I sort of stepped out of the world for the last three weeks as I dealt with the unexpected death of my husband Bob.
My heartfelt thanks to all of you who, in so many ways, helped our family cope.
The world I stepped back into hasn’t changed but I am looking at it through different eyes.
The snowfall has been interesting.
Bob was “on the road” for 31 years and, in winter, snow was a big part of our lives because he had to keep the roads open.
We rarely got to celebrate New Years because there was always a big dump of snow after Christmas and he had to work.
In the early 1960s a humongous dump of snow stopped everything in the Cariboo for days.
Telephone lines were down, no way for anyone to communicate.
Bob was at Anahim Lake.
It took him four days to plough his way home to Alexis Creek where the boys and I were among the many snowed in.
It was kind of fun except I ran out of matches and had to get up in the night to keep the wood fires going.
I’ve often wondered how we‘d do today with a snowfall like that.
No communications problems now, and machines are more powerful, but are people as well prepared?
This year’s snow was predicted, but the green Christmas fooled us.
Newcomers were startled when the snow kept coming, but hey, this is the Cariboo and it’s supposed to snow in January.
It’s supposed to be cold, too. Really, all’s right with the world, especially if the snow stays around long enough to do some good.
Incidentally, this snow isn’t a sign the climate has stopped changing. It’s just weather.
Weather is what we get, short term.
Climate change is what to expect long-term (I had to get that in).
Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.