Chapter 23

The next leg of our journey was to meet my ex-wife and kids. I was looking forward to this but for obvious reasons, Jennifer was somewhat anxious. Hard as I tried, I didn’t seem to be able to ease her anxiety. As I was starting out on the journey that led me to Haida Gwaii, I’d gone and met my ex-wife and the two boys and had done some to fence mending. My wife and I had talked on the phone several times and she was aware of the situation around Jennifer and that I had proposed.

The air trip was, as most trips are, uneventful thoughtis seems we spend more time getting on and off the plane than we do actually flying. Once we were on the ground with our luggage, we headed off to the hotel and checked into our suite. “Jennifer, my love, (oh how I like the sound of that!), I’m going to take a nap. Care to cuddle with me?”

I didn’t take long for Jennifer to strip to her undies and the two of us lay down and, snuggled up to one another, had a sleep. It seemed like no time at all passed before we heard our wakeup call.

I’d arranged with the concierge for a cab to take us to my ex-wife’s home. After a relatively short ride we arrived and were delighted to see the whole works of them standing outside waiting for us – Mary and her husband Don, my sons Harry and Ken and Harry’s wife Rachel.

I turned to Jennifer and said “I think your fears can be put to rest.” Jennifer smiled and visibly relaxed. As soon as the cab stopped Mary came out on the street to meet us. “Wally, how nice to see you again, and Jennifer, I’m glad to meet you finally. I’ve seen Wally’s pictures and he’s told me all about you but I’m glad to meet you in person. Let’s all go inside.” Mary and Jennifer headed for the house and after I paid the cab driver I followed.

Once inside, introductions were made. Of course I knew the boys but both Don and Rachel were new. It almost immediately seemed like we’d been close friends forever. I looked at Jennifer and she gave me a big smile letting me know she was happy. During the conversations, Jennifer and my wedding came up. After explaining the accommodation issue, we assured them that we’d come to visit again on our honeymoon.

Harry and Phillip both wanted to talk about Haida Gwaii. “I dug out that old atlas that we had and couldn’t find Haida Gwaii anywhere,” Henry said. “Finally Phillip suggested we Google it and I discovered that the name had changed. It sound like a pretty remote place but it also sounds like a pretty neat place with all the totem poles and stuff. How come you ended up there?”

Over the next half hour or so I told them of my wanderings and finding that I felt at ease for the first time when I got to Haida Gwaii. Everyone had questions and of course the discussion finally got to how Jennifer and I met. Jennifer looked at me and I nodded for her to tell the story. She went a bit further than I had expected when she told about some of the things that happened while her arm was in the sling. Lots of laughs and some good natured “naughty, naughty” comments aimed at me.

While Mary, Jennifer and Rachel went into the kitchen to bring out the coffee and squares, Don started asking me about the issues of living ‘off the grid’. Henry and Phillip chimed in that they wondered about that as well. I told them what I’d done with the original cabin to make it somewhat livable by today’s standards and what we’d been able to do with the new house. I promised to send a bunch of pictures of the new house once we got back home – and the wedding dealt with, of course.

Finally the time came to leave. I’d made arrangements to contact the driver who brought us to Mary and Don’s house and I called him to come back and pick us up. I got Don and Mary and the kids to agree to meet us for lunch the next day and with that we said our good nights and headed back to the hotel.

I’d rented a car for a few days and in the morning went and picked it up. The hotel had a parking stall for me in their garage which meant I didn’t have to search for a parking space. I guess if you rent one of the most expensive suites in the hotel, little things like a reserved parking space is pretty easy to come by.