I started out life in a small village on the south shore of Lake Ontario. Yes–Wilson, New York is in the States. The first years of my life were focussed on reading, fishing and playing both baseball and the clarinet. By the 60’s I was doing graduate work in biology in Philadelphia–my first big city experience. Then came teaching in Massachusetts and western Minnesota–my prairie experience. All in all, I’ve lived in six US states and two Canadian provinces.
By the mid 70’s I moved on from teaching to what I later recognized as having varied interests–I have been a generalist ever since. For a short time, I had five part-time jobs! Renewed church life led to working (‘81-’85) with an international church group in Nepal–my Asian rural community development experience.
This piqued my interest in studying theology. I ended up with my fourth and final degree from the University of Toronto. Far more life changing / life enhancing than the studies was meeting Clara. Our relationship began on Nov 1, 1987–the beginning of my lesbian experience!
Continuing the theological theme, we moved to Kingston, Ontario in 1990 so Clara could do a Masters of Theological Studies program at Queen’s. Lucky us–we moved into a brand new co-op housing unit. Soon Clara’s daughter and youngest son were living with us with the two older boys frequently passing through our home.
Home moved on to a series of two houses that we purchased–both along the main rail line into Kingston that serviced both VIA and freight trains. In 2012 we began meeting with a group of friends to talk about creating a cohousing community. One of the places we explored as a group was a number of properties on Wolfe Island–the first and largest of the Thousand Island at the start of the St. Lawrence River. The cohousing group came to realize that we didn’t have enough interest nor the energy to continue. In the meantime, Clara and I moved to Wolfe Island in 2013. The Island is a small, rural community so had many elements of cooperative living.
Fast forward to November 2020–while in the midst of COVID, we happened on the website for Treehouse. Even though we initially couldn’t get our heads around moving to Nova Scotia, by February 2021, we were Treehouse equity members. In June, we moved into an apartment in Bridgewater to await the construction of our new home and to get to know our new community.
Many pots of soup later (cooked to feed the weekend construction helpers), we were the first to move into Treehouse on July 29, 2023. Eventually the dust (literally) settled, plywood counter tops were replaced with the real thing and, best of all, more new neighbours moved in.
To summarize my three years at Treehouse–watching deer, celebrating first garden plantings, walking on the trail to the library, getting to know the amazing folks living in the other 29 homes and continuing to ponder the mysteries, joys and challenges of living in cohousing…
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