Just catching up on my posting transcriptions……….

Trillium Room, Whatshan Lake Retreat, February 08, 2016 1106 hours

I am at Whatshan Lake Retreat 645 Whatshan Lake Road. I arrived here with my friend Ron Ross. This time it is all about Ron Ross and his struggle with Cancer.

A year and half ago he underwent a major operation on his Pancreas. A pioneering effort by a Surgeon in Vancouver who believed that a three (3) month sentence for those with Pancreatic Cancer was not acceptable.

After eight (8) hours and multiple Surgeons, Ron was pronounced free of that Cancer but the prognosis for someone who has had Cancer is the same. It can come back!

It did!

Now Ron is taking Chemo Treatment for an aggressive Cancer in his Liver. It is difficult to predict what will happen but his professional advice is that the Chemo will just provide more time but will not be a cure.

So I made contact with our buddies from days of yore………….the time we all met while working in Prince Rupert in 1963 for Columbia Cellulose Co. Ltd, a Sulphite Pulp Mill.

You might say that the Recruiters that hired us from the four Western Provinces made a great choice. We immediately meshed as a team in all ways:

• Work
• Play
• Sports
• Just about everything was done together

This get-together was difficult, as one of us, Robert Miller, had lost contact with me and so Jim Holloway knew where to find him. A few emails later, and it was decided that we need to meet often and enjoy our collective company while we still could.

Everyone looked at their date books and it was determined that we would meet at the Whatshan Lake Retreat February 08 through 10, 2016.

Ron and I have been “warming up” the site, waiting for Bob and Jim to arrive this afternoon from the Airport in Kelowna.

The Whatshan Rental Coordinator, Nona, asked if Ron and I could check in ten (1) Heli Skiers for one night (last) and cook them breakfast at 0600 hours this morning.

So Ron and I undertook this task and were pleasantly rewarded in meeting some great gentlemen from Northern Amaerica:

• 2 Aerospace Engineers
• 2 Civil Engineers
• 1 Chemical Engineer
• Others were professionals in special fields

We cooked up like old times and completely satisfied them before Ron and I sat down to breakfast at 0700 hours.

Cell service was still “patchy” but we were able to get through to Nona that “all went well”.

We drove to the Edgewood Store to buy some supplies:

• Matches
• Sugar
• Playing cards
• More coffee

We found out after that ob closer observation, a sugar bowl was full of sugar, oh well…..

Ron went for a nap at 1500 hours and I made a salad and peeled potatoes to bake on the wood fired grille where we would cook the steaks.

It is now 1710 and we expect Bob and Jim anytime now.

I started the fire in the fire pit so that we could enjoy it later.

Bob and Jim arrived at 1720!

Left to right: Jim Holloway, Robert (Bob) Miller, Elmer Verigin, Ron Ross. Picture taken in front of Retreat fireplace, Whatshan Lake Retreat, February 08, 2016.

The reunion was joyful and we needed a bit of cheer. We noted that everyone had specific drinking preferences. Bob was a 30 year survivor of Cancer and only drank a certain type of beer. The conversation dwelt on these subjects:

• Global warming or ?
• Climate Change
• George Teslin and the AC Current
• Thomas Edison
• Elmer is “horizontal”
• Elmer is 360
• Mini Ice Age 2030
• Mars expedition and Pioneering 2030
  • Muska
  • Space X
  • Electrician (I am not sure why I put this in)
• Civil War in the USA with still no resolution today
• Engineering experiences working at Columbia Cellulose Co. Ltd in Prince Rupert
  • Being able to practice Engineering to the fullest for the first time

Then the meal of steak cooked on a wood fire (like old times), baked potatoes, everything salad and apple or lemon pie dessert.

Just talking with each other was entertainment enough for all of us. No games and a limited amount of alcohol. It seemed that all we needed was each other.

We started next morning with Jim’s (Ron’s son) bacon and eggs.

We went for a walk over the dam and out to Whatshan Campground. Bob was adventurous and continued over the dam and out to the logging road as he had an exercise regime that needed to be followed as part of his Cancer treatment.

Upon return we got into more discussion on previous topics over chips, smoked Oysters and Beer.

We were at the age when having a nap is important and so we checked in about 1400. I am writing this at 1525 and the rest are not back yet. We had set 1600 for pies and coffee. The pies are not even half eaten.

The post ends her and it was the next day that Jim and Bob left for their plan in Kelowna. After cleaning up, Ron and I left for the drive home.

It was a great experience with old friends and perhaps the last one with Ron.

Transcribed June 14, 2017 1950 hours by EWV (with a tear in my eye) as Ron passed away that Fall

 

I am entering some scattered notes that I was going to transcribe sometime and that is now………………….

Day’s Inn

809 Island Highway South

Nanaimo, B.C. (250) 754 8171

Saturday, November 14, 2015 1000 hours

I am sitting comfortably on a chesterfield in the lobby of this quaint motel on the Southern entrance to Nanaimo. Marilyn is washing clothes with Leah while Allan and I take separate breaks with our thoughts.

This impromptu holiday was not really a plan for Marilyn and I but events came together so that it appeared that linking them together made sense and less travel.

We started with Whatshan on Thursday, November 05, 2010, at the beginning of a Fall Work Party that eventually involved about 35 people at its peak. Many “dangerous trees” were identified as potential “wind fall” in high winds. Most were birches with dying tops. These trees became the object of “bucking” into firewood, splitting and piling in the eight cabin wood stoves, fireplace in the Retreat and the odd blocks for the major campfire pit near the Retreat.

Rick Hlookoff’s Logging Company came with his professional Faller, Scott and some sixty (60) trees were fallen. Not all could be processed and more than half would need to wait till the Spring Work Party. It is unbelievable at the “work ethic” of these volunteers as the rain did nothing to slow down the enthusiasm.

Tree debris was burned while two separate mechanical wood splitters and their crews tried to keep up with assembling the wood bolts from all over the level plain West of the Retreat.

Marilyn and I left early Sunday along with Kyle and Tamara, to travel to Victoria in preparation for Royal Roads University November 19, 2015.

This indeed was going to be a monumental occasion as our daughter Tamara overcame so many challenges in her life to now earn a Masters Degree in Leadership. This included challenging the fact that she did not have an undergraduate degree and meeting the entrance requirements anyway.

This of course was achieved while she was raising three (3) young sons and working full time. We need to add the fact that Tamara was a normal teenager who managed to become very much a Youth with many temptations that she had to overcome on her path to become a Youth Drug and Alcohol Counsellor with Freedom Quest and Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce. She has already positively influenced the lives of many.

Being present and witnessing her receipt of the Masters Diploma brought tears to my eyes and I thought about the scholarship offer from the University of Saskatchewan for me to study Sanitary Engineering. Perhaps I too, could have been able to add an MEng to my credentials.

Someone in my family made it and according to the noted Cell Biologist, Dr Lipton, you might say that I achieved this though the cells of my daughter. Congratulations, Tamara.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015, Marilyn and I left Tamara, Kyle and their sons to travel North to Nanaimo to visit Marilyn’s brother Allan and his wife Leah would had just moved from Whitehorse YT. We wanted to see them as they settled in their RV on a campground with a beautiful view of the Strait.

Reminiscences of times in Langham, Saskatchewan and all the people that Marilyn and Allan knew took a lot of time. We still managed to travel to Coombs to see the “Goats on the Roof”. The Coombs area is very “touristy” and well worth the short trip from Nanaimo.

Transcribed from notes June 14, 2017 1530 hours by EWV

I found this diary that my daughter Lori purchased June 20, 2010 with a note “For Our Dad & Gramps…….”An Inspiration to Us 2010”

It is set up as a daily diary and has key starting words to encourage the writer to enter. So I will highlight the start and my only entry in italics………

Day: Friday Date: July 02, 2010

Today’s weather, news, events: Rain in morning, cool, scattered clouds in afternoon

Today I feel: Melancholy. It seems like I am wasted spiritually and emotionally

I am grateful for: The love that my family has for me. They have no idea how much I appreciate it. I wish I could do more to reach out to them but I seem to lack time to be with them. Is that an excuse?

Spiritually I: I can’t seem to find that light that should guide me through these wasted emotions that I have at times like this. Maybe I am looking down and I and I should raise my eyes and look over the obstacles in my way.

People in my thoughts today: I did think of Mitch and I do know he is suffering from his muscle disease and joints. How painful and demoralizing it must be for him to live that way.

Magical moments (comfort, peace, and love): MvIntyre (our old neighbor from 6th Street, Castlegar, called in looking at Grandview as one source of retirement home. He remembered my “Dream” and is here on assignment from Calgary. I think he is serious!

Donations of the Heart (acts of kindness, sharing, caring and forgiveness): I went to see my neighbor Lorne Tamelin. He seems depressed his religious organization, USCC, has arranged another event on the same weekend as the Whatshan Lake Music Festival 2010.

For a better tomorrow (Goals, ideas, etc.): I need to do more invoices that I have put off because Marilyn could use the money. I need to document a schedule for Grandview.

This outline by 2003 Journals Unlimited Inc. Bay City, Ml “Write It Down” series is a good format.

It is interesting to note that was the one and only entry from me.

Transcribed 1000 hours, Wednesday, June 07, 2017 by Elmer Verigin

I found these notes…………

There is something about people coming together that is infectious whether it is spiritual or…………? Perhaps it is a natural Quantum Physics that takes nourishment with all this communication that abounds beyond speech.

There is actually booths selling farm produce by obvious self-made entrepreneurs. Perhaps it is their only way to earn a dollar. It is a healthy way to live but one needs to be emotionally settled and not too attracted to the outside world and the excitement that comes with it.

My childhood recollections remind me of the peacefulness that comes from planting, growing and harvesting foods for market and self consumption.

Curiosity of youth would drift into the meditation that comes with observing the draught horses pull the implement or the drone of the tractor you were steering. One had to concentrate on ensuring that the machine was efficiently cultivating or harvesting the maximum width of field or crop. It was important to make full use of the equipment together with the day when the weather would allow.

So meditation needed management so that it did not interfere with the job at hand.

What about the rest of the world? Who else is out there? What are they doing?

So the question is: “are these farmers content and satisfied with what they do?”

Transcribed  1700 hours, Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Elmer Verigin

I spent the morning having breakfast with some of my cronies at the University of A & W, Castlegar Campus. I found them all well and still full of valuable information fit for any educational class. Marilyn was allowed to sit at table #2 and experience the aura.

Some seats have been vacated due to travel arrangements with the “spirit world” but the rest courageously carry on.

Castlegar Sun Fest is on this weekend and I decided to sit on the sidewalk in front of Kootenay Market and enjoy the parade. In order to be able to park the car and get sidewalk space, I used that parking lot and noted the Castlegar Rotary Club was having their usual fund-raiser Pancake Breakfast. It was impossible to walk by all these great Rotarians and so I ate another breakfast and was able to talk to Gerry Lee, a retired Cominco Engineer who came from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. He had graduated a year earlier than me and we had kept contact over the years.

The other entertaining table guest was Wilf Sweeney, a retired Pulp Mill Manger and a graduate Engineer from the University of Toronto. I had participated with both Rotarians for much of my 35 years in Rotary. We covered the many years that Castlegar Rotary had sponsored the Pancake breakfast as they raised money for local projects and especially, Bursaries for local scholarships.

The subject of the Grandview Seniors project was brought up and what will happen with the Supportive Living Project which I had been involved with. Age and subject matter become predictable as everyone is concerned with seniors care as we progress through our lives. Not much that I could tell them as I am not sure what is taking place.

The Sun Fest Parade was due to begin at 1100 hours and so I took my lawn chair out and headed for the sidewalk. Already the spots along Columbia Avenue were few and the crowds were already well situate on either side. There were empty chairs that soon were filled by Jim and Inga Lamont and their family. It didn’t take long for their daughter to start talking about Whatshan Lake Retreat and how she had attended several Weaving and Sewing Retreats, She just could not stop talking about the beauty of Whatshan and how peaceful it was. Well that was an unexpected and pleasant surprise.

I missed the marching bands and the only band was the Maple Leaf Band from Trail but they were all on a flat deck truck compliments of MTI. No Kilties and bagpipes this year. The candies and suckers were being thrown from all the Fire Department vehicles from Castlegar, Robson, Ooteschinia, Tarrys and others. It was nice to see all the youngsters charging after their prizes. Yes, I took a few also.

Then on my way home as Marilyn was to be occupied with our granddaughter’s, Kara, wedding Shower and I thought about mediating for awhile. The phone was ringing with quotations on lodging at Medicine Hat, Lethbridge and Yorkton for our choir planned trip to Heritage Days in Veregin July 15 and 16. The plans are shaping up well and I am looking forward to a great Doukhobor cultural exchange between the Saskatchewan and British Columbia brethren.

I just started looking for the words to this hymn that kept humming in my head when Jim Laktin showed up for our customary weekly “Safety Meeting”. Marilyn was not around to read the minutes of the last meeting but we carried on regardless. That radish and green onions was good with the Scottish beverage.

I can’t really find anything wrong with the entire day.

Under construction as of June 04, 2017, 0230 hours. Amended 1530 hours by Elmer