READER'S DIGEST (Oktober 2021)

reader’s digest

Even today, I partake in my “obses- may as well enjoy the ring, so I took it
sion” (as some of my more charitable along and was delighted to see that it
family members call it) while walking looked beautiful on her hand. But my
the dog up and down Toronto’s Don daughter’s eyesight is far better than
Valley, a river park that spans from my own, and she soon noticed a tiny
Lake Ontario to the far north of the inscription on the inside of one of the
city. Among the numerous small bands that read, “Omar and Yoshi.”
objects I’ve picked up: a 1915 penny,
a silver pencil etched with the year Right away, she said she could never
1902 and a lead toy soldier from the feel comfortable wearing a ring that
First World War. was so obviously important to some-
body else. I had to agree and took the
In January 2019, a few days after an ring home, vowing to do whatever I
unusually heavy snowfall, I was trudg- could to track down this couple.
ing through the Don Valley as usual
with Luna, my loyal but somewhat BACK IN TORONTO, my son Cameron
bored golden retriever. Snow days are and I searched through years of wed-
not the best for treasure hunting, so I ding notices but there was nothing on
was surprised to see a glint of gold record for those two names, and so
beneath the snow near the bottom of a we began our deep dive into social
hill. I carefully extracted a ring of three media. We found hundreds of match-
entwined bands, emblazoned with a ing individual names, but never the two
Cartier logo. together. When something looked even
remotely hopeful, we messaged the cou-
I walked into the local coffee shop ple but received only apologetic, nega-
overlooking the hill to see if anybody tive responses. This was not their ring.
had reported lost jewellery. Sadly, they
had no news, so I headed home to Frustrated, I began to give up hope,
print up flyers to post around the then had one last thought: why not call
neighbourhood. I also tried a local Cartier stores in the city?
Facebook group.
Checking online, I saw there were
I waited and waited but nobody two Cartier stores in the Toronto area.
called to lay claim to my small treasure, I picked one at random and dialed. An
and having carefully hidden it from my understandably bemused gentleman
cat atop my tallest bookshelf, I even- listened to my story, went silent for a
tually forgot all about it. That is, until moment and then stated that the ring
many months later when my wife and was totally untraceable. He apolo-
I took a trip to Amsterdam to visit our gized, and I was about to hang up
daughter Katie, who was attending uni- when he suddenly asked if I had found
versity there. I figured that somebody a name on the ring. I told him just the

50 october 2021

first name, Omar. “Omar?” he said though, Yoshi slipped on the band and
excitedly. “Omar and Yoshi?” both men triumphantly held up their
left hands to show their matching rings.
Nearly a year earlier, two friends of Omar was originally from Colombia
his had mentioned losing one of their and Yoshi from Mexico. They had met
matching rings, but, since almost in Toronto and married the previous
nobody returns lost jewellery, he didn’t December at a small ceremony where
expect they’d ever get it back. He gave they gave each other these rings. Just a
me Omar’s phone number and I called few weeks later—after the first snow-
right away. I reached his voicemail and storm of winter—they decided to do
left a brief message about maybe finding something truly Canadian and bought
a ring. I waited impatiently for several a toboggan, carrying it to the steep
hours until I finally got the call I was hills of the Don Valley, right at the end
waiting for. Omar was overjoyed, and of my street.
asked if he and Yoshi could come by to
meet me first thing in the morning. Their first run was spectacular, fast
and very scary. As they pulled them-
I WAS SURPRISED selves up out of the snow at the bottom
TO SEE A GLINT OF of the hill, another toboggan smashed
GOLD BENEATH THE into the two, sending them cartwheeling
SNOW. I CAREFULLY across the field. They hobbled back up
EXTRACTED THE RING. the hill and straight to a hospital’s emer-
gency room department to set Omar’s
BRIGHT AND EARLY, there was a knock broken arm. It was only then that they
at my door and on my porch stood two discovered Yoshi’s new ring was miss-
handsome men in their 30s, with out- ing. Heartbroken to have lost it so soon
stretched arms and a bottle of wine. after their wedding, Omar went back
They came inside and we started stum- to the hill the next day to search, but it
bling over each other trying to tell our was hopelessly gone, or so it seemed.
respective stories. I explained how the
ring had travelled to Europe and back, I now have a great photo of the three
and only because of that trip had we of us in my house, with our arms
discovered their names. I showed around each other’s shoulders and their
them the signs I had put up and how hands raised to show off the rings. We
we had searched for them in vain. stay in touch and, honestly, I can’t
imagine a more quintessentially Cana-
Before I could hear their story, dian love story.

© 2020, DOUGLAS LAWRENCE. FROM “A TOBOGGAN,
A LOST RING—AND ONE VERY CANADIAN LOVE STORY,”
BY DOUGLAS LAWRENCE, FROM THE GLOBE AND MAIL
(FEBRUARY 13, 2020), THEGLOBEANDMAIL.COM

rd.ca 51

reader’s digest

AS KIDS SEE IT

“I can still see you sticking your tongue out at me.”

Our nine-year-old con- his pillow the following carve “I love you” on YASIN OSMAN
ducted an experiment day. Eventually, he the side of their car.
to prove the tooth fairy confronted us with his
isn’t real. When he lost scientific evidence. — REDDIT.COM
a tooth, he kept it under
his pillow and told no — @ROGUEDADMD My five-year-old daugh-
one for three days. No ter is convinced she has
money. Then, when he My daughter wanted to a superpower.
told us he lost his tooth, show her grandparents
there was money under how much she loved The superpower is
them, so she decided to that she can smell ants.

— @PRO_WORRIER_

52 october 2021

The family dog, Dooley, My six-year-old, when I told him to go play:
was about to celebrate I don’t want to play. I don’t have imagination.
his 11th birthday. Our Imagination is boring!
five-year-old grandson
suggested that a frisbee — ARIANNA BRADFORD, writer
might be a good gift,
but we pointed out that A few weeks ago, I tried can’t come,” he told our
Dooley was now a to bore my three-year- mom. “I want security
senior citizen and too old to sleep by telling at the door.”
old for one. him everything I knew
about nuclear and par- He’s in kindergarten.
“Don’t worry,” our ticle physics.
grandson said. “It says, — @AVENEET_G
‘ages five to 12’ right on Every night since
the box.” then, however, as he’s I have curly hair. One
falling asleep, his little day, while on a video
— SALLY ROPER, voice pipes up: “Tell me call with my daughter,
about atoms again.” her three-year-old son
Etobicoke, Ont. appeared behind her.
— @DETLY Looking at me, he
I smoked an eight- thrust both his hands
pound pork shoulder One evening, my nine- into his mom’s hair
for nine hours because year-old daughter was and made a mess of it.
my kids said they’d watching a hockey game Then he said, “Mom!
eat it. Five minutes with my husband. Half- Now you look just like
before it was done, they way through the game, grandma!”
said they wanted hot she turned to me excit-
dogs instead. edly and said, “Mommy, — PAULA GOODMAN,
can we adopt a goalie?
— TOM VANHAAREN, reporter That one only costs $31.” Oakville, Ont.
She was referring to his
My five-year-old didn’t jersey number. My toddler is having a
want to take a bath last tantrum because,
night, so I told her the — SARAH TIESSEN, apparently, “the bath is
bathtub was filled with too wet.”
“special birthday water” London, Ont.
and this was her only — @LOTTIE_POPPIE
chance to experience it
until her next birthday. My little brother invited Send us your original
I’ve never seen her get his entire class to his jokes! You could earn $50
in the bathtub faster. birthday party, except and be featured in the
his ex-girlfriend and her magazine. See page 7 or
— @SNARKYMOMMY78 new boyfriend. “She rd.ca/joke for details.

rd.ca 53

HEALTH

HOW ONE TINY BUG BECAME
A THREAT TO OUR HEALTH

BY Stephanie Nolen FROM THE WALRUS

54 october 2021

reader’s digest

Some experts predict
as many as 10,000 new

cases of Lyme disease
each year in the 2020s.

reader’s digest

WHEN the ticks quickly, by species and by (PREVIOUS SPREAD) STEVEN ELLINGSON/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
KATIE CLOW gender, based partly on the appear-
ance of their hard outer shell, called a
arrives in her windowless lab at the scutum, and sometimes by the shape
Ontario Veterinary College, in Guelph, of their protruding mouthparts.
she often finds a pile of envelopes. Each
one contains a slip of paper and a small Once identified, the ticks go under
plastic vial or two. The paperwork lists the knife. Ticks that were found and
the name of a veterinary clinic some- removed before they had time for a
where in Canada and the identifying long feed are smaller than a water-
details of someone’s pet: a six-year-old melon seed and nearly as crunchy;
golden retriever in Moncton, a four- they resist the scalpel. But the engorged
year-old tabby in Victoria. ticks, the ones that had a hearty blood
meal, can be swollen up like stewed
Inside each corresponding vial is a cranberries. Cutting them is more like
tick—or several—plucked from the carving a soggy M&M. Clow and her
body of that pet and mailed in for team marinate the chopped ticks in
research. Clow, a 34-year-old assistant chemical reagents, then run them
professor of veterinary medicine with through a process that extracts the DNA
expertise in epidemiology and ecol- in the bug hash.
ogy, opens the vials and tips the rigid
bodies of the arachnids into a petri There are two main types of genetic
dish. The ticks are stored in the fridge material they are looking for in black-
until Clow, whose students call her legged ticks, known by the scientific
the Tick Queen, has time to sit down name Ixodes scapularis, including
with a box of them. She can identify Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that
causes Lyme disease, which causes
fever, fatigue and joint aches and is a
growing public health problem. There
were a preliminary 2,636 cases reported
to the Public Health Agency of Canada
in 2019, the last year for which data is
available, and the agency speculates
that cases are underreported, predict-
ing as many as 10,000 new cases each
year in the 2020s.

Lyme rates are surging because the
ticks that spread it—I. scapularis, pre-
dominantly—are rapidly expanding
their range. I. scapularis is no bigger

56 october 2021

than a poppy seed when it does most morning. I have picked up an adult
of its damage, but this particular tick is female blacklegged tick. A short while
emerging as an outsized threat. “The later, Clow finds a tick on her own
sky seems to be the limit for them,” blanket and is equally pleased: you’d
says Robbin Lindsay, a research scien- never guess that she has encountered
tist at the National Microbiology Lab- 10,000 ticks in her professional life.
oratory in Winnipeg. “They are taking She identifies it—another I. scapu-
over the reins as the number one vec- laris—then gently sets it down on a
tor of pathogens to humans.” leaf so I can have a good look. The tick
immediately scooches to the end of
Climate change has made much of the leaf and begins to wave its front
the most populated part of Canada an legs back and forth.
ideal habitat for many species of ticks.
In the early 1970s, there was just one THE TICKS
known colony of blacklegged ticks in THAT SPREAD LYME
Canada, at Long Point, on the north
shore of Lake Erie. By the 2000s, the DISEASE ARE
tick was being found all over southern RAPIDLY EXPANDING
Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba and the
Atlantic provinces. Today they’re march- THEIR RANGE.
ing steadily west from Manitoba on
their eight tiny legs.

ON A COLD GREY AUTUMN afternoon “Ooh,” Clow croons. “She’s questing!”
in 2019, Katie Clow takes me into the A questing tick waits at the end of a
woods, an hour’s drive from Guelph, blade of grass or leaf, with its legs out-
to drag for ticks. She equips me with a stretched, tracking the changes in heat
white hazmat suit, seals off my ankles and CO2 that signal something bite-
with duct tape and hands me a white able is walking by, poised to jump
flannel blanket taped to a metre-long aboard. A tick can live for a couple
stick. Then we set off into the under- years without feeding. But, like video
brush, dragging the blanket awkwardly game vampires, they need blood to
over brambles. After about an hour in level up and move between stages of
the forest with Clow, I stop and, right the life cycle. They start out as eggs,
near the top, heading with surprising which hatch into larvae. When the lar-
speed for the handle I see—something? vae have fed on something small, they
“Katie,” I ask, “is this a tick?” drop back to the ground and moult,
becoming nymphs. As nymphs, they
Clow hurries to me, leans in for a develop that last set of legs and can, at
look and lights up like it’s Christmas

rd.ca 57

reader’s digest

this stage, host many pathogens. When from his home, in Halifax. A 49-year-
the next blood meal happens, typically old architect, Stotts goes with his bud-
off a larger creature, they are able to be dies every year, and they always take
infected with bacteria or viruses—and on a project and learn a new skill. Last
to pass them on. fall it was filmmaking, and Stotts spent
much of the weekend crouching and
It’s a risky requirement, this need to lying on the forest floor as he filmed.
feed on an exponentially larger and He thought his film turned out pretty
faster-moving host, when you’re a tiny, well, and when he was back in his
slow-moving creature. But ticks have home office on Monday, he was feel-
found a range of ways to navigate that ing good about things.
risk. A tick can coat its body in its own
saliva, a liquid salty enough to pull Until he went to pee.
moisture from the atmosphere. That
is sustenance enough to go for those A TICK’S OWN SALIVA
months—or years—while it’s waiting CAN KEEP IT GOING
for a meal. FOR MONTHS—OR

When it does attach, the saliva also EVEN YEARS—
helps it stay on your body. Among the WITHOUT A MEAL.
3,500 proteins identified in the saliva of
various ticks, some stop the molecules And there, on the end of his penis,
from carrying a pain signal, while oth- was something small and black. He
ers are vasodilators, to get the blood headed to the medicine cabinet for
flowing, or anticoagulants, to keep it tweezers. He knew the procedure: he
from clotting. Some proteins stop the had to make sure he got the whole tick
histamine response, which would make out, including the head and mouth-
the bite itch and clear a path for immune parts. Using Google, Stotts quickly con-
cells to reach the site. And, because the firmed that his new companion was I.
tick needs to keep feeding for days— scapularis. He kept the tick and headed
keeping your immune system inhib- to a walk-in clinic, wondering if the
ited—it changes up the protein com- tick should be tested for Lyme dis-
position of its saliva, like a dash into a ease. When he told the nurse what
phone booth for a new disguise. had happened, the response was not
what he expected.
TICKS LIKE THEIR tissue soft and thin,
as Eric Stotts can tell you. In October “Well, that’s the second one I’ve had
2019, Stotts went on a guys’ weekend this week,” the nurse told him.
to a cabin near Port Mouton, on Nova
Scotia’s south shore, a couple of hours

58 october 2021

KALDARI/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS The doctor Stotts saw did not send TICK
the tick for testing: at this point, the PROTECTION
protocol in Nova Scotia is to prophy-
lactically treat anyone likely to have Keep yourself, your pets and
been exposed to Lyme disease. Stotts your loved ones safe
swallowed “horse pill” antibiotics for
two weeks and sent an email to all the ■ Wear light-coloured clothing
guys who had been with him that week- when hiking. It makes the little
end, warning them to do a tick check. bugs easier to spot.
(They were all tick-free.)
■ Wear socks and closed-toe
Even a decade ago, when Stotts boots or shoes. Tuck your long-
started going on those weekends away, sleeved shirt into your pants and
there were only a handful of tick popu- your pants into your socks.
lations in Nova Scotia; now, the region
south of Halifax is the second-biggest ■ If you’re super worried, buy
source of mail-ins for Clow’s pet-tick some permethrin-treated clothing.
study. There is a lot of debate among
scientists about why the tick habitat ■ Use a repellent that contains
keeps expanding, but climate change DEET or icaridin. Spray over your
figures in almost every hypothesis. clothes and exposed skin.

Of all the environmental factors that ■ Do a tick check on yourself,
affect the size of tick populations, tem- your pets and any kids who are
perature is the most important. Shorter, with you. Make sure you check
warmer winters are good for ticks’ life everywhere—particularly your
cycles. It’s not that they freeze in win- scalp, groin, navel, the backs of
ter (so long as they’re hunkered down your knees and behind your ears.
in the leaf litter). Rather, when it’s
colder, a tick takes longer to quest and ■ Before washing your gear, place
is slower to move through each stage it in the dryer on high heat for at
of the life cycle—so a greater propor- least one hour.
tion of them die before the cycle is
completed. At the same time, milder ■ Try to avoid contact in the first
winters mean that migratory birds are place! Stick to the centre of hiking
nesting progressively further north, trails and avoid places with high
transporting ticks with them. grass and leaf litter.

Back in the 1980s, when Lyme dis- ■ Ask your veterinarian about
ease was emerging as a serious public tick-bite prevention for your
health problem in the U.S., some data dog or cat.

rd.ca 59

reader’s digest

suggested that most of Canada was too for any known strain of the disease.
cold to have to worry about the black- McLean realized it must be a new virus,
legged tick; research confirmed this and the closest comparison he could
again in the early 2000s. But that’s no find was an infection that was trans-
longer the case. “Every year, we see mitted by ticks in Russia. So McLean
this creep northward,” Clow says, picked up a gun and drove to the Byers’
“where sites that didn’t have ticks the farm. They killed squirrels, chipmunks,
year before are now positive.” rabbits and other mammals and har-
vested any ticks they found. Sure
ON A SEPTEMBER DAY in 1958, four- enough, some of the animals also had
year-old Lincoln Byers was in the barn the mystery virus.
on his family’s farm, 12 kilometres west
of Powassan, Ontario, when his broth- Eventually McLean concluded that
ers noticed he seemed ill. He was soon Lincoln had likely been bitten by an
rushed to the Hospital for Sick Children infected tick while holding dead squir-
in Toronto. When he got there, Lincoln rels his brothers were skinning. News-
was feverish but with no obvious cause papers later ran alarmed stories, but
of illness. Two days later, he was fading Lincoln’s death remained a tragic
in and out. On the fourth afternoon, he exception. By 2009, fewer than 50 cases
stopped breathing and was placed on of what came to be called Powassan
a respirator. He died two days later. virus had been reported anywhere.
That, Clow says, makes for an interest-
RECENTLY, A NEW ing epidemiological mystery: the virus
JERSEY WOMAN is clearly circulating somewhere in the
FOUND MORE THAN wild, being passed from ticks to mam-
1,000 TICKS ON HER mals and back again, often enough that
ARMS AND CLOTHING. there are these rare infections. It isn’t
just I. scapularis that’s spreading, either.
His devastated parents gave permis- In August 2017, a woman in New Jersey
sion for an autopsy. Donald McLean, was shearing her pet sheep when she
a virologist at the hospital, cultured frag- discovered ticks. And not just a few: by
ments of Lincoln’s brain and injected the time she made it to her local public
the product into mice, which devel- health department, she had more than
oped signs of acute encephalitis— 1,000 ticks on her arms and clothing.
except the mice didn’t test positive There, entomologists struggled to
identify the ticks—they didn’t look
like anything local—and eventually
Rutgers University scientists had to
use DNA to establish that they were

60 october 2021

Haemaphysalis longicornis, the Asian though, the sickest I’ve ever been. I
longhorned tick. It is native to Japan, never again went into long grass or
Korea, China and far-eastern Russia. paddocks in tropical countries without
dousing my legs with DEET. Yet I didn’t
In Asia, it is a source of serious ill- take the same steps when I was back in
ness, including a hemorrhagic fever Canada—not until Katie Clow took
called Huaiyangshan banyangvirus, me tick dragging. She thinks about the
which is fatal for up to 30 per cent of campaigns that have, in her lifetime,
those who catch it. H. longicornis was persuaded people to use seat belts,
the first invasive tick species found quit smoking and wear sunscreen, and
in the United States in 80 years. Clow she wonders how long it will take for
and Lindsay say it’s only a matter of the change to come with ticks.
time until it is discovered in Canada.
Since my day in the woods with
IN 2004, I WAS LIVING in South Africa Clow, the Canadian forest trails I have
and travelling for work across the walked since I was a child feel differ-
continent. One day I developed a ter- ent. In the woods these days, I get the
rible fever; a crusty black scab, about occasional cold prickle on the back of
five centimetres in diameter, on the my neck. It’s not the sense that bears
back of my left calf; and lymph nodes or wolves might be watching me. It’s
as hard as stone. A succession of doc- not the fear of getting lost in the cold.
tors diagnosed me with everything It is the knowledge that there are thou-
from a spider bite to cutaneous anthrax sands upon thousands of tiny hunters
before an acerbic elderly South African who can sense my breath and who
medic surveyed me in a hospital bed are waiting, poised at the end of a long
and said, “Rickettsia africae. Good old blade of grass, their front legs out-
tick-bite fever.” stretched, for me to come close.

I recovered from Rickettsia africae ©2020, STEPHANIE NOLEN. FROM “INVASION OF THE
after 48 hours on antibiotics. It remains, TICKS,” THE WALRUS ( JULY 21, 2020), THEWALRUS.CA

Get in the Groove

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.
It’s about learning to dance in the rain.

VIVIAN GREENE

Dancing is like breathing—
missing a day doing either is very bad.

VERA ELLEN

rd.ca 61

LIFE LESSON

Remind
Your How to navigate friends,

family and social outings
in a vaccinated world

Manners

BY Karen Stiller I had to bite my tongue to avoid blurting
“I don’t want to speak with you.”
illustration by vesna asanovic
Luckily, I didn’t say it out loud, and
at a recent socially distanced gather- the rude thought stayed in my head
ing, I found myself in an unwanted where it belonged. The encounter
conversation with a person I barely made me realize that spending so
knew. With my actual friends standing much time wandering listlessly around
on the same lawn, the idle chit-chat my own tiny household bubble had
felt like a waste of my visiting time and eroded my social skills. I wondered
energy. I grew increasingly hot and if my manners were also becoming
twitchy. Soon, to my deep surprise, a  relic of the past, just like eating
indoors at restaurants and nights out
at the movies.

62 october 2021

reader’s digest

reader’s digest

Many of us may be feeling similarly long conversation in a room full of
rusty as we prepare to open our homes people. “We need to relearn those
and our hearts again to family, friends in-person social skills,” says Ismail.
and neighbours. It’s an exciting time, “It’s a lot for the brain to coordinate,
but also a good moment to reflect on knowing who to listen to, monitoring
what we’ve longed for most and what our movements, our own speech pro-
we haven’t missed that much at all duction. It will take some time.”
during the pandemic. Those insights
can help shape our social re-entry BE PATIENT WITH OTHERS
plan. Here are some tips for getting
back into social shape. Going to public events, however much
we might want to, may also be more
BE PATIENT WITH tiring than we expect. Ismail says that
YOURSELF new fatigue is normal. “Our brain is
working overtime,” she explains. “With
Just as our jurisdictions have distinct time, we will relearn how to coordinate
phases of gradual reopening, we can everything and get over the exhaus-
take things one step at a time as we tion. We will have to take it slowly.”
re-enter a busier, more normal life.
We don’t have to leap from sitting at Some friends will take longer than
the window watching the cat across the others to experience the relief and joy
street, straight into packed parties and of society opening up again. And, as we
noisy barbecues. We might be sur- do gather together again, we will need
prised to discover we have some new to be sensitive to the ways in which the
mental and emotional limitations after pandemic has affected us all differ-
having lived at a slower, quieter pace. ently, whether it’s a job loss, relocation,
long separations, anxiety, depression
Nafissa Ismail is an associate profes- or the deaths of loved ones. “We hear
sor of psychology at the University of people say we’re returning to normal,
Ottawa. She confirms that we, and our but those who lost loved ones will
brains, need to get back into shape, never return to normal,” reminds Ismail.
socially speaking. “Socializing is a skill “We need to be aware of that, too, as
and we get better at it as we practise we are socializing.”
it,” says Ismail. “With the isolation and
the restrictive measures we didn’t get START SMALL AND
much time to practise.” BE SELECTIVE

Those of us who spent the pandemic It’s possible that the pandemic has been
in smaller households, working from a powerfully clarifying event in our lives.
home, may require more practice than We know who we missed seeing, and
others before we can easily maintain a we might also have a short list of people

64 october 2021

we didn’t pine for quite so much. This to have people over again, she advises.
is important information to have and it “Put a nice piece of salmon on the
can help us create some new priorities. grill,” she says, by way of an example.
“When everything was mediated by “There’s no need to make salmon
phone or video chats, who did I hear Wellington.” Ordering takeout for you
from? Who did I want to hear from?” and your company from your favourite
asks Sharon Ramsay, a registered mar- restaurant is also officially okay.
riage and family therapist in Toronto.
“Who regularly nourishes us, and could TAKE TIME NOW TO
we maybe pour into those relationships REFLECT AND RECORD
a little bit more?” Relaunch your social
life with those friends first, says Ramsay. During the pandemic, Nafissa Ismail
finally took the piano lessons she never
EMBRACE NEW FORMS had time for. Sharon Ramsay purchased
OF VISITING AND beautiful stationery and regularly
ENTERTAINING mailed letters to friends and relatives.
I tried yoga, and found I loved it.
When we do meet again with our social
circles, whatever their new shape, we Eventually, life will start to pick up
may also discover we’re no longer as its pace, and if we’re not careful, we
interested in our old go-to activities. might find ourselves running around
The pandemic has taught us that we can in circles once again. “One of the gifts
enjoy a visit with a friend by taking a of the pandemic has been to recon-
walk together or by sitting on opposite sider how we live,” says Ramsay. “Some
ends of a park bench, eating sand- folks might have taken to walking and
wiches we brought from home. Simple cycling. Is that a habit you want to con-
can be good, and that can remain true tinue? What have been the splashes of
as we move forward. joy in the cesspool of the pandemic?”

Lucy Waverman, cookbook author Ismail suggests sitting down with a
and a food columnist for The Globe piece of paper and making an actual list
and Mail, believes that smaller scale of the practices that brought some hap-
hospitality will continue for some time, piness during what might have been
and she says that’s just fine. “It has to one of the most difficult experiences of
do with exhaustion in general and spe- our lives. Don’t forget the good things
cifically exhaustion with cooking,” says we’ve learned, she advises. It’s okay to
Waverman, nodding to one of people’s rest and to keep doing the hobbies we
favourite lockdown activities. “I like discovered during lockdown. “We don’t
cooking but I’m fed up with it myself.” need to constantly please others,” she
says. “It was a good life lesson to realize
Keep it simple, at least as you start it’s okay to slow down.”

rd.ca 65

SOCIETY

After retirement,
the Friskens sold
their home and
hit the road. They
haven’t looked back.

A LIFE

UNBOUND
BY Gary Stephen Ross
photographs by carey shaw

Darrel and Brenda
Frisken have been
living in an RV
since July 2020.

reader’s digest
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reader’s digest

Life is long and difficult to manoeuvre in
tight spots. A converted van was too
turns on a dime. Or, in the case of Dar- small for them.
rel and Brenda Frisken, on a chance
reunion in April 2017 with old friends After months of deliberation, they
at Mr. Bill’s Family Restaurant near decided that a fifth wheel—an RV
their hometown of Lloydminster, Sas- that overlaps a towing vehicle, which
katchewan. The other couple had just supports much of the RV’s weight—
returned after spending the winter trav- was the ticket. Online they found the
elling in an RV. perfect setup: a 2016, 10-metre fifth
wheel, and a used, low-mileage 2017
As their friends described life on the pickup truck. They got them both for
road, a light went off for Darrel. The less than $90,000.
commercial HVAC and refrigeration
technician, now 62, wanted to retire but George Carlin had a funny routine
didn’t yet know how: “I enjoyed my about how life is basically a process of
work, but I’d enjoyed almost all I could gradually accumulating stuff. It took
stand.” Brenda, now 61, had retired from the Friskens over a year to downsize
her receptionist job at a retirement from their 2,200-square foot detached
home and was happy enough in Lloyd- bungalow to their 320-sq.ft. home on
minster. As the Friskens, who’ve been wheels. Anything that wasn’t sold, taken
married for 40 years, talked it over in by their two grown kids or donated to
the following days—going south for the charity got hauled to the dump.
winter, seeing more of their grandkids,
boondocking (dry camping) under the Then in March 2020, the pandemic
stars—a fanciful idea became a plan. happened. “The day the For Sale sign
went up on the house is the day the
They set about researching RVs, read- first lockdown was announced,” says
ing reviews and attending RV shows. A Darrel. “We didn’t know if the real estate
big motorhome was costly and awk- market was going to crash.” Three
ward: you might want to tow a small months later they sold their bungalow
vehicle for when you’re hooked up in for $310,000. Debt-free, with income
a park. A travel trailer, which is towed, from the house sale and from the cou-
ple’s mutual funds, they figure they
can live in the RV indefinitely.

“Half our family thought it was cool,”
says Darrel, “and the other half thought
we were nuts.” You’ll get on each oth-
er’s nerves, was one prediction. How
will you find time for yourself in such
tight quarters? “We have headphones,”

68 october 2021

The Friskens
share moments
from their travels
on a blog.

rd.ca 69

reader’s digest

Their fifth wheel (left)
and bighorn sheep
near Keremeos, B.C.

70 october 2021

(BOTTOM-LEFT AND BOTTOM-RIGHT) COURTESY OF DARREL FRISKEN says Brenda, “so I can be watching a Did they miss being part of their old
movie while he plays his guitar.” They neighbourhood? Not really. Doing with-
each have a Kindle, and they watch out a dishwasher and washing machine
workout DVDs together. Darrel goes was a drawback, but not a game changer.
on vigorous hikes, and Brenda goes for Trips to town every few days to discharge
daily walks. sewage and take on fresh water took
only a couple of hours. FaceTime and
“You’d better be compatible, and Zoom let them stay in touch with fam-
you’d better be sure you both really ily and friends. And RVers, like boaters,
want to do it. So far, no problem,” says bond quickly, trade information and
Darrel. “You have to be really well orga- form a mobile community of their own.
nized—everything has its place—and Darrel started a blog (RV Full Time on
we’re both pretty good about that.” a Dime) and posted about everything
from B.C. fruit stands and winter hik-
THEY PLAN TO SPEND ing to the best toilet paper to use in an
THE NEXT 10 YEARS RV (Great Value, at Walmart).
SEEING NEW PLACES
This year, as the pandemic slows,
AND AVOIDING their original travel plans may finally
PRAIRIE WINTERS. shape up. Arizona beckons, including
leisurely stops in Utah and other states
In the summer and fall of 2020, en route. With Darrel being a handy guy
because the United States border was and Brenda managing their finances,
still closed, they visited family and they live frugally (“We’re tightwads,”
friends in Saskatchewan and Alberta. It says Darrel). If all goes well, they plan
turned out lots of cooped-up people to spend the next 10 years seeing new
hit the road during the pandemic. RV places, avoiding prairie winters and
sales went through the roof, demand visiting friends and family. If they’re
pushed prices up and parks were overtaken by ill health or misfortune,
booked months in advance. With so they’ll rent a condo.
many stymied snowbirds stuck in
Canada, the Friskens were extremely As for dry camping under the starry
lucky—after making scores of inqui- sky, the Friskens have already done it a
ries—to find a pretty spot at River Valley few times. They have solar power, so it’s
RV Park in Keremeos, B.C., about half just a matter of loading up with water
an hour from Penticton, where they set- and propane. The Friskens plan on
tled in from October 2020 to April 2021. boondocking more in the U.S. though,
where spots are plentiful—after all,
their first time wasn’t in the wilderness.
It was in a Walmart parking lot.

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reader’s digest

IN HER 40s, LOUISE PENNY
QUIT HER JOB TO AUTHOR

CRIME NOVELS. SHE WASN’T PREPARED
FOR WHAT HAPPENED NEXT.

Murder,

BY Emily Landau

photograph by

She Wrotedominiquelafond

Penny sets many
of her books in a
fictional version of
Knowlton, Que.

PROFILE

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reader’s digest

n the novels of Louise Penny, toward guaranteeing our emotional and
the twinkling village of Three spiritual state by having a community
Pines is a place to start over. around us,” Penny says. “Bad things
The fictional location, mod- happen in Three Pines. People die,
elled on Penny’s Eastern sometimes violently, but the commu-
Townships hometown of nity survives because of that sense of
Knowlton, Que., is a Cana- belonging and friendship.”
dian pastoral, its air redolent
of crisp snowfall and wood- It’s an outrageously popular recipe,
one that’s made Penny this century’s
Ismoke, its streets populated answer to Agatha Christie. “I realized
by gregarious eccentrics, its that I wanted a safe place,” Penny
doors never locked. It’s the explains. “Not necessarily safe physi-
place where Myrna Landers, a psychol- cally, but a place for my heart and my
ogist from Montreal, relocates to open spirit. And so I created Three Pines as
a quaint bookshop, where Gabri and that safe place. I thought if I feel like
Olivier, a lovably quarrelsome couple, that, others will, too.”
establish their dream B & B, and where
the genius Sûreté du Québec detective She was right: her books regularly
Armand Gamache moves with his wife. debut at the top of bestseller lists, have
Three Pines is also quite possibly the collectively sold 10.8 million copies
murder capital of French Canada, with and are published in 29 languages.
enough slayings to populate 17 who- Among her most ardent fans is Hillary
dunnit novels published between 2005 Clinton, who’s said that Penny’s books
and 2021. There was the artist shot with helped her get through the humilia-
a hunting arrow, the woman crushed tion and horror of losing the 2016 pres-
to death by a marble statue, the seance idential election.
attendee who apparently dies of fright.
But these aren’t slasher tales, their At 63, Penny has a chin-length pew-
pages smeared with gore and gristle. ter bob, a pair of sturdy thick-framed
They occupy a lovely limbo between glasses and a wardrobe of elegantly
cozy drawing-room mysteries and drapey sweaters and scarves. She’s
psychological thrillers, where the energetic, earnest and unvarnished,
macabre impulses of humanity are friendlier in a Zoom call than most peo-
snuffed out by the warmth and kind- ple are in real life.
ness of the small town.
“What inspired the books is the idea Like the quirky townsfolk of Three
that we can never guarantee our phys- Pines, Penny has had to start over time
ical safety, but we can go a long way and time again. She first refreshed her
life when she quit her job at the CBC in
her 40s to devote herself to crime writ-
ing. She did it again when she became

74 october 2021

a full-time caregiver for her husband, the head of hematology at the Montreal
Michael, when he was diagnosed with Children’s Hospital. Early in their court-
dementia in 2013, at the age of 79. Then ship, he took her to a Christmas party in
she had to adjust to a world without the ward, where he dressed up as Santa
him after he died five years ago. And Claus and she played his elf. She was
now she’s teaming up with Clinton her- struck by his compassion as he talked to
self to write a political thriller set in the parents and cavorted with the kids.
Washington’s State Department. It will
be the first time in her literary life that At one point, she saw him standing
she’s left Three Pines. with his nose up against the wall. When
she went to investigate, she saw that he
AT THE CENTRE OF Penny’s Three Pines was crying. “He said it was because
novels is Chief Inspector Armand he knew which children would see the
Gamache, the latest in a long line of next Christmas and which ones
mustachioed detectives that includes wouldn’t,” Penny says. “If I hadn’t loved
Hercule Poirot and Magnum P.I. him already, I loved him from that
Although Penny is an Anglophone, she moment on. I wanted to protect him.”
chose to make the character a French
speaker as a love letter to the culture SOON AFTER WINNING
and language that surrounds her in SECOND IN A CRIME-
Knowlton. He’s a brilliant criminal WRITING CONTEST,
diagnostician with refined tastes—a PENNY GOT A THREE-
gritty street cop who loves opera, poetry
and good red wine. BOOK DEAL.

Gamache’s DNA can be traced They married in 1996, two years after
directly back to Michael Whitehead, they met. They didn’t want to settle
Penny’s late husband. “I thought, you down anywhere either of them had
know what? I’ll make this character the lived before. Penny and Whitehead
sort of person I want to hang around never had kids together, though he had
with. So I gave him all of Michael’s three sons from a previous relation-
qualities that I admired—the integrity, ship. She says she lived a vagabond
the self-deprecating humour, the fact existence in the years before she met
that he loves his family and knows how Whitehead, hopping between Winni-
to accept love in return.” peg, Toronto, Montreal and Northern
Ontario in her work for the CBC, and
Penny was 36 when she met White- she yearned for a place where she felt
head, then 60, on a blind date in 1994;
she was working as a radio broadcaster
with the CBC in Montreal, and he was

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reader’s digest

like she belonged. She found it in the introduces readers to Gamache and
Eastern Townships—or more specifi- Three Pines. Between 40 and 50 Cana-
cally in Knowlton, a village of 5,600 dian and American agents and pub-
that’s close to nature and oriented lishers turned down the manuscript,
around a cutesy main drag. with some asking her to set the story
in Vermont or England.
For their first Christmas at their new
home, Penny and Whitehead attended Finally, Penny entered her book in a
an evening church service. The couple crime-writing contest in the U.K., and
in the pew in front of them turned it came in second. Within a few days,
around and introduced themselves, she had an agent. And within a few
inviting Penny and Whitehead to a pot- weeks, that agent had sold a three-book
luck at their house. “The fire was on, deal to Minotaur Books. “I thought, Are
the food was cooking, and all their you kidding me? I don’t know how this
friends became our friends,” she says. book happened. How am I supposed to
These townspeople—and their lavish write a second? And a third?” she says.
dinners of coq au vin, tourtière and
ripe Quebec cheeses—blueprinted the WHILE CARING FOR
soul-satisfying meals and gatherings HER AILING HUSBAND,
that show up in her books.
SHE MANAGED TO
Marriage, and Whitehead’s financial COMPLETE TWO
support, also afforded Penny the oppor- BESTSELLING NOVELS.
tunity to quit her job in 1996 and focus
on writing full-time. Penny liked her And yet Penny managed to write the
work at the CBC, but she’d always har- second and third books, and then a
boured dreams of writing a novel. She fourth and fifth. Soon her novels were
spent years drafting a historical epic set winning prestigious Agatha mystery
in pre-Confederation Quebec, but never awards, named after Christie, and earn-
completed it. As a kid, she’d always ing rave reviews in The New York Times
been a fan of the golden-age mysteries and Publishers Weekly.
by Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Say-
ers. One day in the early aughts, she Her books were making enough
looked at her bedside table and saw a money that she no longer had to rely
stack of crime novels. “I had one of on Whitehead for support, and the two
those a-ha moments where I thought, of them inhabited a world as idyllic as
My God, I should just write a book I the one she wrote about in her novels,
would read,” she says. with the added bonus of no murders.

It took her nearly three years to
write her first novel, Still Life, which

76 october 2021

BOTTOM TWO COVERS: COURTESY OF RAINCOAST BOOKS Then, about a decade ago, White- One day, when the couple was driv-
head started forgetting things. He’d ing on the highway, Whitehead undid
been a scientist his whole life, and sud- his seatbelt. Penny told him to stop,
denly he couldn’t do basic arithmetic. but he kept unclicking the button. She
He was vague where he used to be spe- was terrified of what would happen
cific. His doctors performed a suite of next—maybe he’d open the passenger
cognitive tests and determined he door and tumble into traffic.
was fine, but Penny wasn’t so sure. The
day of reckoning arrived on Penny’s “At this stage, it was like my hair was
birthday in 2013. Whitehead on fire. But at that moment, I suddenly
bought her a useless trin-
ket—“a piece of crap,” she realized he’s not doing it
says—that she knows he on purpose. Michael would
would have never picked never do this. This isn’t
out if he was his usual self. Michael. This is the disease,”
she recalls. “He’s not the one
He told her he’d consid- with the choice. I’m the
ered another gift, but it cost one with the choice. And
£20, which was far too expen- the choice I have is to go
sive. “I asked him, ‘What crazy or to adjust.”
would £20 buy?’ And he said
it would buy a house,” she Penny took Whitehead’s
says. “That’s the moment I hand, a gesture that both
knew we couldn’t hide any- calmed him and kept him
more.” Still, she says, she from his seatbelt. After that,
felt an immense calm, finally she stopped trying to control
ascertaining what she’d long him. He’d take tissues out of
suspected to be true. the box and fold them, one
by one, for hours. He’d rear-
Whitehead was officially range the furniture from
diagnosed with dementia their bedroom while Penny
that year, and Penny became his full- was sleeping, and she’d
time caregiver. At first, he was high- move it all back again the next day.
functioning. She’d give him math quiz- “So what? Who cares? It gave him a
zes to prolong his mental agility. For sense of something to do. For some
a while he could do them—until he reason it was urgent for him. It doesn’t
couldn’t. She tried to never let him see matter, as long as he’s safe,” she says.
her get angry. Sometimes her patience “That was what my life became.”
often dried up, often as much out of Unlike many dementia patients, who
fear and sorrow as frustration. become aggressive as they deteriorate,
Whitehead only grew gentler. Within a

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reader’s digest

couple of years, as his motor skills and monstrosity that fuel her plots.
devolved and his safety became more Her books are formulaic in the way of
precarious, Penny installed a hospital fairy tales or parables, where good
bed and pulley system in their bed- always triumphs, but not before
room. And when the time came that revealing some horrific truth about the
she needed to bring in outside assis- human experiment.
tance, she didn’t hire professional
nurses. Instead, two Knowlton locals, IN SEPTEMBER 2016, three years after
a couple named Kim and Danielle, vol- his initial diagnosis, Michael White-
unteered to help her with feeding, bath- head died at home at the age of 82. In
ing and other personal care. It was the a sentiment that will resonate with
peak of neighbourly altruism, some- many caregivers, Penny was struck with
thing so heartwarming you wouldn’t an overwhelming sense of relief—that
expect to see it outside the novels of, his suffering was over, and that hers
well, Louise Penny. was, too. “That lasted a few weeks, to
be honest,” she says. “After all the sup-
HILLARY CLINTON port he’d given me, I felt I’d finally
IS A PENNY FAN. been able to support him.”
NOW THEY’RE
COLLABORATING ON A She was concerned that she wouldn’t
POLITICAL THRILLER. be able to go back to Armand Gamache,
Whitehead’s literary avatar, but she
Speaking of which: somehow, in the found the writing process to be a
three years Penny took care of her hus- source of solace. She felt like he was
band, she also managed to publish around her again, the way Michael
three Gamache novels, including two used to be.
New York Times bestsellers. She’d get
up early every day and write for three As she kept publishing books, her
or four hours before Whitehead woke. fan base kept growing. One day in 2016,
“I was able to go into a world that I Penny’s American publicist read an
could control, where goodness exists, interview with Betsy Ebeling, a human-
where there was kindness and decency rights advocate and Hillary Clinton’s
and courage in front of me,” she recalls. childhood best friend; the two met in
Grade 6 at Eugene Field School in Chi-
For Penny, the joy of her setting and cago. Ebeling mentioned in the article
characters always defeats the murder that she was a Penny megafan, and the
publicist arranged a meeting. Soon,
Ebeling and Penny had become friends,
and Ebeling brokered an introduction
to Clinton, who was also an acolyte. In

78 october 2021

COURTESY OF SIMON & SCHUSTER CANADA 2017, Penny visited Clinton at her terrorist attacks. (Bill Clinton has a
home in Chappaqua, New York. Clin- similar co-authorship gig with James
ton later brought her husband, Bill, Patterson on a series of books about a
and daughter, Chelsea, to Quebec to 007-esque U.S. president.)
celebrate Penny’s birthday. (Ebeling
died of breast cancer in 2019.) Penny has said that in the planning
period for the book, she asked what
“I find [most crime thrillers] like an Clinton’s worst nightmare would have
anvil hitting me in the head, as one been during her stint as secretary, and
more horrible dismember-
ment of some young woman this story was it. Political
happens,” Hillary has said. thrillers have sharper edges
With Penny’s books, she than Penny’s usual brand
found a gentle tempera- of cuddly crime fiction, but
ment, a series of exquisite she found the transition
puzzles and a fresh setting— exhilarating. “Maybe it was
she’s said that until reading a bit of a palate cleanser, or
the Three Pines novels, she there was enough similar
had no idea that Quebec had that it didn’t feel completely
been settled by British Loy- different. But it was differ-
alists. “I read, I learn and I escape, and ent enough that it was
I can go deeper and feel a connection exciting,” she says.
to your characters,” she told Penny in The book comes out this month,
a recent episode of her podcast, You only two months after Penny’s latest
and Me Both. Gamache novel, a post-COVID tale aptly
titled The Madness of Crowds, about the
Over the past year, Penny and Clin- threats that emerge when a controver-
ton have been collaborating on a polit- sial academic draws a cultish follow-
ical thriller, State of Terror, which fol- ing. This might be the first time Penny
lows a newbie female secretary of state has to duke it out against herself on the
forced to contend with a phalanx of New York Times bestseller list.

Shatter Proofs

Sometimes good things fall apart
so better things can fall together.

MARILYN MONROE

Promises and pie crusts are made to be broken.

JONATHAN SWIFT

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HUMOUR

A NPATNS TINS

MY

How I learned I BELONG TO THE CAMP that has survived COVID
not to question times by staying up very late at night to avoid my two
children’s rhymes children (and my ex, whom I live with in Toronto,
which seemed like a better idea before we became
BY Catherine Stinson trapped in the same space for over a year). At least,
I assume there are others out there like me, reading
illustration by joren cull this during their 4 a.m. lunch break. The silent night-
time hours can be great for concentrating on a task
without interruption, but also lend themselves to
bizarre trains of thought: the sort of things that might
have been dreams, if not for my nocturnal schedule.

80 october 2021

reader’s digest

One of the questions I pondered gotten worse, then realized that the
during these past 15 months of holes in the oatmeal bag had a more
extremely strange sleep patterns is: if organic source: mice. We’ve now had
“Ring around the Rosie” is purportedly mouse traps set up in our kitchen for
about people dying of the bubonic months, and my six-year-old has
plague (we all fall down—get it?), then made a sizeable rodent cemetery in
what rhymes are my daughters and the backyard with headstones made
their friends making up about the cur- of bejewelled popsicle sticks, dande-
rent pandemic that will seem harmless lion bouquets and names for each
if slightly mysterious in a few hundred victim. Rest in peace, Nibbles. I can’t
years? Since encountering this factoid say that I’ll miss you, but I do admire
about “Ring around the Rosie,” I’ve your nerve.
treated all children’s rhymes with a bit
of suspicion. After one adventure, when the elu-
sive black mouse and I caught each
Another late-night obsession was other sneaking into the kitchen for a
why children’s rhymes so often talk 2 a.m. snack, and I heroically tricked it
about ants being in your pants, like into running into a trap, the rodents
Dennis Lee’s poem, On Tuesdays I Pol- were finally wiped out. Unfortunately,
ish My Uncle, and at least a dozen chil- a colony of ants quickly took over the
dren’s songs. There are so many other job of licking off the peanut butter
words that rhyme with “ants.” The ants from the rest of our traps, so we now
could dance in France, or have a great have an ant infestation.
romance on plants. Is it really so com-
mon to have ants in your pants that it Even in those precious moments
deserves the status of being a common when all the human inhabitants of the
motif? Or is it a euphemism for some- house are asleep, and I’m still awake
thing much more sinister? These are for no other reason than the thrill of
some of the questions I attempted to being alone, I’m never really alone.
research with the energy of a QAnon One morning, as I was sitting down for
conspiracy theorist. a pee, a little bleary after staying up
binge-watching Korean soaps (with
I recently stumbled upon an answer the flimsy justification that it might
to at least one of these questions. help me learn a new language), an ant
Due to lockdown restrictions, many brazenly walked across the toilet seat
local restaurants have closed, and the between my splayed legs. I jabbed at it
downtown rodent population has with my thumb, trying to squish it, but
moved off the main streets and into only succeeded in knocking it off the
residential areas. At first, I thought the toilet seat. It fell into my pants, waiting
quality of plastic food packaging had just below.

rd.ca 81

HISTORY

LEGEND OF THE

The curious story behind Canada’s
most iconic ship

BLUENOSE

BY Aysha White

82 october 2021

reader’s digest

The Bluenose was
commissioned to

beat the U.S. at
the International
Fishermen’s Cup.

reader’s digest

This year marks the centenary of the Bluenose
schooner. The famous ship was built in a fit of pique,
after the U.S. trounced Canada at the inaugural
International Fishermen’s Cup race in 1920. The
Canadian team vowed revenge and hired Halifax
naval architect William James Roué to design a racing
schooner that would ensure their victory.

The ship was launched with great near Haiti. Damaged beyond repair, it (ALL HISTORIC PHOTOS) NOVA SCOTIA ARCHIVES; (DIME) FAT JACKEY/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
fanfare on March 26, 1921. Audrey sunk to the bottom of the ocean, where
Smith, the 19-year-old daughter of one it has stayed.
of the shipyard’s owners, christened it
with a bottle of champagne (despite Around 20 years later, the Oland fam-
protests from the Christian Women’s ily, owners of a Nova Scotia brewery,
Group of Lunenburg that grape juice decided to commission a new Blue-
be used instead). nose, in part to advertise their Schoo-
ner beer. They consulted the original
The Bluenose immediately sailed to architect, Roué, and dubbed the replica
glory—again and again, and again. It ship the Bluenose II. Unlike its prede-
claimed victory at the International Fish- cessor, the Bluenose II never raced, and
ermen’s Cup and was undefeated at the in 1971 the Oland family decided to sell
competition for the next 17 years. Its the schooner to the provincial govern-
winning streak also helped create a ment for the token sum of one dollar.
sense of civic pride during the tough
economic times of the Great Depression. To celebrate the original ship’s 100th
birthday, the Bluenose II embarked on
That streak came to an abrupt end in a “Sail Past Season,” cruising by several
1938, after the final International Fish- east-coast communities throughout the
ermen’s Cup. The next year, the Second summer and early fall. If you missed
World War erupted. In 1942, the Blue- the tour, you can still see the iconic
nose was sold to the West Indian Trad- ship in its home waters of Lunenburg,
ing Company and put to work ferrying Nova Scotia, where it often spends the
goods throughout the Caribbean. Soon, summer as the star of Canada’s mari-
tragedy struck: the ship hit a coral reef time heritage.

84 october 2021

While many have interpreted the
ship on the dime as the Bluenose,
the artist, Emanuel Hahn, simply
referred to his design as “a
schooner.” Eventually, a group
of volunteers presented a set of
documents and photos to the
Royal Canadian Mint, prompting
an announcement in 2002 that
the ship was indeed the Bluenose.

reader’s digest

2

1
4

86 october 2021

1. The Bluenose was captained (BLUENOSE II) ART CONNOLLY PHOTOGRAPHY/SHUTTERSTOCK.COM
by one man, Angus Walters, for
the majority of its racing career.
He was at the helm for its first
winning race, as well as its last
in 1938, in which the Bluenose
was also victorious. 2. Built in
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, the
Bluenose was designed as a
competitive racing schooner
and fishing vessel, with large,
white billowy sails attached to
two tall masts. The ship was
mainly made of local wood—
pine, spruce, birch and oak—and
measured 43.6 metres in length.
3. The origins of the term
“Bluenose” are obscure. Once a
common nickname for Nova
Scotians, the term’s origins date
3 back to the 18th century, where
it may have referred to a type of
potato grown in the region, or
simply a joke about cold noses.
4. The schooner earned the
nickname The Queen of the
North Atlantic and even sailed
across the ocean to take part in
King George V’s Silver Jubilee
celebrations in 1935. 5. In 1962,
the Oland family commissioned
a new Bluenose. The original
Bluenose cost around $35,000
to build. The replica cost nearly
10 times that amount. The
Bluenose II was expensive to
maintain, and the Oland family
sold it to the provincial
government in 1971 for a
dollar. The ship is now a living
museum that often spends at
least part of its summer
5 harboured in Lunenburg.

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reader’s digest

Prompted by her own
difficult experience, Angie
Deveau advocates for
better abortion access.

EDITORS’ CHOICE

New Brunswick
is one of the
hardest places

in Canada to get
an abortion.

Inside the battle
for better, more
accessible care.

The Long Fight

BY Sarah Ratchford

photographs by aaron mckenzie fraser

rd.ca 89

reader’s digest

Angie Deveau had planned to spend
Boxing Day of 2013 lounging in front
of the Christmas tree with her family.
Instead, she had morning sickness and
found herself rushing back and forth to
the bathroom. That evening, after she
read her three-year-old son his favour-
ite bedtime story, cuddled him, and
kissed his forehead goodnight, Deveau
took a pregnancy test. She’d already
guessed what it would say: positive.

At the time she was 34 and lived in a Being pregnant made every day a
house in Fredericton, New Brunswick. struggle. At seven weeks, she had
Though she shared custody with her unbearable nausea. Nibbling on sal-
son’s father, she was the boy’s primary tines, she tried to work while her son
caregiver and had only her part-time napped. Most days, she had to return
income as a researcher to sustain them to her computer again at night, work-
both. She made $25 per hour, working ing into the small hours. Deveau was
15 hours per week, and had all the bills exhausted and conflicted about having
that everyone does: housing, groceries, another child. She didn’t have the time
clothing, utilities, and on it went. or the desire for another kid. She didn’t

90 october 2021

want a bigger family and knew that she Hospital is in Bathurst, 220 kilometres
couldn’t afford one. north of Moncton. This means 76 per
cent of the province’s population is
The path forward was clear to her: hundreds of kilometres away from any
she had to schedule an abortion. That’s access at all. When these people need
when she cursed the fact that she lived abortions, they must take time off work
in New Brunswick. In her province, and pay to travel not once, but twice:
making the decision to terminate a first for an ultrasound and again for the
pregnancy and being able to act on it abortion itself. Add to that the costs of
are two very different things. accommodations and potentially also
child care, and the procedure is easily
ADEQUATE REPRODUCTIVE health out of reach for many New Brunswick-
care is not uniformly available across ers, whose median income in 2015 was
Canada. In New Brunswick, where reli- $28,107 after tax.
gious stigma against abortion is strong,
it’s even harder to access. According to THE COST OF AN
a 2011 Statistics Canada report (the ABORTION IS EASILY
most recent year the agency collected
this data), nearly 85 per cent of the OUT OF REACH
province is Christian—compared to FOR MANY NEW
about 67 per cent of all Canadians at BRUNSWICKERS.
that time. Here, church parking lots
still fill up on Sundays. Traditionally, A patient may also opt to go to Fred-
many in the province feel strongly ericton’s Clinic 554. It was originally
that pregnancies should be carried founded in the mid-1990s as the Mor-
through to term. gentaler Clinic. The facility provides
sexual and reproductive health ser-
The province offers four places, in vices alongside other health care, with
total, to get an abortion: three hospi- 3,000 patients currently on file. Under
tals, where the cost of the procedure provincial health-care laws, the clinic
is covered by provincial health care, is not reimbursed for ultrasounds or
and one independent clinic, where it abortions, so it charges between $700
is not. Still, while provincial health and $800 for the procedure. In fact,
care may cover the fees of an abortion New Brunswick is the only province in
at each hospital, it doesn’t mean the Canada where abortions aren’t cov-
process is cost-free for everyone—or ered outside of hospital settings.
easily accessible.

Both the Moncton Hospital and the
Georges Dumont Hospital are located
in Moncton; the Chaleur Regional

rd.ca 91

reader’s digest

Premier Blaine Higgs has repeatedly gestational limit of 13 weeks and six
defended the province’s current sys- days. She decided her best option was
tem. “If we felt that we weren’t provid- Clinic 554 (then still named the Mor-
ing the service in reasonable manner, gentaler Clinic). They were able to see
I mean, it would be a different story,” Deveau right away, and her abortion
Higgs told The Globe and Mail in 2019 was scheduled for roughly a week
when asked why he wouldn’t extend later, on a Tuesday. Still, she couldn’t
abortion funding. afford the $800 fee—especially not
after Christmas—and in the end, her
LACK OF PROVINCIAL dad loaned her the cash.
FUNDING HAS DRIVEN
Over the years, Clinic 554 has argu-
CLINIC 554 TO THE ably played the role of both saviour and
BRINK OF CLOSURE last resort for many. It’s staffed by one
MORE THAN ONCE. full-time employee and about 10 con-
tract staff. That it has also managed to
To Deveau, the challenges of get- avoid being closed down is no small
ting an abortion at a hospital felt insur- miracle. Lack of provincial funding
mountable. Without her own car, she’d most recently drove it to the brink of
have to take the bus to Moncton, 177 closure in September 2019, when its
kilometres away, or Bathurst, 254 kilo- medical director, Dr. Adrian Edgar, was
metres away. Plus, at the time, New forced to put it up for sale. A swell of
Brunswick also required that two doc- community support, as well as small
tors sign off on the medical necessity donations, helped keep it afloat—but
of all abortions offered at hospitals. just barely. It had to drastically reduce
(This requirement was later lifted in services over the next year. In October
2014 and never applied to Clinic 554.) 2020, it was forced to cease providing
Getting an appointment with her fam- all non-provincially funded services,
ily doctor usually took weeks. If her including ultrasounds and abortions.
doctor signed off, they’d likely refer her By early 2021, Clinic 554 seemed des-
to the second required doctor, which tined to close for good.
would take more time.
IN A 2014 Maclean’s interview, Dr. Wendy
Coupled with the wait to schedule Norman, a professor of family medi-
the abortion, Deveau was afraid she cine at the University of British Colum-
wouldn’t be able to have the proce- bia, said her research shows 31 per
dure in time to meet the hospitals’ cent of women over age 45 report hav-
ing had an abortion at some point in
their lives. It’s likely many women faced

92 october 2021

barriers in securing that right. While the based on moral grounds. Gestational
procedure is common enough, abor- limits also vary by province. In P.E.I.,
tion remains taboo and the subject of the limit is 12 weeks and six days, but
lobbying and protests by anti-abortion in specific locations in Ontario, Que-
advocates. Politicians of all parties, bec and B.C., abortions are performed
meanwhile, generally prefer to distance well into the second trimester. Of all
themselves from the issue. Canada has the regions, Atlantic Canada is the
been without an official abortion law most restrictive.
since 1988. That year, the old laws,
which required a “therapeutic abortion ACCESS IS SCARCE
committee” to approve each individ- ACROSS CANADA.
ual abortion, were struck down by the FEWER THAN 17 PER
Supreme Court as unconstitutional. CENT OF HOSPITALS
PROVIDE ABORTIONS.
Dr. Henry Morgentaler fought for
abortion rights for nearly two decades From 1988 until 2016, for example,
before it was legally made more acces- Prince Edward Island offered no abor-
sible for Canadians. In reality, access tion services, with both the province’s
is scarce not only in New Brunswick government and hospitals refusing
but in parts of every province and ter- on moral grounds. People had to travel
ritory. Fewer than 17 per cent of Cana- at their own cost to New Brunswick or
dian hospitals provide abortions. Those Nova Scotia—provided they were first
who live in rural and northern areas, able to secure the necessary two-doctor
or even smaller cities and towns, must referral. In 2016, advocates eventually
travel long distances if they want the threatened to sue the government for
procedure. In Alberta, Saskatchewan a violation of their Charter rights, cit-
and Manitoba, for example, abortions ing unequal access to health-care ser-
are offered only in cities, even though vices. By the end of January 2017, a
18 per cent of Canada’s population is reproductive health clinic had opened
rural. The Yukon, P.E.I. and North- in Summerside, P.E.I., and the first
west Territories are home to one pro- abortions in 35 years were performed
vider each. on the Island.

Access varies so widely because Meanwhile, from 1988 until now,
health care is a matter of provincial eight different New Brunswick govern-
jurisdiction. When Canada’s restric- ments, both Liberal and Conservative,
tions were struck down, the provinces
were left to dole out access—or pre-
vent it—as they saw fit. In some prov-
inces, doctors are still able to deny care

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reader’s digest

have refused to fund clinic-based abor- than $131,000. The facility was renamed
tions. Joyce Arthur, executive director of Clinic 554 in January 2015, after its
the Abortion Rights Coalition of Can- street number.
ada, describes New Brunswick politi-
cians as having their heels “dug in.” The clinic stands out: one side of
Deveau wraps up her feelings on the the building is painted in the colours
matter in two sentences: “A few years of a rainbow. It’s centrally located and
ago, my husband got a vasectomy, and by the river. Across the street is the
taxpayers paid for that. The onus is on Boyce Farmers Market, where many
women, then, to keep our legs closed.” Frederictonians congregate on Satur-
day mornings for breakfast.

AS A SPECIALIST in reproduction, trans “IF YOU OBSTRUCT
health care and addiction medicine, ABORTION ACCESS, A
Dr. Adrian Edgar is a firm believer in PREGNANT PATIENT
equal access to health care. His belief WILL FIND A WAY TO
was solidified during time spent vol- CONTROL THEIR BODY.”
unteering in Mae Scot, Thailand. There,
Edgar volunteered twice at a refugee Since the clinic reduced service
health centre, and what he experienced offerings last October, Edgar has con-
there committed him to this line of tinued to perform abortions—some
work. “We routinely saw people who are paid by the patient, and some he
had tried to self-abort,” Edgar explains. does for free. But he can’t keep doing
“If you try to obstruct abortion access, it forever. For now, Edgar is taking a
a pregnant patient will find a way to wait-and-see approach. In June 2021,
control their body, and that might lead a judge gave the green light for the
to their death.” Canadian Civil Liberties Association
to sue the New Brunswick govern-
Edgar didn’t set out to be a spokes- ment. CCLA argues that the province’s
person for abortion access in the Mar- lack of access is against the Constitu-
itimes. At 38, he is shy and soft-spoken. tion. (And, indeed, the Canada Health
But he was fired up when he returned Act does stipulate that it’s illegal to
to New Brunswick in 2014 and dis- make Canadians pay for their health
covered that lack of funding after care or to pose barriers to that health
Morgentaler’s death threatened to close care. Abortion is included under this
the Morgentaler Clinic in Fredericton. umbrella.) Edgar hopes the results will
Fearing Maritimers would lose access
to much-needed sexual health care
and could resort to self-abortion, he
helped the community to raise more

94 october 2021

In New Brunswick,
Clinic 554 is the only
place to get an abortion
outside of a hospital.

reader’s digest

work out in the clinic’s favour and the unsafe abortions. That’s about eight
government will be forced to repeal per hour. Edgar has repeatedly warned
the delisting of ultrasound and abor- the province that if his clinic closes,
tion outside of hospital. some in New Brunswick may try unsafe
methods, and people will die. There
“People need access to reproductive are no Canadian stats on unsafe abor-
health clinics that are local, in their tion, but P.E.I. professor of psychol-
communities, and have on-site staff ogy Colleen MacQuarrie’s research
who understand not just reproductive covering her province’s own access
rights, but also the need for women deficit suggests several self-induced
to be reassured in their decision,” abortions took place on the Island each
says Melanie Vautour, who works with year the province refused to provide
Fresh Start in Saint John, N.B., an orga- the service.
nization that provides housing to
women and families. She and three AT THE END OF September 2020, just
other people volunteer many hours to before Clinic 554 reduced its services,
help women get essential services. This Deveau gathered on the front lawn of
includes driving to and from appoint- the New Brunswick legislature with a
ments, securing lodging for women as group of about 30 other reproductive
they undergo or recover from a medi- rights activists for a candlelight vigil.
cal abortion, and providing basic com- Since her abortion in January 2014,
forts like food and pain medication. she has protested on the lawn many
times. Each time there’s an election,
BY ONE ESTIMATE, or an added barrier to abortion—like,
68,000 WOMEN say, a national pandemic—the calls
for better access start again, and each
WORLDWIDE DIE EACH time Deveau is there. She doesn’t want
YEAR FROM UNSAFE other women to go through the same
ABORTIONS. stress and uncertainty and helpless-
ness that she did.
“We are not counsellors or social
workers, but we are trying to fill that She is now 41, and her son is 10.
gap,” Vautour says. She worries about Deveau doesn’t hide her activism from
how desperate many women can him; to her, it’s all about equal access
become when that gap isn’t filled. The to health care. They talk openly about
WHO estimates that about 68,000 abortion and the importance of choice.
women worldwide die each year from He recently chose to write a school
report on the 1970s book How to Care
for Your Husband and talked about how

96 october 2021

gender roles have changed since the And while New Brunswick foots the bill,
time it was written. Deveau has now in some provinces it can cost up to $450.
lived through 15 different governments,
the Morgentaler decision and count- In the meantime, the lobbying con-
less pushes for better access, and she tinues. Around the same time as the
says that something, eventually, has candlelight vigil, protesters from across
to give. She keeps going because she the province met to demand better
knows she’s not alone in her desire for access. They took over the sleepy town
better access to health care. common in Rothesay, N.B., then-health
minister Ted Flemming’s district, on
In some ways, things have started to a sunny Thursday afternoon. About
give. The two-doctor approval is gone. 50 people, most of them young, sport-
In 2017, New Brunswick also became ing buttons and carrying signs, camped
the first province in Canada to cover the out for hours, even as Flemming
cost of Mifegymiso, a medication refused to speak with them. He’d
containing the ingredients of mifepri- barely addressed the issue at all during
stone and misoprostol that, together, his term. The protest ended at Flem-
induce what’s called a medical abor- ming’s suburban house. It was just hot
tion. The former blocks progesterone, enough to break a sweat on the way
a hormone needed for pregnancy. up the hill from the common. Each
The latter helps empty the contents protester carried a sign. My body, my
of the uterus. It isn’t a perfect solution. choice. One by one, they stepped up to
In Canada, Mifegymiso can be pre- Flemming’s door and laid their signs
scribed only up to nine weeks gestation. to rest, for him to find.

Splitting Hairs

The difference between a child and an adult getting
their hair cut is that a child will cry during it.
The adult will wait until afterwards.

NITYA PRAKASH

I’ve tried to have a regular haircut,
but it just pops back up again.

So this is the way that it’s going to be.

ROD STEWART

Another theory about hair: A woman who cuts
her hair drastically is set to make some decisions.

WEIKE WANG

rd.ca 97

reader’s digest

reader’s digest FIGHT NIGHT
by Miriam Toews
BOOK CLUB When precocious nine-year-old Swiv
gets suspended for fighting at school,
she spends her days with her sickly
grandmother, Elvira. Soon, they find
themselves on a reckless trip to visit
relatives in California, where Swiv
learns how her grandmother’s strength
was passed along to her mom and then
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refreshingly light, as the pair exchange
stories, empathy and the will to perse-
vere through life’s challenges. $30.

Fall’s best reads bring love, RETURN: WHY WE GO BACK TO WHERE
longing and hard truths WE CAME FROM
by Kamal Al-Solaylee
BY Emily Landau Al-Solaylee, the youngest of 11 kids,
was only three years old when his fam-
ily was forced to flee Yemen in 1967. In
his new memoir, he chronicles his
desire to go back. But when he finally
travels to the Middle East as an adult,
he feels alienated from the language
and customs of the place he once
called home. The book is a powerful
dive into displacement, featuring
interviews with other refugees and
émigrés about their own longings for
their countries of origin. $33.

BEAUTIFUL WORLD, WHERE ARE YOU
by Sally Rooney
Rooney became a phenomenon last
year when Normal People, her emo
millennial romance, was adapted into

98 october 2021