To say that I have moved a lot would be an understatement. Nine different schools in thirteen years of public school and since then I have packed up my belongings too many times to remember. I moved to Beach Grove in Tsawwassen almost three years ago. The trajectory is both tragic and happy, somewhat of a rebirth.
My husband died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 50 after a two year brave struggle against the kind of cancer you never want to battle. Our children were 16 and 14. It was heartbreaking and life changing, but we survived and that was credit to my husbands strength of character under the most grave of circumstances.
After 4 years of picking up the pieces of my altered life I was blessed to meet the next love of my life. “I live in Beach Grove in Tsawwassen”, he said. Despite growing up in Vancouver I wasn’t familiar. “Oh I know it, that’s a traffic light you drive through on your way to the ferry terminal, I think you turn left”. I may have turned off Highway 17 once on my way to Point Robert’s in the fuzzy days of my partying youth, but Beach Grove, I’d never heard of it!
I remember following his directions to his Beach Grove Road home, turn left at the Shell station and can you pick me up some milk from the 7Eleven?” Forced to drive down 16th Avenue at 30K I had time to notice the beautiful golf course and follow the little streets with their majestic trees and assorted beach cottages and character homes. I could see the beach strand in the distance, what was this place? I discovered it was a little piece of paradise.
We had a long distance relationship, bookmarked by ferry terminals, I was living in Gibsons, he was in Tsawwassen. My job as host and producer at Coast TV was a dream position, but when a similar job opened up at Delta TV I jumped at the opportunity. It took a 5 ton truck and 3 weary men to bring my belongings across the water to a red wooden house across the street from Beach Grove Lagoon.
Building a new home in your 50’s with a new partner is not easy. It’s been a lesson in humility, generosity, and letting go. Not everyone understood that this was our new happiness.
My job at Delta TV demanded an immediate immersing in all things Delta. A geography that doesn’t make sense, it’s a community laid out by the political grid of practicality. From Burns Bog, to Boundary Bay, and Westham Island we covered it all in community TV and I soon became a fan. I noticed a familiar sense of pride in the community despite its busy border, ports, and terminals. Linked by farmland and lengthy highways Delta’s demographics, nationality and incomes include a spectrum of modern Canada, but there’s a fluidity that keeps it cohesive in its celebrations and festivals, sports, schools and politicians. Ah yes Politicians! I interviewed a few, current and past, and I was delighted that the majority of them revealed a sincerity and candor not often found in public office. But that’s another post.
Now as a freelancer and writer for hire I spend more time at home. But home is always where the heart is. Home is connecting to the natural beauty of your surrounding landscape, it’s your neighbors, your community. South Delta has all the natural ingredients. It’s also a fly way for beautiful North American birds. But unlike my feathered friends I won’t be migrating anytime soon, I plan to stay landed. I’m building a garden so I can feed the bees!
Ingrid Abbott is a freelance writer & broadcaster living in Tsawwassen, British Columbia. To follow her blog go to www.abbottwrites.wordpress.com
