As I mentioned in the introduction to my Serendipity 2013 blog, I am collecting some of the instances of synchronicity that fascinate me. The most recent occurred a few days ago as our tour group enjoyed an evening of Slovenian food and music.
We were chatting about our various cities of origin and
heard the laughter of a large group of Icelanders at a nearby table. That sparked Rick from BC to mention his Icelandic and Norwegian ancestry. It quickly emerged that his Norwegian grandparents were part of a small group of settlers who had tried unsuccessfully to establish their community at Cape Scott on the harsh northwestern coast of Vancouver Island near Port Hardy. This was of great interest to me as a couple of years ago, my partner and I had hiked in to the beach at Cape Scott after a 50 km drive on old logging roads that took 2 hours because of nature of the terrain. While we explored the overgrown vestiges of the homes and school and church that the settlers had been forced to abandon, we marvelled at the tenacity and courage of these people who had come to a new land with such high hopes. If it had taken us so long by modern car and roads, imagine the struggle they had even getting to the coast much less building homes etc. As the sun dappled through the trees over the ruins, one could imagine the families laughing and enjoying the warming weather of spring. Our walk to the shore revealed a misty beach with waves swirling around black rocks. Empty.
I feel honoured to have met a descendant of those brave pioneers. While Rick's grandfather succumbed to the stress of their difficult situation, his grandmother raised their 7 children and carried on until the age of 92.
Rick has flown over Cape Scott but has never been there himself.
My thoughts: By taking the time to get to know each other a bit better, I was able to learn what had happened to a family that I had wondered about and Rick will have recent pictures of where his family settled so long ago.
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