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| Path: Main Street : NewsWeek : Archive : Coffee with Cam Articles : Article |
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The Cabin
By Cam Tait
September 11, 2006
When the e-mail crossed my screen with two words in the subject line, I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. I knew what it was about. I knew I had to open in. But I just wanted to wheel away, close my computer and pretend nothing had changed. I knew within my heart of hearts that I couldn't do that.
When we were kids our parents hooked up a holiday trailer and headed toward British Columbia for summer holidays. One year my dad asked if we would like to head east to Saskatchewan instead. Nobody went there, my brother and sister protested. "We want B.C." Dad overruled us and we went to Saskatchewan that year. It was 1970.
Dad grew up in the small town of Meota, just north of North Battleford on Jackfish Lake. When we arrived at our destination that summer our reservations quickly disappeared as Mom and Dad took us to the sandy beach along the lake. "But," I wondered aloud, "where are all the people like the beaches in B.C.?"
Dad still laughs at that story today.
The next year my folks found a little house overlooking the lake. And I do mean little. It was built in 1911 and had two rooms and an outdoor washroom. It became ours and for the next 15 years the little shack was our paradise for a month each summer. But in the late 1970s we outgrew it and built a cabin on the other side of town. It was bigger and better - with running water and a shower - but the big thing missing was the view of the lake. Still, Meota was a wonderful place to grow up as a teenager. It had a population of 231, 236 when our family was in town. I learned about living in a small town, about farming, about being able to go out for the evening and leaving the front door unlocked and not worrying about a thing.
The year before my father retired, we started building a two-storey house on the lot of our original two-room cabin. It gave us a beautiful view of the lake and a modernized home. We moved in during May of 1988 and it was the beginning of a wonderful two decades. We spent many family holidays there and kept making memories. A great time for my wife and I was in 1998 when we spent Christmas at the cabin with my folks. Just before my father went upstairs to bed, he proudly said: "We made history. I never thought I would ever spend a Christmas here after I left in the 1940s."
We kept going to the lake and promised we would always keep it in the family. All three of us 'kids' have families of our own now and we wanted so dearly to keep the cabin for the grandchildren.
But things didn't work out.
We decided as a family to put the cabin up for sale this past spring. My parents are not well, and even though we tried to think of ways to keep it in the family, we couldn't. So I opened the e- mail from my brother - the one that said 'The Cabin' in the subject line - and read what I had suspected. It had been sold to a young couple.
It happened on Labour Day Monday. Fitting, when you think about it, since we always used that Monday to say goodbye to the cabin for the winter. This year we said farewell forever.
Cam Tait is a sports reporter for the Edmonton Journal. He covered charitable issues for almost 20 years. Thoughts, comments, ideas or a simple hello are welcomed at cam@charityvillage.com.
Opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of CharityVillage.com®.
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