Hello!
This little story comes from spending a month out in British Columbia and spending countless minutes to hours marvelling at the glory of what are the Rocky Mountains.
To my Readers...This year will be much slower storywise for me, I believe. I am getting a puppy and will not have the same amount of time to write nearly as much. Just the same I feel like I have tired myself out and possibly even my readers with all the writing.
Happy 2025, May the year be good to you!
She didn't know why; she didn't understand why she was in this spot. She knew that she, Rilla Ford, was halfway across the world, or at least the country. She breathed in the familiar scent of ocean air despite knowing she wasn't on her island. It felt like freedom in many ways, of all the places for Ken to move them to, she never expected it to be on the West Coast. At least Aunt Stella, Mother's college friend, was helpful by being near.
Still, she remembers Train after train to the small city of Vancouver. She felt lost and alone, even with Ken by her side. Telling their families about the change of location caused a fair stir. Toronto was far enough for Rilla to be away from them, British Columbia was something else entirely. While the Fords wondered just what was out there these days? Wasn't it all Chinese Immigrants, dusty coal mines and shipyards?
It wasn't; it was a thriving city filled with a steady humming pulse of prosperity and liveliness they were told.
Soon, she saw it all as she was travelling through the cities, forests, and mountains of the Dominion of Canada, province by province, sleeping in hotels that Ken secured for them, and at her mother's request, she even found herself at Aunt Dora's Calgary.
A small break within the trip for a few days. Aunt Dora had moved out west when after she had married. Her husband worked as a mechanic for mining equipment, and she learned on her first day there.
"Your young man loves you very much," Aunt Dora says with a whisper.
"How can you tell?" Rilla looks to her quietly.
"Just by the look on his face and how he would rather watch you take in the sights around you than watch them himself." Aunt Dora tells her sweetly.
"Mum wishes we had a longer engagement. She approves of Ken but wishes we didn't feel like we had to rush, but it didn't feel like rushing to us," Rilla says with a sigh. "Mum said you got married when you were eighteen?"
"I was eighteen; your mother thought I should wait a little longer, but Marilla and Aunt Rachel seemed to understand that I had no dreams of being a teacher, plus, I had beaus all around me and not all of them were bright or logical when it came to feelings. Ralph, at the very least, had a good head on his shoulders and was in college when we courted. " Aunt Dora says with a sly smile. "Drove Davey crazy sometimes when it came to all the boys who fought to walk me home."
Once properly in Vancouver they stayed with Aunt Stella Cardinal-Nee Maynard for the first two weeks of being in Vancouver. The Cardinal's house was full, and Peter, their son, was learning to walk on a wooden leg. Tabitha and Leonora were still young girls, fresh-faced at thirteen and fifteen They had been young girls at the time of the war. There was a fair age gap between the siblings, though pictures and names in the family bible said differently. Spanish Flu had claimed Mariah, who always had a weaker constitution. So when Ken came back from viewing an apartment with great enthusiasm, she leapt at the idea of having her own space. For them to have their own space to grow a family into one day.
It was close to the seawall and Stanley Park, which allowed her to spend her days watching the ocean as if wishing upon stars. All while marvelling at the old haunts and bridges that have been there for two decades, she is told. Rose gardens and flora are breathtakingly beautiful. The seawall and the lighthouse led to dreaming about the haze that settled around the mountains in the early mornings and dusk.
It was all so foreign but real. Was this how her brothers had felt going to war for the first time on battlefields? Walter had seen the beauty in even the most dire of situations. She even wished Little Jim was here with her to see it, a wrong choice because she wasn't sure which heartbreak was worse at this point, Walter or Little Jims, as one was still alive and the other wasn't.
The mountains were there in the distance; somehow, they still amazed her after days of flat land on the prairies she passed through. The beckoning haze surrounding twilight called to her. Was this fairyland? Was this what fairyland was in Canada? Smoke, haze, and wonder greeted her through the Rocky Mountains. They spent a week on the island, in a small cabin. A belated honeymoon in many ways, traipsing through woodland areas and bathing in secluded waterfalls. The thick misty fog fell around them at dawn and dusk. Rilla could only imagine they were in another world. Blue haze sparkled around her as she twirled in the rising sun, oh the photos she would take of this woodland for her own memories.
Other times she dreamed of home, more often than not, she dreamed of home but kept those to herself. She missed the secret meetings and stolen kisses when her father wasn't around, how he tutted at them when he did catch them together alone when they shouldn't have been. She missed the red dirt of the roads that got on everything and the overall familiarity of her, but she was a married woman now.
She had to adjust, so on those homesick days, she rides the ferry across the harbour for fun, to feel the wind in her face and the cold brush of salt in the air. It reminds her of home enough when she is out of the water. Eventually, she even takes Ken's brownie camera with her to take photos of the mountains to mail home, wishing colour photos were more accessible so they could see what she saw on her adventures. On other days, she wanders the streets of Vancouver. Sometimes in Yaletown, other times in Gastown, where she finds things to buy for herself and for her new home. A new dress, or a teal sweater and dark red skirt, is a turn of fashion that is unlike her childhood and teen years. She even cuts her long, ruddy hair into a bob after Ken suggests it would be rather stylish on her, even if it meant sleeping in pin curls and a silk scarf every night despite Ken still being awake to see her in such a fashion.
What she didn't expect was the weather to be colder in a bone-chilling way; she sometimes missed the humidity of her home island. She even visits Chinatown often enough that a few shop owners know her name and give her little extra's and recipes at times. What would her parents think if they knew she was at street vendors in the market or at tables in opalescent restaurants as she learned how to eat with chopsticks?
Her sisters write to her, Nan, about the wedding that she hoped her sister would be there for, and Di begs for an invitation out there as she wants to see the world. Faith got England; Nan visited Montreal with Jerry and Jem. She wanted to see more of the world.
A ripple in the water catches her attention, and she sighs. The harbour seals were out today in full swing as she brought her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on her knees. How many months has she been here now? She lost count of weeks at this point. Maybe it was a good idea for Di to come out and visit and meet new people.
"I knew I would find you here," Ken's voice comes up behind her. "Always near a lighthouse if you can be."
"It reminds me of home," Rilla says quietly as he sits down beside her. 'Reminds me of you as well, but no matter how homesick I get, the mountains in front of us remind me how beautiful it is here."