Community Letters

I never meant to stay….

I came to Thetis to temporarily live with my parents, while sorting out housing after a business transfer from Vancouver to Duncan.  38 years ago. One thing led to another, and with the ferry commuting being a near daily occurrence, I met a guy, fell in love, and stayed put, with lots of future commuting!

At 24 moving from a full-on city experience to the rural sanity of Thetis was an eye-opener. Although Thetis had been part of our family’s life since the early sixties, and our parents had retired here to make it their home, I didn’t realize how quickly it would embrace me. This was the same year that the Thetis Island Community Association got started.  I remember sitting on logs on the property at some of the earliest meetings. The plans that were dreamt!   

We’ve held great events, even without a building.  Bingo - Thetis Island Day - Fall Harvest Dinners…  As our lives moved along, and our family and farm grew, so did the Community Property.  The building was started, and yup, I was on that building committee.  We had to make hard decisions.  We couldn’t do it all.  Not at once.  We had a plan for future add-ons, we found money (which was a huge effort), and thankfully Thetis Islanders showed their typical generosity. 

Having a venue to create events was wonderful, whether it was holding a simple potluck to celebrate being stranded on Thetis while docks were rebuilt, or to originating Ladies Night, where I saw so many women joining in, both in song and laughter.  Some staying long after the crowd had dispersed to be fortunate to be one of the late night singers that witnessed a young girl being encouraged to hit a High C while we belted out Oh Holy Night, and then watched as that same girl became a woman who went on to study opera. And then as she came back to the hall several times to share her talent with us all. There were so many stand-alone moments like these over the years, each one a brick in our foundation. 

To be in that cheerful & loving space as the community gathers to bid farewell to those who are starting new chapters, or to say good-bye to those whose stories have ended. We congregate to discuss, pray, celebrate, determine, cook, play, exercise, learn, laugh, eat, perform, and be entertained. Forbes Hall has become so much more than I ever thought at those early log-sitting days. 

I feel sure that all those who are no longer here, but had the early visions of what a community center could be to their friends & neighbours, would be terrifically proud of just how far their dreams and foresight would reach. 

I am so honoured to be a part of the original dream, all the ones in between, and the dream that is actualizing in our hands. 

Ann Dickie