MILESTONES AND BEAVERS

Five years ago this morning at exactly 4:48 two very important things happened. The first was that I received a private link and password from Jari Osborne  to the site where her just complete documentary for CBC “The Beaver Whisperers” was waiting for my preview. We had corresponded a great deal during its making and she wanted was excited to share the finished product. This allowed me to watch what Canada would view months later in all its glory.

I remember starting to cry with happiness during the opening sequence.

Then the phone rang. (Nor a common thing at 5 in the morning.) It was my mother calling me to let me know my father, who had been ill and worsening, had died during the night. The facility where he was had just let her know and we were all supposed to meet there at 6:30 to pay our respects before they collected the body.

The tears changed considerably, but I actually remember that I finished watching the documentary while I was waiting for the sun to rise and Jon to get off night shift.

The irony is that during the course of the film’s production I had learned that the assistant producer’s  (who originally contacted me) had lost her father, and as I got to know Jari the producer better I learned that her father had also died during the making of the film. And here I was watching the film and learning my own father had died during the night.

My father, who was the very first person on this earth I happened to see our beavers with.

Well, five years have passed. I am much older and maybe a little wiser. The Canadian documentary was well received and resulted in the adapting of one for PBS. What else has changed?  The beaver story has moved a football field in that time and our own beavers went through so much that I can’t even begin to list it all. Our website looks better. Jon is happier now that he’s retired. And I like our new deck.

One of things Jari told me a year after her father passed was that her family all got together to eat her his favorite foods, do the things that he loved and remember him. It sounded like a good idea to me, so family and friends are coming today to do the same.

I couldn’t help it. The acronym just came to me.

G.A.T.H.E.R. Get Along To Help Each Remember.