Family

written by Susanne Pavyluk

Some of my earliest and fondest memories are of my grandmother teaching me what plant leaves I could use as toilet paper in an emergent bathroom situation in woods and my grandfather teaching me about limpets and humoring me as I collected the eyeballs of crabs that had dried up on the shore. I felt at ease and at home during those times.

My mom, grandparents and brothers and I would often spend weeks in the summer up in Comox on the beaches of the most northern parts of the Salish Sea. It was a time for connecting with family, laughing, swimming in tide pools, making imaginary friends out of drift wood and enjoying meals we caught or dug from the waters and sandy tide flats.

I also have early memories of my dad teaching me about the rich logging history in Whatcom County and the role that the fresh and salt waters here played in that industry as I helped him hang his old cross cut logging saws on the railroad tie retaining wall that he built in our back yard. I remember walking up and down Whatcom creek with my dad and my brothers to collect crawfish mostly just to release again. It wasn’t about what we could get from water it was just about doing something together. I felt safe and a part of something then.

These are the kinds of memories I want to build with my young family. My son is almost three now and he can navigate the beach logs as well as any of us. Recently he went kayaking for the first time with his great grandparents. My daughter is one and she jumped right into the Salish Sea shore waters, happy as a clam, for the first time early this Spring. What I see in them is the same joy and confidence that I can remember feeling back then. It’s the sense of ease and comfort you get from being in a place you call home with the people you call family.