special event that summer was that Robyn gave her heart to the Lord, and was baptized at Abundant Life Christian Fellowship.   She and Larissa also went to the Oasis Saturday night youth services sometimes, and at the end of the summer, Robyn went to a teen Bible camp with the ALCF teens.

And then, at the end of October, a sad event.  Larissa died in a car accident.  It was so hard on Robyn, for Larissa was her best friend.  And it was hard on all the family, for Larissa had become like another daughter and sister in the past months.  But it was also a happy event, as over 600 people turned out to the funeral in the school gymnasium, and many testimonies were given of Larissa’s life, and the knowledge that she had known and loved Jesus.

November brought Lionel’s 49th birthday.  And Tony was getting big enough to really enjoy the excitement – and the pretty wrapping paper!

Oh my!  More pictures turn up!  Yay!  So….  October 27th, the Stanley Cup came to Penticton… and Andrew and Tony got their pictures taken with it!  Great excitement!  As was Hallowe’en a few days later… Tony’s first!  The pumpkin they got for the jack o’lantern must have been very big – or Tony very small – or some combination thereof – since Tony and it were not much different in height!  And also in October, Bill Wright took Lionel with him to his monthly “Men’s Breakfast” gathering at a local cafe – and proudly showed off  “my Haida son-in-law” to all his buddies!  Lionel wasn’t sure about how to feel about that!  He did, however, enjoy visiting with some of the men, especially Don Bodden Sr., who became a good friend.

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Keremeos July 1999 to February 2001

May 2, 2009 by nlhills

So where was I?  Oh yes, the reason the Hill’s decided to leave beautiful Haida Gwaii…. well, that was a rather long and convoluted decision…  if you’d really like to know Norma’s thoughts on it, you can check it out athttp://mothersjourney.shawwebspace.ca/  expecially chapter 3:  “To move … or not to move?”

June was a mad rush as the Hill’s sold or loaned out all their furniture, and all their “extra” goods – even their sheds and green house.  The new house in Old Massett was almost ready to move into – and Linnet and Ellis Edgars agreed to live in it.  (Later, they moved out; some other people lived in it for awhile without permission or without paying rent, till they were found out; then the Village of Old Massett did some “finishing touches” and finally the Hill’s were able to sell it… long story….)

Anyway, suffice it to say, here, that at the end of June 1999, the 26th to be exact, Lionel came home from logging camp on his days off, took the family to the ferry, and saw them off (then went back to camp).  Norma and the kids went across on the ferry to Rupert and then got on the bus for a very long ride to Prince George and then south to, oh where was it?  that town west of Kamloops… anyway Norma’s brother Stewart picked them up there and took them on to Keremeos.  They stayed with Bill and Marj Wright for a couple days, during which they picked up the new blue station wagon (well, new to them! somewhere along the line the Keremos teens dubbed it the “shaggin’ wagon” hmmmm) which Stew had found for them for only $1200 (another amazingly awesome provision from Father!).  (Oh!  The Hill van had been starting to have quite a lot of mechanical difficulties the previous winter, and finally the Hill’s decided to sell it to a friend who had some mechanical ability, rather than sink anymore money into it…  which is why, of course, they took the Greyhound bus south).

Then it was off to family camp at Pine Grove Free Methodist Bible Camp in Winfield.  On the way, Norma and the kids stopped in Kelowna for some shopping, and in the McDonalds parking lot in Rutland, just as they were about to pull out and head on to the camp, two rather good looking young men came up to the station wagon, looked in the window of the middle seat (where the three older Hill girls were sitting side by side), saw the one closest to them, and said a cheery “Hello, pretty girl!”  and introduced themselves.  Then they looked closer, saw the next Hill girl, and said, “Wow, twins!”    And said “hello, pretty girls!” and introduced themselves again.  And then looked even closer, saw the third Hill girl, and said, “Wow!  triplets?!?!?!  And all pretty!!!”  at which point, as Norma pulled the car out, they called out their names and phone number, and off the Hill’s drove, everyone in the car laughing, and the boys running after them waving and smiling and shouting, “Be sure to call us!”    The Hill girls didn’t, but it was entertaining, nonetheless.

Marilyn Williams and Levi and Zachary were also at the camp, and Bill and Marj Wright came for part of it.  Norma loved being there, and renewing many friendships from years gone by, including childhood friends she hadn’t seen since she finished high school.  Again, the Hill kids weren’t so sure about the whole camp thing, but they did make some new friends, some of whom they would keep in contact with for years afterwards, and of course those pretty Hill girls were a big attraction for the teen boys!

And then it was back to Keremeos.  The plan was to move immediately into the townhouse on 2nd Avenue, which Bill and Marj had arranged for the Hill’s to stay in for the summer.  But when the family went to move in, it was discovered that the water heater had blown.  And it took a couple days to track down the guy who was caring for the place for the landlord (the landlord was Del Reimer, who had been the camp director at Capernwray the previous summer!).  But finally they were able to move in… with their clothes, and everything they’d been able to send down by mail from Masset.  Which meant that there was almost no furniture; in fact, airmattresses were used for beds for awhile, till Grandpa and Grandma took pity on the family and bought some real mattresses! There was a couch left in the house by the previous tenants, and Grandpa and Grandma loaned some lawn chairs; and the family borrowed a folding table and some chairs.

The plan was just to stay there for the summer, and for Lionel to look for work “down south” while on his days off, but he really didn’t want to leave his job, and the family ending up staying there in Keremeos for some time to come.

The townhouse had 3 bedrooms upstairs.  At first, there was some sharing of rooms by the kids, but it wasn’t working out very well.  In the end, Sarah and Taryn shared the master bedroom, and Wendy and Robyn each had their own room.  Peter had the “den” downstairs, and Norma and Lionel slept out in the garage (which was VERY cold in winter!).

Wendy’s actual birthday (13th) arrived, and, surprise! the guests were the Bernard family, who had been the pastors of the Pentecostal in Masset!  They had arrived in Keremeos just a few days before the Hills (though neither knew about the others moving there).Also at the birthday party were Stew and Sylv Wright and Grant, and and Bill and Marj Wright.  Everybody had fun playing with balloons, table games, and croquet on the back lawn.  (The back yard was completely enclosed – and this meant that to mow the back lawn, the lawn mower had to be carried through the house from the front lawn to the back lawn!).  Gradually, the family started to accumulate other bits and pieces of furniture.

When the Hills came to Keremeos, they at first started attending the Similkameen Christian Fellowship Church.  (Back in Masset, the Pentecostal Church had been closed down (and the Bernards had left).  The Hill’s had, at any rate, been attending the Anglican Church in Old Massett for the past two or three years.  But when their van broke down, it became very difficult to get to church regularly because of the distance.  Also, the Hill children had been the only teens attending church and they were getting a lot of flak about it, to the point where Norma and Lionel decided that they would just have “church at home” for the kids;  Norma, however, was also attending the Anglican church in new Masset, as was her friend Adie and some other good friends of hers.)   When it became clear that the Hill’s would be staying in Keremeos, and that, for various reasons, some of the Hill children were very uncomfortable at the SCF church, they were given the choice of attending other churches.  Robyn decided she wanted to attend the Anglican church, as she had liked the Anglican services in Masset, and as there was a wonderful new minister, David Hughesman, at the Anglican Church in Keremeos, who she really liked.  Wendy wanted to go to the Pentecostal, with her friend Bethany Bernard.  Taryn, Sarah, and Peter continued, for a time, to attend the Similkameen Christian Fellowship.

And then Lionel traveled down – by plane to Vancouver, and then bus to Keremeos – for his first “days off” visit with the family in Keremeos … just in time for Taryn’s birthday.  The birthday party was held at Bill and Marj Wright’s place, with Stew, Sylvia, Grant and Jamie there as well.

August 14 was Bill and Marj Wright’s 45th wedding anniversary, and of course reason for a family gathering – Bill and Marj, their 4 children, and their families, and Preston and Kerry Mott, and perhaps some others!  Part of the festivities, held at Stew and Sylvia’s place, was a reenactment of some important events in Marj and Bill’s life together, including their wedding, with Grant Wright as Bill, and Taryn as Marj (in Marj’s actual wedding dress).  And then a front yard barbeque!

Of course, a Kermeos summer would not be complete without sunny afternoons spent at Red Bridge, swimming and jumping from the bridge – and there were lots of such afternoons that summer.  One day the Bernards came with the Hills, and some of the kids had a lot of fun rolling in the sand – resulting in some quite comedic snapshots!

As the summer came to an end, Norma went to the Similkameen Elementary-Secondary School and Cawston Primary School to register the kids – Sarah and Robyn at the Secondary, Wendy at the Elementary, Peter at the Primary.  Taryn went to the Learning Center to register for enough courses to get her Dogwood – thinking she’d need a lot of credits, but when they went over the work she’d done on her own, the credits she’d picked up at the Learning Center in Masset – and gave her a bunch of credits for the work she’d produced at the BC Skills Center, in the website design program, it turned out she needed just a few core 11 and 12 credits to get that diploma.  So she started working on that.  While registering the kids as SESS, Norma was talking to the principal, and when he heard of her teaching background, he urged her to apply as a TOC in the local school district, so she did that.  When she hadn’t heard back after two or three weeks, she called the School Board office to see if they had received her application – and was told very bluntly by the Superintendent, “You’ll never get hired in this district.  Don’t call again.”  She was shocked!  Then the principal phoned her and asked if she’d put in her application.  When she told him what the Superintendent said, he was shocked and called the Board Office himself.  And received the same reply.  Later on, the president of the local teacher’s union also called and got the same response.  No one had any idea what the problem was!  Norma was pretty devastated, as the family really needed extra income.  So she started looking around for other work, but discovered that the local stores tended to only hire long-time locals.  The only place she even got an interview, the owner told her that, and added that she was “overqualified” anyway.  Quite a shock!  She wondered why God would allow the family to be in such need, and not provide a job for her.  Not only were the Hill’s paying rent in Keremeos, but within a short time, the renters in both Old Massett and new Masset fell through, and for some time, the Hill’s basically were paying for three places.  How could God let the family down like that, she wondered?  But as time went by, she began to understand that God’s planning is different than ours, and that He saw the big picture, including the future.  Eventually, the house in Old Massett was finally sold, and the Hill’s gave the New Masset house to Lionel’s sister and brother-in-law, Dulcie Hill and Mike Oeschlager, who assumed the fairly small remaining mortgage amount.  Meanwhile, back in Keremeos, it turned out that Norma was really needed at home, looking after all the children, as Lionel was away so much.  Eventually Norma did get work which she really enjoyed, and which paid well – but that will come later in the story.  Above all, the Lord was teaching Norma to trust in Him, instead of in herself … a lesson which was hard for a self-sufficient person to swallow!

Anyway, all the kids were busy with their school work as the fall went by.  Hallowe’en came, then Remembrance Day.  which was an important day in Keremeos, as so many of the residents were seniors, many of whom had been in the wars, including Grandpa, Bill Wright.  December 8th was Bill Wright’s birthday.  A little later was the Similkameen Christian Fellowship Christmas program.  And then it was Christmas – and another family stocking picture, of course!  Grandpa and Grandma came over for the present opening.  Peter, who was very interested in anything to do with history, especially the Middle Ages, got some Usborne history kits, and spent most of the rest of Christmas holidays putting together medieval castles and such!  No doubt Christmas dinner was held at either Grandpa and Grandma’s or at Stew and Sylv Wright’s – but no pictures to prove it!

And then came a very significant New Year’s – Year 2000!   As anyone who was around at that time can tell you, there was a huge amount of worry that computers (and electrical systems, and stores, and factories, and anything else dependent on computers) might totally crash that night.   Some people collected up lots of cash, groceries, and other essentials just in case.  But as it turned out, nothing happened!   The Hill’s spent the evening at Stew and Sylv Wright’s where there was a big New Year’s party, lots of friends and family, wild round-the-table ping pong games and other entertainment, and a big “Happy New Year” celebration as the new century came in!

January brought Sarah’s 16th birthday.  Guests were Uncle Stew and Auntie Sylvia and Grant and Jamie. as well as Grandpa and Grandma.  Of course, winter also meant snow, and there were several snow falls, which everyone enjoyed! Oddly enough, there are no pictures from Peter’s 10th birthday in March.  Of course, more and more, the camera was being hijacked by the kids, and sometimes Norma ended up without snapshots of important events…  well, better check the negatives, just in case!

In the spring, the Similkameen Christian Fellowship church was putting together a new church directory, and was taking photos of every church family.  So they took one of the Hill family too.  And at some time in the spring, perhaps the May Day long weekend, there was a family and friends get together at Stew and Sylv’s place, including various members of the Mott crew, and also friends from the SCF church.  Or perhaps those were two different get-togethers!  Anyway, one of the pictures shows “Big Dave” Sherbina, who had become a great friend of Lionel (and all the Hill family), and in another picture, Deanna Dunham, who was a special friend of Sarah’s.

Some time during the past school year, Robyn had met a handsome young man, by the name of QB (Quentin) Basil, a grade 12 student, and they started going out together.  Of course, come June and graduation, Robyn was his date for prom.  June was also Robyn’s 15th birthday – which amazingly, Norma still has pictures of!  Yay!  June was also Wendy’s grade 7 graduation, from the Elementary side of SESS.  Her special friends Joleen Terbasket and Bethany Bernard were also grads.  The school had a potluck for the students, parents and grandparents in the cafeteria, along with the presentation of awards.

July brought Wendy’s 13th birthday, with friends, Kendra Hunka and Joleeen Terbasket.  And when the one at the Hill house was finished, she had a second at Grandpa and Grandma’s.  Sometime in the past while, the Hill family had gotten a new cat, and it turned up in a summer snapshot.  (Pouffy cat had done one of his disappearing acts shortly before the Hill’s left Masset… but after awhile turned up again in the neighborhood, whereupon the neighbor with the German Shepherd happily adopted him!)

It wasn’t long before Graham and Elizabeth, and their daughter Erin, came to Keremeos to visit.  So everyone went down to Red Bridge for a swim and hotdog roast.  Later, everybody went for dinner at Stew and Sylv’s.

And oh yes, not too long after the Hill’s moved to Keremeos, it was noticed that a group of boys quite often drove by the house in a black Firebird – and they would lean out the window and wave – and after awhile, some of them would yell, “Andrew likes Taryn!”   Taryn wondered, “Who’s Andrew?”    Well, sometime during the summer, Taryn and Andrew got to know each other – and soon started going out.  Around August, Andrew moved out to Alberta to work for a company called “Westower” … and not long after, Taryn discovered that she and Andrew were expecting!  She decided to continue with her schooling, but being sick every day, found studying almost impossible.  For awhile, she and Norma babysat a little girl, whose mom was francophone (Quebecois) and whose dad was English-speaking (though they also both spoke the other’s language as well).  The little gal was about 2 years old, and spoke an interesting combination of both languages.  Norma really enjoyed listening to her, and was inspired to take up a bit of French study once again.  Then Taryn got a new job, working at “Hilltop” gas station and convenience store, fulltime.

During the past year or so, people began to notice that Grandma (Marj Wright) was very tired all the time, and she herself was worried because she was forgetting a lot of things.  In fact, one of the reasons the Hill’s moved from Masset to Keremeos, was that Marj had a liver condition which was making her tired and weak, while Bill had a slow type of cancer of the blood.  While both of them were still managing to get around quite well, the doctors said that at any time, either or both of them could suddenly become very ill and would need a lot of care, so Lionel and Norma decided they should move close by so Norma could care for them.  Now, Marj was getting really tired, and the family decided that it was too hard on her to take care of the large trailer and large yard, and because she was not well, she could no longer get out very often, and living more or less out in the country, she didn’t see people very often, and was lonely.  Bill on the other hand, loved working in his orchard, and was active in the church, and really didn’t want to move.  But finally, the family convinced them to move to an assisted living facility, Angus Place, in Summerland.  But Bill would only agree to it if the Hill’s would move into the trailer and Norma would take care of the yard and orchard for him.  So in September the move was made.  It was hard for Bill to part with some of his stuff – just as it had been hard for him when they had moved years earlier from Kelowna to Keremeos.  By the time they got settled into their apartment, Bill not only had the apartment quite loaded with stuff (Norma turned the storage closet in the apartment into a little office for Bill, with built-in desk and shelves!), but also had 3 storage lockers fully loaded!  The family had a big garage sale to clear out a lot of other stuff, and several loads of stuff to the dump.  Then Lionel and Norma, with Stewart’s help, sealed and insulated the garage doors, and built a couple bedrooms into the garage area, as well as a “rec room” area for the kids to hang out with their friends.  So the family moved from 2nd Avenue over to the Wright’s place at the beginning of October. (They also inherited Grandpa’s cat, ___)

That school year, Sarah, Robyn, and Wendy were in the “Secondary” section of SESS, and Peter was in the “Elementary” section of the same school.  Norma also finally got a job, working for the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, tutoring a home-bound young man, Floyd, who could not attend school.  He was in grade 10, but for various reasons had not learned to read and write.  So it was decided to focus on his basic academic skills, and Norma worked with him for the next two years.  This particular year, he was living with his family on the reserve at Ashnola, near Keremeos.  Norma went out to his place for an hour or two, three times a week.  Although the time wasn’t a lot, the pay was good — and non-taxable, as Norma, a “status Indian” due to having married Lionel before the “rules” changed, was teaching him on-reserve! Norma was also very busy at the school, helping out with the band parents association, field trips, and other events.  She was even asked to come in and teach the home ec classes how to make fried bread!  And in the next couple years she would also be involved in grad parents association.  Also, she became involved in the One to One Reading Program, both at Cawston Primary and at SESS.

The fall flew by, and Christmas arrived.  Taryn was looking so cute with her round tummy!  Andrew arrived back in Keremeos, and they were so happy to see each other!  They had been phoning each other pretty near every day the entire time he was away.  Then it was Christmas day, and another stocking picture!  Norma had been baking up a storm, and got a great snapshot of Lionel sitting at the kitchen table, with lots of pies in front of him, happily munching on a piece of fried bread! A delicious Christmas dinner was held at Stew and Sylv’s, with their family, the Hill’s, Marj and Bill Wright, and Sylvia’s parents, Art and Helen Dyck.

January 2001 brought Sarah’s 17th birthday, with her friends Sapphire and Deanna Dunham.

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Masset January 1998 to June 1999

April 30, 2009 by nlhills

So the Hill family was now living in a former PMQ on Pine Crescent.  The first big event was Sarah’s 14th birthday, with her friends Jen Low, Deb Low, and Dana Bellis.  They celebrated with a Monopoly tournament!  Meanwhile, the younger ones were having lots of fun playing in the Pine Crescent park!  February brought Valentines day – which featured, for some unknown reason, Frootloops!  Everyone was quite happily settling into the new digs.  The living room was the home school headquarters with the computers lining one wall, which was a popular spot to entertain friends when they came over (like Peter’s buddy Alex Biron, and cousins David and Joanna Hill).  Outdoors in the yard and at the park were other fun places to hang out.  Two of the girls set up their bedrooms in the basement; the other two, as well as Norma and Lionel upstairs.  There was a sizeable walk-in closet upstairs, which became Peter’s little hideaway!

March brought Peter’s 8th birthday, and a race-track cake.  Guests included Joanna and David Hill, Kai Monture, and Daisy and Diana White.  March also brought notice from the Hill’s renters over on Swan Crescent that they would be moving out the beginning of April.  So, the Hill children wanting to go “home,” the family gave notice to their landlord (who was happy to be able to move back in from the beach), and Norma packed everything up yet again.

Meanwhile, over the winter, the Hill’s, assisted by Spence Stanyar, had designed their “dream home” for Old Massett.  They went down and cleared out alder that was starting to take over the lot, and soon a 4 foot deep hole was dug, filled with gravel, and footings laid on the gravel, then a cement slab laid.  One of the things they had decided was to make the house as “hurricane-proof” and “earthquake-proof” and “tsunami-proof” as possible.  Thus, the house was designed to “float” on a cement pad that in turn floated on a gravel base.  Even in a strong earthquake, the house would “ride the wave” rather than buckle and crack.   Inside the cement pad were laid heating lines that would warm the entire house evenly.  One day Norma, Lionel, and Spence were down working on the house.  Spence and Lionel were beginning the framing, and Norma was in front of the house digging a ditch from the house to the road in which the sewer pipes would be laid.  She was about 2/3 of the way finished, when one of her swings of the shovel somehow went awry.  With a terrible stab of pain in her lower back, she fell to the ground.  She laid there for a moment, then feeling better, tried to stand up – and found that she had no feeling in her legs; they were like limp spagetti!  And the pain in her back when she tried to get up was excruciating.  Norma hollered and hollered at the guys, but they had the electric saw going and could not hear her.  Finally, in terrible pain, she began to pull herself across the rough ground with her arms, much as a baby “creeps” before learning to crawl.  Gradually she was able to reach the truck, and fortunately, someone had left the front door open.  Dragging herself upward with her arms, she managed to get high enough to lay on the horn.  Finally the guys noticed, and ran to rescue her.  Lionel rushed her up to emergency at the hospital.  It turned out she had injured her lower back, and now had a slipped disc.   He took her home (to the Pine Crescent house), and she spent the next couple weeks pretty much flat on her back.  Gradually the pain lessened, and Norma started to do exercises to strengthen her core, to take the strain off her back.  Eventually the pain was completely gone – but over the coming years, this injury would come back to haunt her a number of times… especially when she slacked off those exercises!

The family moved back to Swan Crescent at the beginning of April, and Easter was celebrated there. The kids were happy to be back in the old neighborhood, close to lots of friends.

June brought Robyn’s grade 7 grad at Tahayghen.  And then of course her Haida grade 7 grad. (Obviously she had a birthday party – but where are those pictures?  Hmmm… Really do have to get out the negatives!)

And then it was summer again.  July brought another birthday for Wendy – her 11th.  Friends at the party included Bethany Bernard, Joanna Hill, Jake Hillier, Kai Monture and his sister, and Cody Hillier, as well as her siblings.  July also included lots of time hanging out with friends, indoors and out.  The Hill house was always full of kids having fun together.

An unfortunate side-effect of having not been at the Swan Crescent house over the fall and winter months is that the front lawn had been turned into a parking lot by the renters – and with the grass destroyed, the winter rains washed away the top-soil Norma had so persistently cared for – resulting in the front yard being flooded every time it rained.  So Norma went out and dug a long ditch from the house to the front of the yard, and also dug a “pond” at the front of the yard for the water to drain into.  Her intent was to thereby be able to plant a new lawn next to the ditch.  However, the kids – younger Hills and their neighborhood friends – thought the ditch and pond were there for their fun, especially when it rained and both filled with water!  And of course their fun spilled over into the “new lawn” area, which as a result failed to thrive as a lawn!  So the front yard turned into a dusty play area, in which the young folks had countless hours of fun digging, splashing, playing with Peter’s little cars – in fact, many years later, long after the Hill’s had again moved from the island, Uncle Mike and Auntie Dulcie, who came to live in the house, were digging up rusty little cars and other toys year after year!

And of course summer would not be complete without trips around the island – to Tow Hill and north beach, south to Skidegate and Charlotte, and so on.   There are a few pictures from Tow Hill with Grandma’s writing on the back, and dated June 1998 – so very likely Grandpa and Grandma had been up for a visit in May or June!

In a hilarious attempt to freak out Norma, Robyn and Cody Hillier rolled up pieces of white paper, colored the ends red, got a brown pop bottle, and took pictures of themselves “smoking and drinking.”  When the pictures were developed they watched Norma with great anticipation, waiting for her to freak out – but she just laughed and laughed!

July also brought Norma’s birthday.  And while the kids were having summer fun, Norma (with help from Lionel when he was in from camp, and a lot of help from Robyn, and some from the other kids; as well as big help from Spence Stanyar and Jared) was at the new house nearly every day, hammering and nailing and putting up drywall, and so on and so forth.  One day, when the roof was being put up,  Norma was sitting up on the top peak of the roof hammering on the hurricane ties (another of the special features!).  The wind was blowing wildly, as it often does in Masset, and yet there was Norma sitting up on that cross beam, legs wrapped around it, hammering away – and Lionel standing on the ground below yelling up at her to stop being foolish and get down from there!  Needless to say, Norma loved heights – and Lionel didn’t!  Another interesting occasion was when the first floor walls were up and the second floor was getting started.  Norma was on her hands and knees on the second floor, hammering stud-walls together, when a piece of plywood lying on the floor was picked up by the wind, flipped through the air, and landed on top of Norma.  It did kind of knock the wind out of her, but otherwise she was none the worse for wear, thank goodness!  At any rate, as the summer went by, the walls were put up, and the roof readied for it’s steel roofing.  Norma did all the cutting of boards for the roofing underlay, as Spence said she was one of the most accurate cutters he’d ever seen.  She was pretty proud of herself!  The family was planning a trip south, so they closed up the new house to keep it safe, and took some pictures to show off to family and friends on their holiday.

The house had two bedrooms downstairs, one for Norma and Lionel, the other for Peter.  It also had a full bathroom and laundry room, and a workshop, as well as an open-area-plan kitchen, dining and living room.  Circular stairs led up to the second floor which had another full bathroom, and a large open room with dormer windows (to have a long window seat) and closets in each corner, with personal light fixtures in the areas next to the closets.  The plan was to put up temporary walls for personal bedroom space for each girl, with an open living area in the center for all of them to share.  The long term plan was, when the girls grew up and moved away, to perhaps set up the upstairs as a bed-and-breakfast, or as a studio (and as space for the kids to come home with their families to visit!).

Anyway, time for the family holiday arrived, and off they went, onto the ferry, and the long drive south.  And where were they going?  To Thetis Island, to Capernwray for family camp – along with Bill and Marj Wright, Marilyn and Randy Williams and family, and Graham and Elizabeth Wright.  At first the Hill children weren’t so sure about this adventure, but as the week went by they all found friends and activities that they enjoyed.  The family stayed in a cabin together.  The meals and meetings were held in the main lodge – and the food was amazing.  There were special events like barbeques and coffee-and-dessert evening, and all kinds of activities including a climbing tower, waterskiing, canoeing and kayaking, and more.  Norma especially enjoyed the music.  And the American boys at the camp especially enjoyed the company of the Hill girls!  Oh yes, Norma climbed the climbing tower – the oldest woman there to do so!  She was very proud of herself!  And she and Robyn went kayaking with some other campers.  Along the way, someone spotted an eagle on a tree on a tiny islet – and everybody had to sit and admire it for 10 minutes; it was the first time some people had actually seen an eagle in the wild.  Norma and Robyn, who were used to seeing dozens at once were astonished at their oohs and aahs.  Then the group came across some seals — and the same thing happened.  City folks!  Oh! and it was hot and sunny the entire week!  Really!

After camp, the Hill’s headed over to the mainland, and spent a few days at Auntie Aud and Uncle Mel Barber’s place.  One of the girls got a waxing-hair-removal kit, and they were busy removing each other’s leg hair in that less-than-comfortable method.  Uncle Mel, who had only daughters, was astounded!  Every time they’d pull the waxed paper off their legs, he’d wince in pain.  It was really quite funny!  The kids had a wonderful time visiting there!  And before they left, the Barbers took a picture of the family together.

Then it was on to Keremeos, and time with Grandpa and Grandma, and the Wright cousins.  Naturally, there was a hot dog roast down by the creek.  And, also naturally, a (mini) family reunion as well – this one held at Stew’s and Sylv’s place.  And naturally, family pictures!  And then it was time to head back to Masset.

September arrived, and it was back-to-school for Taryn, Sarah, and Robyn (Grades 11, 9, and 8).  Wendy and Peter continued to home school.  It was also back to Girl Guides for Wendy, and Navy Cadets for Robyn; as well as Cubs for Peter (Norma now became a cub leader!).  And new friends for the Hills – the Smith family, who were on the Armed Forces base – and also home schoolers.  In fact, the first day of school, while the older girls went back to school, Norma, Wendy, and Peter, and Brady, TJ, and their sister, and their mom, Kelly, went out to the beach for a not-going-to-school day!  It was fun!

Taryn stuck with school through September and into October – and while her marks in every subject were well into the 90 percentile range, she was finding school to be less interesting than she’d thought it would be.  She found it discouraging how much time was wasted in the classroom with students fooling around and so on – and annoying how much time she had to spend on homework because of it.  In October, the local BC Government Skills Center offered a “Website Design Course.”  Taryn decided that sounded a lot more interesting than her school classes, so she decided to go back to home schooling, and at the same time take the class.  A perk was that the students were paid minimum wage while attending.  Taryn was definitely the youngest student there – most were adults of various ages, with a few who had recently graduated from high school.  So off Taryn went on this new adventure – and in the first two weeks, discovered that she knew pretty much just as much (if not more) about web design as the teacher did.  She was disappointed – but the course directors, seeing her talent, asked her to stay on as an “assistant” to the teacher, so she got to do a lot of hands-on web design while the other students were still in the learning stages.  And then, an interesting thing happened!  The teacher got busted for possession of drugs about 2/3 of the way through the course, and was sent off the island.  What now?  The directors came to Taryn and asked her if she would be willing to teach the rest of the course – a 17 year old, with no formal computer courses at all in her background was now teaching adults web design!  The position also came with a doubling in wages!  And at the end, in the spring, an Aboriginal Funding group offered her a $50,000 funding to start her own web design business… but Taryn just didn’t feel ready to take such a big step.  Still, the whole family was very proud of Taryn!

Meanwhile, Christmas came – and of course another “stocking” picture.  This was becoming a rather painful process – but at least Wendy and Peter were still into the whole thing!  The older girls – well, not so much – at least the “hanging up stockings” picture on Christmas eve… but come Christmas morning, Sarah was into the fun in a “big way” – check out the picture!  Christmas dinner was buffet style – of course, seeing as the dining room was a bedroom, and the living room was very cozy with all the home school stuff!  Elizabeth Hill came over for dinner, and she and Peter posed for a picture with the gingerbread house that he and Wendy had made.  And the older girls had a lot of fun playing with the new Upwords game the family got for Christmas.

As Lionel was home for a month or two from logging camp for Christmas/winter break, he was spending a lot of time (along with Norma – every day!), working on the house in the village.  By this time the drywall was up, and they were pasting and sanding.  One day Norma got a great snapshot of Lionel covered in drywall dust – he looked positively ghostly!

The winter carried on, and January brought another birthday for Sarah, her 15th – but the pictures are missing.  Hmmm… negatives, yes….  Wendy and Peter were going through a snap-shot-happy stage, and produced some interesting photos over the next couple months.  Peter and his buddy Raven.  Wendy and her alien imitation.  Wendy and Poofy cat.  Raven and Pouffy cat.  Wendy and Peter in their army fatigues “uniforms.”  Peter’s gun collection.

And then it was March and Peter’s birthday – with guests Alex Biron, Kyle, Ambrose, and Raven.  Oh! And Kieran!

And then it was June and Wendy’s early birthday party and sleepover – with Alex Biron, Nico and Tyler York, Kyle, Kieran, Ambrose, Raven, ___ …  (and no doubt a birthday party for Robyn, and an early birthday for Taryn, and, as Norma recalls, some rather large parties for the older girls’ friends… and what about somebody’s boy toy in Port? hmmm? ….  but all those pictures have disappeared, how odd…  must, must get out those negatives!)

And why did Wendy have her birthday party in June?  Keep tuned for the next installment!

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Masset Oct 1997 to January 1998

April 23, 2009 by nlhills

So there the Hills were in the Ponderosa.  Hallowe’en had come and Satomi was intensely interested in watching the kids make jack-o-lantern’s – and then making one herself.  The Hill kids were busy with their home school projects; one of them involved environmental issues related to coastal areas, and that resulted in them taking lots of pictures of the shoreline right across the street from their home!

Up at the top of the Ponderosa was a large attic, reached by a pull-down ladder/stairs.  It was packed full of stuff, too, but the girls moved most of the stuff over to one side, and created for themselves a cozy, carpeted hide-a-way, where they spent lots of happy time.  Down in the main living room, Norma had set up a “coffee bar” and at noon time some of the high school kids would come by and have free coffee and whatever home-baked goodies were set out; other folks would also drop by for coffee.  Satomi was busy at the school during school hours, but in the afternoons and evenings, the Hills provided her with as many local “cultural” experiences as possible.  They also introduced her to “Canadian” and “Haida” food.  It turned out that her favorite discoveries were ketchup and pancake syrup.  The Hill kids watched in wonder as she poured the pancake syrup over her potatoes and the ketchup over her pancakes!  She made sure to buy some of each to take home to Japan with her!  She also treated the family to a few Japanese dinners – or at least as close to Japanese as she could make them with the ingredients available at Co-op.  She also brought lovely gifts for the family – Japanese tea cups, and other similar items.  The family was delighted!  Oh, one interesting thing that happened during Satomi’s time with the Hill’s was that her lap top computer, which had all Japanese characters, broke down.  The computer teacher at the High School could not fix it, and the school district office sent the district computer tech up to Masset to try and fix it, but he couldn’t either.  Satomi brought it home, quite worried, as all her notes, pictures, lesson plans and so on, were on the computer.  Taryn asked if she could have a look at it.  Satomi said “okay,” and Taryn pushed 3 or 4 buttons (all with Japanese characters) and the lap top sprang back to life, and worked perfectly.  Satomi was of course very happy, and told the principal at the high school what Taryn had done.  After that, whenever the school tech teacher and district techie person couldn’t solve a computer problem, they’d call Taryn and she’d go over and fix it for them!

Now a few months earlier, Lionel’s youngest sister Linnet Hill and two of her children, Joanna and David, had come back to Masset after some years spent in Newfoundland and Toronto.  Back in Masset, her lifelong friend, Ellis Edgars, starting hanging out with her again – and one day asked her to marry him.  And she agreed!  So the wedding was set for November, and Lionel was asked to walk yet another sister up the aisle!  The beautiful wedding was held at the Anglican Church in Old Massett, officiated over by Rev. Lily Bell, assisted by lay reader Marina Jones.  Bridesmaid was Linnet’s sister Rachel Hill, Best Man was Ellis’ dad Dean Edgars, flower girl was Joanna Hill, and ring bearer was David Hill.    The reception followed at the Old Massett Community Hall.  It was a happy, wonderful time.  Satomi was so happy to be able to attend a wedding which included both Canadian and Haida traditions.  (She also attended a church service in Old Massett, as the Hills were now attending church there instead of at the Pentecostal in New Masset, and Norma was Sunday School teacher for an average of about 35 children each Sunday afternoon for a couple hours.  Over time, about 100 different children, from babies through 12 and 13 year olds, attended the Sunday School).

(While attending the Anglican Church, one Christmas Norma wrote a play based on the Huron Christmas song, “The Huron Carol,”  but she rewrote the lyrics of the carol to reflect Haida traditions, and the play was based on the song.  All the children of the Sunday School practiced for several weeks, and it was presented close to Christmas time, with the church packed with families and friends.  Sarah Davidson loaned her costumes, paddles, and other traditional items that she used for her Haida dance group (which the Hill children attended for a couple years), and the Sunday School children put on an amazing Christmas story production based on the Biblical story, but reflecting the way it might have been if Jesus had been born among the Haida people.)

(Another great thing about the Anglican Church in Old Massett is that many Sunday’s after church there would be a potluck dinner – with wonderful Haida foods of all kinds.  Also, there were sometimes “Church Army” meetings during the week at various homes, and every time there was a death or other tragedy in the village, the Church Army would go to the home every evening during the time, and have a meeting (songs, testimonies, prayers, preaching) and a lunch.  Also people would stay over with the family all through the difficult time so they were never alone.  It was wonderful!  It was real community.)

Meanwhile, back at the Ponderosa, Norma was still struggling to do the cleaning businesses by herself, keep the Ponderosa clean and ready for any guests that might some day turn up (it began to look like none ever would), teach her kids home school, carry on with community activities… and try to pay the monthly rent, which was almost impossible.  It also turned out that the big old house was incredibly drafty in winter, and the heat bills were hundreds of dollars each month as fall grew into winter.  What to do?

One night, close to Christmas time,  Norma was at the bank cleaning as usual, and she heard the village fire alarm, and then the fire trucks racing off to a fire.  But she kept on working.  No time to go out on the street to see what was happening.  Then about 15 minutes later, the bank manager rushed into the bank and said, “Did you hear the fire engines?”  “Yes,” Norma replied, “what’s burning?”  “The Ponderosa!” he exclaimed.  “You better head over there.  Don’t worry about coming back tonight.  You’ve done enough for this time.”  So Norma ran out the door, and ran the whole two blocks to the Ponderosa, where she could see a lot of smoke and a bit of flames, apparently at the back of the building.  When she got there, she was relieved to see her children standing safely out in the street.  They told her a passerby had seen flames and rushed in to tell them.

As it turned out, the hydro line from the pole in the back alley to the main part of the house had gone up in flames, and the flames had been spreading into the eaves of the house.  (The back apartment which was a later addition, and only one storey, had a separate electrical line, which was not affected).  The firemen made sure the fire was out, and checked through the eaves and attic very carefully.  Then the fire chief said he would have to call Hydro, as the main part of the house now had no electricity.  Since the Hill’s had no place to go, he said they could stay in the house for the night, but without power or heat, and would have to find another place to stay come morning.  In the morning the Hydro man and the fire chief came and looked the situation over.  The Hydro man checked right through the house, in the attic, in the crawl space underneath, and even dug into the walls in a couple spots, and was appalled by the old wiring system, which clearly had been done by an amateur.  He said it was the most unsafe system that he had ever seen, and that the house could not be hooked up to Hydro again until it was completely rewired.  He did say, however, that the people renting the back apartment could stay in there, as it was a separate addition with safer wiring.

Norma frantically spent the day trying to find a place for the Hill’s to move to, right before Christmas!  But there was no place to go.  However, one of the nurses at the hospital had a 3 bedroom house on Pine Crescent, but she had also just recently purchased a pair of cabins out North Beach direction, and she was planning to move out there at the beginning of January, and would be renting out the PMQ, so she told the Hill’s they could move in on January 1st, 1998.  Meanwhile, Norma had gone to talk to the lady who was Gwen’s contact person, and told her the situation with the house.  She phoned Gwen, and of course Gwen was not happy.  But clearly it was not the Hill’s fault, and since they could no longer live there, she had to accept the fact that the lease could not continue, as she did not want to upgrade the electrical.  Also, the Field’s store contract had run out in October  and they had already told her that it would not be renewed (Gwen had not mentioned this to Norma).  Then the bank’s contract was coming up, and the head office decided to handle the cleaning needs of their branches in a different way, so that contract was to run out at the end of the year.  (Gwen was not a bad person, but she was high strung, and very much an alternative kind of person… and this whole episode had been a huge learning curve for Norma, who tended to trust people and take them at their word).  But what would the Hill’s do through Christmas until the 1st?  Norma talked to the Fire Chief and the Hydro man, and they reluctantly agreed to rehook up the main part of the house, but the attic and upstairs rooms in the area next to the burned eaves could not have their power turned on, and the Hill’s would have to leave on January 1st, no matter what.

On Christmas eve, as the family was hanging their stockings, there was a knock at the door.  And there, in the dark, windy, blustery snow storm that had just whipped up that evening, stood a young Japanese man, Nomi, who had just arrived in town, and had not been able to find a place to stay on Christmas eve and day.  Norma actually finally had a real Bed and Breakfast guest.  So Norma welcomed him in, and he had a wonderful time spending a traditional kind of Canadian Christmas with the Hill family.  Since it was Christmas, of course the Hill’s did not charge him.  It seemed like an amazing “real Christmas” to Norma, with a “guest in the inn.”  Norma had so dreamed of running a successful Bed and Breakfast, but things had not turned out that way… but it seemed to her that at the last moment, the Baby whose parents had been turned away from the Inn, and He had thus been born in a stable, was giving her a great gift of sending a stranger “to the inn” on that special night that commemorates His birth.  Because of the situation, the Hill’s hadn’t done much decorating but there was a tree, and Norma encouraged Nomi to hang a stocking along with the kids.  Even the stockings were the usual Christmas stockings the Hill children hung each year, as Norma did not want to unpack any more boxes than necessary with the move coming up.  Instead, everyone just hung the biggest regular socks they could find around the house – mostly Lionel’s!  And next morning all the stockings were full, even though with the financial problems there weren’t many gifts under the tree that year.  But it was still Christmas – and for Norma, at least, a very special one indeed.  In some ways, she would look back on it as the most “real” Christmas of all!  The week between Christmas and New Years flew by, as the family packed up their things and prepared for the move.

On the morning of January 1st, 1998, Spence Stanyar came over with his truck, and his flat-bed trailer behind it, and the family loaded half of their goodsonto it, and drove over to their new home on Pine Crescent.  The nurse’s car was in the drive way, and they rang the bell, but no answer.  They peeked in the front room window – and it did not look as if she had done anything at all toward moving.  They rang the bell over and over again, but still no answer.  Finally, they unloaded the things they had brought, placing them in the snow on the front lawn, and went back to load up the other half of the items, including the piano, which obviously could not be left out in the cold very long.  And while they were there, they Hydro man came and turned off the power, so no way could they go back.  They went back to the house on Pine Crescent and again rang the door bell repeatedly.  Finally, the nurse came down the stairs from the bedrooms, and very blearily opened the door, and asked them what they wanted.  They reminded her that they had a rental agreement with her and that they had to move in that day.  She hemmed and hawed, and finally said that she’d been awfully busy and hadn’t even thought about starting to pack.  Finally she said they could move their things off the snowy lawn and pile them up in her living room (after they moved her furniture out of the way).  And she said that it would be at least two weeks before she’d be ready to move, so they would just have to stay in her cabins out on the beach!

So the Hills carried their things into the living room and piled them high.  Norma rummaged through the boxes of clothes and pulled out enough to keep them going for the next couple of weeks.  She also put the boxes of groceries into the car.  And then they drove out to the beach, wondering what on earth they were getting themselves into.  But it turned out to be a pleasant surprise – both cabins were winterized, warm and cozy, with electricity from a generator, and fully furnished.  Lionel decided that he, Norma and Peter would stay in the smaller cabin, and the 4 girls could stay in the larger one next door.  The cabins were connected by a wooden walkway.  The cabins sat in the woods at the edge of the sand dunes, and looked right out over the ocean.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, especially with the snow cover.  Lionel and some of the girls weren’t quite as thrilled as Norma was, because they liked being in town close to family, friends, stores, and such – and indeed, they drove into town every day.  The kids were also rather unhappy with the lack of computers!  (However, it did mean an extended holiday from home schooling!).   Norma, on the other hand, was delighted with the peace and tranquility.  She had been so very, very tired for so long – and now her dear Heavenly Father had given her a time and place of amazing quiet and peace where her emotionally and physically exhausted body would have time to rest and be healed.  She spent many happy quiet hours reading, walking on the beach, playing table games with the family (it reminded her of the days before computers!  lovely!), and sleeping many hours.  Sometimes Lionel would drag her into town with the family for grocery shopping, which was a bit disappointing to her, but mostly she stayed out at the beach in the cabins.  And one evening Linnet, Ellis, David and Joanna came out for a visit, which was a lot of fun!  (And for the rest of her life, Norma would dream that someday she might end up actually living in a little cabin on a beach somewhere!)

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Masset fall 1996 to October 1997

April 23, 2009 by nlhills

While Lionel was busy out in logging camp at Eden Lake, Norma and the kidlings were busy pursuing home schooling adventures at home.  And since Lionel took the camera out to camp, Norma didn’t get any photos of those first days!  This was likely just as well, as the kids threatened mutiny by the end of the first day.  Knowing pretty much nothing about home schooling, but plenty about school schooling, Norma had purchased some old school desks, and set up a school room in the living room, complete with a teachers desk, a carefully drawn up schedule, and even a bell to mark the end of each class period.  As a matter of fact, the only thing about the whole situation which did impress them (and actually wasn’t even there until a few weeks later) was that the QCDTA school district had just signed on as a satellite EBUS district, to provide educational services to home schooled children on the islands (who previously had mostly taken lessons through BC Correspondence – particularly a number of families who lived out in very remote locations).  Part of the “package” was up-to-date computers with a wide variety of educational software for each student – and a promise that they would hook the homeschooled families up to the internet later in the fall as soon as it was available.  Meanwhile, at the end of the first day (or more likely at then end of the first “class,”  the Hill children announced that if they were going to have to do “school at home” they might just as well go back to school.  Norma was shocked, and rather frustrated, as she had just spent the majority of her time that summer setting up schedules, lesson plans, unit plans, etc etc etc for the whole year for the 5 grades her children were in – Peter grade one through Taryn grade nine.

However, the children were so determined that Norma pretty much dismissed the children for the rest of the first week of school, much to their great joy, and went to the library to see what she could find out about home schooling.  She found a couple books at the local branch, and ordered in every other book she could find in the Vancouver Island Regional Library system (which also served Haida Gwaii).   (She also put in an application as a librarian-on-call at the public library, and was hired.  Although overall the work was off and on, mostly off, when the librarian Mrs. Gee was on holidays or ill (rarely), the library system decided to renovate the library, and Norma was offered many hours of work clearing off the shelves, and then putting the books back once the library renovation was complete!  She was also called in from time to time when there was a need for a complete shelf read.)

Anyway, the ordered books started coming in within a couple of days (the service was actually amazingly fast most of the time) and Norma spent hours and hours poring through the books, learning a great deal about many different ways of home schooling – ranging from very traditional “school at home” complete with text books, regular exams, traditional report cards, carefully laid out curriculums (secular or religious) which were to be followed to the smallest details – to “unschooling” in which children were simply allowed to “follow their hearts,” and would, when they found something that really interested them, be motivated to learn all the related skills that they would require to follow their passion!  There was Charlotte Mason, and Cultural Literacy; Waldorf and Montessori, Multiple Intelligences and Programmed Instruction, Principle Approach and Worktexts, Classical Education and Eclectic Approach… and more.  Norma was totally amazed!  As she read and took notes, she realized that many, many of the “problems” she had faced in teaching in the public school system, could have been solved if only she had known about these different approaches, which obviously suited children with different learning styles and situations – assuming of course that teachers had the time to individualize for each student, which she could see would be a major obstacle in a class of 25 or 30 students!

Meanwhile, Norma did feel guilty about not educating her children, so she was relieved when the district brought the new computers by, and the kids were at least able to start the Successmaker educational software.  This worked fine for the 3 middle children, but there really wasn’t anything at Taryn’s high school level, or for Peter, who could not yet read.  Taryn was fine, though, because she’d happily spend endless hours buried in library books, and Peter was happy to be read to and take part in discussions and do anything hands-on!  And it didn’t take him long to figure out how to use many of the programs by looking at the pictures and extrapolating from there, with a bit of help from his sisters reading to him when needed.  Computers were second nature to him, as he could not remember a time when they hadn’t been part of his life!  Norma also discovered that there were many companies offering an incredibly wide variety of home-school materials, and she ordered a catalog and started ordering things.  And when the family got internet in mid-fall, she signed up for several home-school email lists, where she soaked up practical (and theoretical) information from home schoolers all over the world – some of whom she would continue to be in contact with even when her children were grown!  It was an amazing on-line community, and Norma was hooked!

Eventually Lionel brought the camera home from logging camp, and so our story continues!  Since his daddy no longer needed his Commissionaire’s uniform, Peter liked to have fun dressing up in it to look like Daddy.  He looked handsome in uniform too!  And he decided it would also be a good Hallowe’en costume, so Norma snapped a picture of Peter and his sisters in their outfits as well.  The older girls decided to get dressed up for Hallowe’en too, and bought some blue hair color, which they shared with their friends too.  However, the haircolor was the extent of their costumes – but that didn’t stop them from trick-or-treating!

The girls didn’t do all their schooling at home.  Some of the younger ones continued to attend Haida language classes at Tahayghen, although they were also learning Haida by going to Haida language family dinners and Nonnie Ethel Jones came to the house to teach them as well.  One day she was teaching Peter various words, and she spotted one of his stuffed toys, which happened to be a cow!  She named it: “missmoose” (no idea of the spelling!).  Peter said, “No, it’s a cow!”  She replied, “Yes, missmoose.” Peter insisted, “No. Cow!”  She started laughing.  Turned out Peter thought she was calling the cow “Miss Moose” but really she was trying to teach him the Haida word!  Some of the kids, especially Robyn, also took Phys Ed over at the school.  Taryn became concerned about her science learning, as the family did not have “lab” equipment at the house, so she went to the school to see if she could get into a science class.  They suggested she check out the Learning Center, as it had high-school level courses, including science courses with “virtual experiments.”  The Learning Center teacher wasn’t sure what level to put Taryn in, as she hadn’t been taking a formal “science course” in home school, so she suggested Taryn take a final exam for the grade nine science course, which would supposedly show what units Taryn needed to work on.  When Taryn scored about 98% on the entire course, the school decided to just give her credit for the course.  After that, Taryn started  to take some other work at the Learning Center as well, and got advanced credit in other areas.  She had learned the material on her own with all her library reading!  Since she was above her grade level in almost everything, Norma allowed her to continue to study in her own way, and Taryn started really exploring the computer.  Before long, she was teaching herself html and website design, and creating her own websites – from scratch, including all the code.  Norma was really amazed to see what Taryn was doing, and asked Taryn to teach her.  But Taryn found mom awfully slow and frustrating, so she found a free on-line html and website design course and signed Norma up.  Norma just loved it, and before long had finished the course and designed her own website.  Over the years, the website evolved (with help from Taryn when coding got more and more complicated, and Norma had trouble with it).  As of this writing, the reader of this missive can check out the current state of the website (which Norma should really update! oh dear!) at www.geocities.com/norma.hill   …  There is a section on Home School and education, much of which Norma developed in the home schooling years, and samples of some of the home school activities such as the nature walks which became an important part of the Hill family science experience.  There are also examples of the “Parent Educator Newsletter,” which Norma began to produce for the growing number of home school families in the community.  And even copies of a couple of the pages from the original website design course that Norma took, at http://www.geocities.com/norma.hill/family/playing01.html and http://www.geocities.com/norma.hill/family/playing02.html .  So you can see that home schooling was as much – maybe far more! – of an education for the “teacher” Norma, as it was for her five students!

Since the girls weren’t attending regular school, they felt that they were missing out on “social life” and to make up for this sad lack, they hosted a lot of sleepovers!

November brought another birthday for Lionel, his 44th, and again Dave and Lois Zimmerman and family came to help him celebrate.  In the picture one can see some of the home school maps (the large one of Canada was colored by the kids; there is also a large Haida Gwaii map, and a wide variety of samples of their projects, as well as Haida words and phrases which the family was learning).

Now the Hill girls were getting into their teenage years, and beauty became a bigger concern.  For example, at one point Sarah purchased a green cream which she smeared all over her face to give her beautiful skin.  She looked very beautiful indeed!

Christmas soon arrived, and the children hung their stockings.  Whereas in the past this was always a happy event for all concerned, it seemed that as the kids got older, some of them were less than enthusiastic about having the annual stocking picture taken!

Norma only insisted that the children do “learning activities” in the mornings – if they could show her that they’d been doing a fair amount of activities, they were free to do whatever they liked (within reason, of course) in the afternoons.  All of the girls enjoyed crafts and sewing, and they also developed an interest in “interior decorating.”  Since the house was less than fancy, and there wasn’t a lot of money for such things, the girls had to be creative indeed.  Taryn’s walls were covered with pictures from fashion magazines (which she had developed a great interest in while at her Auntie Marilyn’s the previous summer) and she had turned her bed area into a “tent” like cocoon where she could really have her own private space.  In fact, as the girls became teenagers, they all wanted their own bedroom.  This was a bit of a trick in a family with mom and dad, and five children – and a 3 bedroom house!  However, again creativity ruled.  The “family room” downstairs was divided into two bedrooms, and the dining room became a third – so everyone had their own space, even if they were only separated by curtains and bookshelves!

January 1997 brought another birthday for Sarah – her 13th.  Being such an auspicious birthday, it is certain that Sarah had a number of friends over to help her celebrate, but alas, Norma only ended up with a couple of pictures.  Perhaps Sarah has some that she would like to donate to the worthy cause of this story, hint, hint!  Or perhaps Norma needs to dig into that box of negatives…

Once again there was a gap in the photos as Lionel took the camera out to logging camp again.  The camera was back by the end of February, and Norma got some interesting pictures of the kids and their friends!  And then another momentous (well, sort of!) event – Peter was losing his baby teeth, and gained his first new grown up tooth!

Of course the Hill house frequently had company still.  Auntie Kathy Bell liked to come over and play solitaire on the computer.  And one day Gerry and Beatrice Eppinga came by to visit, and brought “Nonnie Cool” Dixon along as well! Also, in February, the family had Auntie Rachel over for her birthday.

Now a peculiar thing happened, photo wise.  The last time Lionel had taken the camera out to camp, he had taken a bunch of photos (the first few on the roll taken at home before he left) – and when the roll was finished, removed it from the camera.  Another roll was put in, which the family of course used up.  Then the kids were looking for a new film, and picked up the one which Lionel had already used, but when he had rewound it, it hadn’t rewound completely into the film canister, so they assumed it was an unused roll, placed it in the camera, and took another set of pictures.  Needless to say, the results, a combination of logging pictures and family pictures, were interesting, to say the least!  But since there were some “special” moments, a few of these pictures will be included.  One example is Lionel with a Mohawk.  At some time in the past, Bob Berge had taught Norma how to do basic hair cuts, and she regularly cut Lionel’s hair.  The girls were watching, and Sarah, who had already decided to become a hair dresser some day, took every chance she could to practice.  So she offered to cut her dad’s hair – and he ended up with a Mohawk!  Of course pictures must be taken – and then the Mohawk must be removed, Sarah!  There were also pictures of the kids home schooling, Wendy with a broken arm (again!), various friends (including an interesting shot of Sarah Lavoie overlaid by a shot of a deer with an impressive rack), and Sarah’s 13th birthday!  Oh!  Well, that explains the lack of pictures for Sarah’s 13th birthday!

March brought Peter’s 7th birthday – and what a crowd!  Besides his sisters, there were Eli and Josiah and Bethany and Laisha Bernard (the new pastor’s children from the Pentecostal Church), Ambrose and Kyle and Chelsea and Vanna Collison, Tyler and Niko York, Alex Biron, and a couple other kids as well!  Hocus Pick! (oh! Before the Bernards, the Pentecostal pastors were the Nasserden’s, and before that another family with several kids…).  And then, after the kids party was over, some of the relatives came over – Rose Robinson, Rachel and Bob Berge, and maybe others!

June brought Haida Grad, and Sarah was one of the grade 7 grads.  June also brought Robyn’s 12th birthday – and again her birthday pictures are missing!  Hmm… will really have to dig into the negatives, unless someone (I wonder who) has copies they’d like to send me, hint, hint!

Then it was summer holidays, and Norma was busy snapping pictures of daily family life – kids, house, and yard Including Norma’s beautiful back and front gardens and greenhouse!).  Some great shots and great memories! That summer the lettuce was amazing, at least a half dozen or more varieties, all of which grew so well, that Norma ended up with well over 100 plants – and using the cut-and-come-again method, they produced well all spring, summer, and even into the fall.  In fact, they produced so well, that local restaurants and bed-and-breakfast operators were coming over and buying lettuce (and other veggies) by the Co-op bag for $2 a bag!  A great deal for them, and it kept the lettuce picked regularly so that it didn’t have a chance to bolt – and produced some income for the family too!  The family also had a new puppy dog – Max # who knows?  He was a very cute black lab when he was small, but he grew quickly and was no longer so cute, especially when he kept digging up all Lionel’s rose bushes, gooseberry bushes, and so on, as well as digging his way out of the yard all the time, producing endless holes which Norma had to keep refilling!  She finally figured out that if she filled his holes with his doggie doo-doos, he’d quit digging!   Eventually the family gratefully parted ways with him – if Norma’s memory serves her correctly, he went to live with Henry Dix.  Sometime during these years, the family also had a German Shepherd (yet another Max), which they also parted with, and a sweet little dog named Fluffball, who was adorably cute, and everyone loved – including someone who loved him so much that they stole him!  The family was told later that he had been spotted living in Queen Charlotte City.  After all those dog disasters, Norma put her foot down and told Lionel “no more dogs!”  Especially since he always promised to take care of them – and they always ended up being Norma’s responsibility, including cleaning up their doggie-doos all the time, which she hated!

Wendy’s 10th birthday came in the middle of July, and her guests were her siblings and her cousin Elizabeth Hill.  All her other buddies were away on holidays.  A favorite summer activity was going over to Delkatla side to visit Spence and Adrienne at their trailer.  Peter and Wendy loved their swing as well!  Pouffy cat (Pirate) continued to grow, and was by now quite enormous, as pictures from this time period clearly show.  And dull summer days led to creative activities like fooling around in the bathtub in swim suits!  And then it was another birthday for Norma – her 42nd.  And after that was Taryn’s 16th birthday:  and all those pictures are gone, good grief!  Really, really need to get out that box of negatives!  And when the family weren’t over at Adie’s and Spence’s, they’d often be over at the Hills!  The kids adored Adrienne who always had time to do arts and crafts with them, and always encourage them so much, and play her mandolin; and they loved listening to Spence talk about incredible things like complicated theories about time and space, as well as watching him sketch house designs (he was an architect) as the family described their dreams of someday building a house of their own.  Lionel had been applying regularly for 18 years for a house in Old Massett, and having pretty much given up hope that he would ever be given a lot there to build on, he had asked for permission to at least build a cabin on Chinny Pete’s house spot out at Tow Hill, and was actually encouraged to do so.  Since the family had little money, and would not receive help from the band for a house out on that remote reserve, Spence was helping them design a compact but useful home, with a lower floor open living area, and a loft type sleeping area on the upper floor.  The problem was trying to figure out how they would have access to fresh water, and how they would manage without access to electricity.  At any rate, there was lots of dreaming going on, and many happy hours discussing and planning and hoping.

Meanwhile, at the big old house next to the Co-op store, which was known as the “Ponderosa,” and was owned by a lady Gwen, whose two younger daughters and her new young husband also lived with her, and also some room-and-board guys, and also bed-and-breakfast customers from time to time, there suddenly started to be a summer-long yard sale.  Gwen was a bit of a pack-rat:  no! actually she was an incredible pack-rat!  It was unbelievable how much stuff she had packed into the nooks and crannies of that big old house!  And she had decided to move to Belize as a missionary.  So she was selling as much of her stuff as she could, and looking for someone who would take over her bed-and-breakfast business, as well as her cleaning business (cleaning local stores and businesses).  Now Norma, all her life, had dreamed of living in a big old Victoria style home.  And in her home school explorations, she had discovered that a great many home school families had home-based businesses which not only helped support the family, but taught the children strong work ethic, business skills and other practical life skills.  So when Gwen asked her if she’d be interested in leasing the place for $1200 a month, which included the (as Gwen described it) very strong bed-and-breakfast business, and thriving cleaning businesses, which she assured Norma her children could participate in, no problem, Norma, being a lot of a dreamer, and also rather naive, jumped at the chance.  Gwen gave her a tour of the house, and Norma was rather appalled to see all the stuff piled everywhere; the kitchen was so full of stuff, for example, that Gwen was forced to use the tiny kitchen in a back suite.  But this was the beginning of August, and Gwen assured her she would have the place completely cleared out and cleaned top to bottom by the end of the month.  So Norma put the Hill’s house up for rent, and packed up their goods.  On September 1, the Hills borrowed a truck and moved all their things over to Gwen’s place – and when they knocked on the door, Gwen answered – and Norma, peering over her shoulder, realized that no way was Gwen ready for them.  In fact, Gwen started yelling at Norma, telling her she’d just have to go back to her own house for at least two more weeks (they had their travel tickets for mid-September, but of course she didn’t tell Norma that!).  Norma reminded her that she had told Norma the Hills could move in on the first, and already the new renters were at that moment moving in, so no way could they go home.  Gwen totally freaked out!  Fortunately, a friend of both Norma’s and Gwen’s happened to drop by just then, and intervened.  It was finally agreed that Gwen would move her family into the little back apartment for the next two weeks (she had told Norma it would be cleaned out and that Norma could rent it out to help pay the lease payments, starting immediately).  So Norma helped her move her stuff to the back, so Norma and family could move their stuff into the front.  It was a very uncomfortable situation!  And for the next two weeks Norma herself worked to clear out the enormous mess and piles of stuff, just to make enough room for the family.  There was no way to do bed-and-breakfast; in fact, Gwen had actually stopped doing it some time past, but hadn’t told Norma that, so there was no list of customers after all.  Then Gwen kept trying to change the lease contract, even though it had already been signed.  She wanted to charge more, she didn’t want Norma to rent out the back apartment, on and on it went, and because Norma refused to renegotiate the contract at that point, Gwen wouldn’t help clean up.  Norma was totally relieved when they actually left, but it took her another two weeks to finish cleaning the main part of the house.  Norma worked so hard every day (she was also doing the cleaning business) that she lost a good 10 pounds in the first 2 weeks (only weighing 105 to start with) and continued to lose weight even after that, so she was totally exhausted.  While Gwen and family were still there, Norma was not allowed into the back apartment (and Gwen had not showed it to her during the earlier “tour,” though she had spoken of it in glowing terms).  Finally, after they were gone, Norma went back there (Gwen having told her it was all cleaned up), and discovered that, number one, it was filthy, especially since they had basically been using it as a “dog house” for their pets for who knows how long, and second, all the cupboards were broken, it was full of broken furniture – and heaped high with piles more stuff.  It took Norma a full month to bring it up to basic livability, and even then the only people who would rent it were a couple who, well – had some serious addiction issues, shall we say.  All this time Norma had continued to also run the cleaning businesses, and was home schooling her kids.  She was totally wiped out.  And then one night, the bank manager came by while Norma and the girls were cleaning (he had not been by before when she was working there at night, but when she’d dropped into the bank during the day, he had always complimented her on the wonderful cleaning job she was doing).  And when he saw the girls helping, he asked who they were and their ages.  Norma told him they were her daughters and that they ranged in age from 11 to 16.  He told Norma then and there that she would have to send them home, and that they could not work there, because being a bank, they had special security issues, and their insurance required that all employees had to be at least 18 years old with proof of being bondable!  Norma told him that Gwen had told her there would be no problem with the girls working there.  He was really angry and said she knew perfectly well that wasn’t true, as she had had to hire adult workers herself.  Now Norma was really in a tough situation – though the girls were rather relieved not to have to work there, though they still helped at the Fields store once a week.  The bank did not pay enough for Norma to hire other workers.  What to do next?  The $1200 a month lease rate was based on a supposedly solid bed-and-breakfast business (which did not exist) and a cleaning business that supposedly could be a family business – but now Norma had to do it herself, though Lionel did lend a hand on the short periods of time he was home from camp.  One thing that saved Norma from totally going under in November was that a group of five Japanese teachers had come to Masset on a teacher exchange program, and needed places to stay.  The district had billeted one of them, Satomi, at Norma and Lionel’s place, and the payment was $1000 for the month – a great relief for Norma.  But Norma realized that she simply could not, physically, keep up the pace of home schooling and caring for her family in the daytime, working at night (not to mention she did not want to leave the kids alone every night), take care of the needs of Satomi and the other very rare bed-and-breakfast customers who very occasionally turned up for a night.  And here she was locked into a two-year contract.  She was at the end of her wits and strength.  She phoned her mom in tears, and her mom prayed with her, and then sent her the words to a song, the words of which Norma clung to during that difficult time:  “God will make a way, where there seems to be no way.  He works in ways we cannot see, God will make a way for me, God will make a way.”  When she wrote to Gwen and explained the problems she was having, Gwen sent back an angry letter, accusing her of being a terrible, lazy, useless person, and threatened legal action.

Meanwhile, Lionel was of course working out in logging camp most of the time.  In fact, he once again took the camera out with him, so the Hill family ended up with very little photographic record of that time at the “Ponderosa,” though they have lots and lots of logging camp pictures!

Oh yes – and one more complication!  Just days before the Hill’s moved into the Ponderosa, they received a phone call from the band office:  “We have approved you for housing in Old Massett.  Can you come down to the office right now?”  Lionel and Norma hopped into the van and went down.  They went into the band office, and the housing manager showed them a map with various empty lots indicated.  Lionel had always dreamed of a home along the beach, particularly hoping he could get his Chinny’s house, which his Chinny had actually left to him!  But while he was away in the army, the band “gave it” to a cousin of his – and he didn’t want to make a fuss and force that family out.  Now all the waterfront lots were spoken for, and he would have to choose a lot in the “new” section behind.  Lionel had almost decided on one of the lots the housing manager was showing him, when suddenly the manager said, “You know, we have two narrow lots in this cul-de-sac way at the back that we were planning to put trailers on, but we are thinking now that we’d rather not encourage trailers, so we’ve just decided to offer it as one large lot.  Would you like to see it?’ So he took Lionel and Norma over to look at it – and they were delighted.  It really was in a small cul-de-sac, which would only have about 3 or 4 other houses; it was indeed a large lot; and it backed onto forest which the manager said would not be developed for housing later.  It was so much better than living in one of the long rows of houses on the long streets that stretched the length of the village.  It even had a slope on the side which backed on the main street, which gave natural privacy from the many homes along that street!  Lionel was so happy!  But the Hill’s had already signed a two year lease contract at the Ponderosa.  Oh well, it was almost fall already, and no construction could start until well into next spring, so the Hill’s pushed their concerns out of their minds and happily signed an agreement for the property in the village, and soon Spence was sitting with them and helping them design the house of their dreams!

So now it was fall, the Hill’s were in the Ponderosa – and troubles were piling up, one on top of the other.  Would God really make a way?  Norma wondered… and prayed.

You’ll have to read the next chapter to find out what happened next!  Hint:  God is amazing!  His ways truly are not our ways!  And He does take care of His children in ways we cannot see or imagine!

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Masset, fall 1995 – summer 1996

April 22, 2009 by nlhills

In the spring of 95, there was a job posting at Norma’s school for a part-time teacher-librarian and accounting position.  She applied for the teacher-librarian job, but due to a big kafuffle, she only got one block out of the 3 blocks… and was told she would have to train the other people who got the other blocks (with no extra pay of course).   The teacher’s union backed her up (she was the only applicant with experience and training), and finally, she was offered two other blocks as well – a block of English 8 and a block of Social Studies 8.  So she spent much of her spare time in the summer preparing for those two courses.

September, then, was back to school.  And since Peter was now 5 years old, he was off to kindergarten.  Since he had been babysat last year by Laura McCuaig, and she volunteered regularly at the elementary school and took him along with her, he already knew the school well.  And Taryn was off to grade 8 – high school – the same school Norma was teaching in.  Taryn was happy that she didn’t get placed in any of mom’s classes; she was able to transfer out of Home Economics into Woodworking!  And she had a different teacher for grade 8 English and Social Studies.  Lionel, meanwhile, was still working as a Commissionaire.

That fall, an ongoing form of entertainment for some time, among the girls, was building playing card structures.  This went on for quite a while, and lots of the neighbor kids joined in.

Hallowe’en came, and all the kids – and Norma – dressed up for the day at school.  Norma dressed in Lionel’s old logging clothes, along with painting a beard on her face.  Pretty wild!

November brought Lionel’s birthday – and the Zimmerman family from Port Clements came to help celebrate.

Early December brought a big snow storm… and then Christmas eve, with the kids hanging their stockings.  Poofy cat got into the picture, and it is easy to see how big he was quickly getting!  And then Santa arrived during the night, and the kids lined up Christmas morning for their annual Christmas stockings picture.  At some point during the holidays, the family took a trip down to the other end of the island, and it is remembered by a picture of the van in front of the Co-op store at Skidegate!  Christmas holidays was a good time for visiting with family and friends, and pictures remind the family of visits from cousin Bruce Hill (with a good view of Norma’s re-decorated kitchen, including her collection of interesting tin containers), and the Alexander family.

January brought Sarah’s 12th birthday, with guests Deb and Jen Low, Vivian Davis, Dana Bellis, and Christina Edgars.  Mike Oeschlager and Dulcie Hill also dropped by.

Then there is a big gap in the family pictures.  The older girls were beginning to use the camera a lot – and often Norma didn’t have it handy to take snapshots.  And if the girls took snapshots, they wanted to keep them!  Of course, Norma does have most of the negatives.  Maybe someday she can go through them and “fill in the blanks”!

June brought Robyn’s 11th birthday – and her guests were ___ and Elizabeth Hill.  Maybe more… but some pictures are missing!  The picture also shows that Norma had by this time got her guitar that she’d wanted all her life!  Randy Williams picked it up for her in Vancouver (possibly the previous summer) and Norma right away took lessons from a local guitar teacher, who was living in Jeanne Crist’s house in Delkatla.  Norma loved those lessons!

Oh yes, in the fall of this school year, Tayahghen Elementary school had held some kind of special event, for which people had to line up outside the door, and pay for tickets as they entered.  Norma was standing with Peter, and in front of them was a student in Peter’s class, and his mother.  The kid, who was really big for his age, turned around, glared at Peter and Norma, and then spit – a big, wet, nasty spit – right on Norma!  His mother turned around, looked, and said to her little angel, “Now dear, turn around please.”  He grinned wickedly at Norma, and turned around.  Peter was furious!  And for the rest of the school year, Peter and his best buddy, Alex Biron, would beat up this kid every chance they got!  Both the boys spent a lot of time sitting in the office – but refused to back down, because “that nasty boy was mean to my mommy!”  The principal of course had to give them detentions, but confided to Norma that, first, he didn’t blame Peter and Alex, and second, that the kid, who bullied other students (and parents, apparently!) all the time, maybe had it coming!

This also reminds Norma that, when they first came back to Masset from Mission, there was a boy in grade 6 or 7 who was a big bully in the school yard, constantly picking on, hitting, calling down, and otherwise making other students’ lives miserable.  As the Hill girls were new to the school, he saw them as fresh fodder for his bullying ways, and was immediately going after all of them.  Taryn and Sarah tried to keep out of his way, but Robyn would have none of it.  When he came up and pushed her, she (being only in grade one or so) kicked him with all her might in a very tender spot – and he fell on the ground and started crying.  She stood over him and announced to him that if he ever picked on her or her sisters, she’d go after him again.  And after that he always stayed far away from the Hill girls!

May of course also brought “May Day” celebrations in Masset, and one of those years (this year or perhaps a previous one) Norma was asked to teach the May Pole Dance to whatever Tahayghen students wanted to participate in it.  There were a lot of enthusiastic students, but Norma quickly discovered that if this kind of activity was not a “required” activity – such as a classroom requirement – students would come if and when they pleased.  Over the weeks of practice, there must have been about 50 different students take part in the practices at various times… and on May Day Norma held her breath wondering how many and which students might actually show up to do the dance.  As it turned out, just enough students turned up, and the dance went along fairly successfully, considering the chaotic practice sessions preceding!

June also brought the Tahayghen Awards ceremony, and Norma was very proud, as her kids all got various awards.  Wendy received the Haida language award for her grade, Robyn received the top female athlete of grade 5 award, and Sarah also received a top award for her grade. Speaking of athletics, Robyn was very involved in sports, and was on the school track and field team, which went to the south end of the island for the district finals.  (Taryn had done the same the previous year).  Robyn also joined the local cross-country running club, and ran in a cross-country race out at the local golf course, coming first in the childrens category on an extremely wet, windy, blustery day, in which a great many of the participants actually dropped out of the race part way through!

A favorite family activity was walks out to Delkatla slough, and on one of their walks, they snapped some rather fuzzy pictures of deer feeding on the flats.  (In earlier years, there were always free range cows feeding there, which quite often wandered into town, and sometimes would wander into the Hill’s yard, feasting on Norma’s tender garden plants – and leaving lots of free fertilizer behind!  This “free range cows in town” tradition went way, way back, and in fact, when Norma was a baby in Masset, her mom would put her out on the porch in her buggy for her afternoon nap – and one day came out to find Norma surrounded by cows which had also wandered up on the porch!).

In the past few months, some of the teachers at the high school had been telling Norma that they thought she should consider moving south so her kids would have better educational opportunities, as they were starting to get into the high school years.  Norma and Lionel didn’t want to take them away from their culture and people, so Norma decided to try home-schooling in the coming school year.  Lionel had got a new job, logging for Husby Forest Products, in May, and would be away from home much of the time in the coming years, as he stayed with Husby until 2007!  A usual shift rotation was 4 weeks out in logging camp and 2 weeks home, usually with a month or two (or sometimes longer) break around Christmas time.  Sometimes in the early years, it was 6 weeks out and 2 weeks in.  Since Lionel would be gone so much, Norma also felt that it might be better for the children to have her at home more, and that since his wage would be quite a lot more than as a Commissionaire, the family could probably live on his one income, plus whatever Norma made on her little businesses (which now also included doing some bookkeeping for local small businesses.)

Taryn’s 15th birthday was in late July, but upon checking with her friends, she discovered that most of them would be off-island for that part of the summer, so she decided to have an early birthday party and sleepover at the end of June.  Here guests included Irene Collison, Holly St Amand, Suzanne Hogg, and Tiffany Lavoie.

As it turned out, the 1995-1996 school year had been a kind of tough one for Norma, though she also had many happy times and enjoyed teaching.  By the end of the school year, she was pretty exhausted, and Lionel decided she needed a break.  So he sent her, by plane, down to visit her parents for a couple weeks and try to get some rest.  He was at home with the kids for a week or so while she was gone, and then, when he had to go back out to logging camp, he hired a local lady to stay at the house and be a “nanny” for the kids until Norma got back!

After Norma got back, it was Wendy’s 9th birthday.  Her guests were all kids from the neighborhood – Tyler York, Kim, Caitlyn and Kyle Alexander, and of course her siblings.  The birthday pictures show the kids sitting on a wonderful new couch which the Hills had bought from the GMD Science teacher!  This summer was pretty much a stay-at-home holiday, and the kids had a wonderful time playing with their friends outside every day.  Peter was going through one of his “wanting to look like Daddy” phases, and very proudly wore his black vest which matched Lionel’s!  There was at least one off-island excursion that summer, as the one ferry picture shows – probably another visit to Prince Rupert for the carnival!  Back home, the kids had a great time hanging out in Grandpa and Grandma’s camper, when they came up to visit.  And of course they had a wonderful time having chinese food at the Villager – a regular treat from Grandpa when he came to visit!

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