Fearless After Fifty

Not a second childhood

Fiona Grisswell — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 18:15:31 +0000

When I was 8 years old, my family went on a month-long holiday to the Yukon.

Of all our vacations, this one stands out in my memory. I fell in love with its rugged beauty and tried desperately to convince my parents to move there. I'm pretty sure my dad was on board with the idea but mom was a bit more practical.

I never forgot that summer and somewhere in the back of my mind I imagined living there one day.

This never came to pass but when I travelled to the South Cariboo for the first time, the Yukon lost its spot in my heart.

This photo? It's what I woke up to my first morning in Lone Butte. This was the moment when I decided to move.

Of course, I did not make the decision then and there. Uprooting my life and leaving the security of family, home and career was not an easy decision to make.

I could survive for three months off the money I had in the bank. After that? Well, failure was not an option in my mind.

I had three months to get my business off the ground. No small feat but I found a few clients and settled in to make ends meet.

I would work for a couple of hours in the morning, knocking off around 10 a.m. to go for a walk in the woods with the dog. After chasing anything that moved over the next hour Griff would crash on his blanket when we got home while I went back to my laptop.

I was rattled when the pandemic hit. At first, it seemed as though I could ride things out. But as the shutdown dragged on, my jobs dried up.

What to do - somehow I needed to earn money to keep Griffin in dog food and bones.

When the kids were small I had a job cleaning an emergency clinic in northern Manitoba. Cleaning houses proved easier and led to cleaning offices and light yard work in the area.

Eventually, I took on auto-detailing and wound up scrubbing everything from side-by-sides to excavators.

Some months were a little leaner than others but overall, life was pretty good.

I found I enjoyed the physical labour although detailing on hot days sucked. On the days when I could not postpone a job, I learned to quickly wipe panels down so the cleaner did not dry under the relentless sun.

Going home to my basement suite was a joy. I'd collapse on the sofa and after guzzling a huge glass of water and giving the dog love I would pack up a meal of finger foods and take the kayak out on the lake - slowly drifting back to shore as the sun began to slip below the horizon.

Once a week my stained shirts and ratty pants went in the wash on the heavy-duty cycle. The smell of cleaner permeated the seats in the Sequoia, making me wrinkle my nose as I slipped behind the wheel.

A far cry from the air-conditioned comfort of the office where I dressed in business casual and stepped out for lunch at the corner sushi restaurant.

And the grandkids loved my new home almost as much as me.

We hung off the dock and scooped up tadpoles with the bug nets I bought them for chasing butterflies.

There were hastily eaten picnic suppers at the local swimming lake. I would be left to tidy up the mess while they laughed and splashed in the cool green water.

We never caught any fish but we tried. My grandson still gives me grief for losing his favourite fishing lure. My knots need some work!

One of my best memories is kayaking in the rain with my oldest granddaughter.

It was heaven on earth.

15 Things To Do After 50

Fiona Grisswell — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 01:21:13 +0000

Learn to quilt
Go on a solo road trip
Take up bird watching
Get chickens for eggs - they are such characters!
Go on a ghost hunt
If you've never had a pedicure, get one
Get an inexpensive telescope and look at the stars and planets
Learn to dance
Go white water rafting
Go back to school
Catch tadpoles with the grandkids
Make a bucket list (and whittle away at it over time)
Plan that trip you never had time to take in the past
If you've never had a pet, get one
Start a container garden and grow tomatoes

10 random things about me

Fiona Grisswell — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 22:28:51 +0000

Waterfalls are one of my favourite things - visiting one is usually my gift to me every year on my birthday. This is Canim Lake Falls, one of 41 named falls located in Wells Gray Park in British Columbia. My favourite thing is to work my way around to the top of the falls and dangle my feet in the water while listening to the power of the water crashing to the ground below.
Most of the photos on the blog are taken with my cell phone. I now have a digital camera and am taking a course to learn how to take amazing photos (that is the hope anyway!)
I love to garden. I do NOT have a green thumb and routinely kill any house plants left in my care. I do better with green things that grow outside for some reason. At least until the deer gobble them up.
Red Smarties are the best in my opinion.
I love frogs. They have such a neat appearance and they are so cool! One way to tell the health of an ecosystem is to look at the frog populations. I am not quite ready to embrace the gray. Are you?
I played the French Horn in our 100+ county band for six years. It was work but in the end I benefited from it in so many ways. We toured most of Canada from Grade 7-12.
I am incredibly near-sighted without my glasses these days. When did I reach the stage where I need to take photos of the teeny tiny text on packaging so I can enlarge and read it on my phone???
This year I learned how to make perogies from scratch and how to bake hamburger and hotdog buns. I also figured out how to cook a hot dog in the microwave that winds up tasting like it was done on the grill.
It took me until I turned 60 to discover I love football.
I am not an extreme hot weather person but wound up moving to an area which is routinely the hot spot in Canada.

Learning how to toss it all away

Fiona Grisswell — Mon, 15 Jul 2024 19:22:03 +0000

Where to begin?

As a writer, I find other people’s stories fascinating; By comparison, my own life story seemed rather dull and ordinary.

It wasn’t until after a conversation with a friend that I came to see my existence in a different light. My life may not be the stuff of legends, but it’s not quite the humdrum existence it seemed to be.

It was around five years ago when I realized I was bored. And frustrated. I was tired of traffic, noise and all the other things that go along with city life. Living in a city I could not have a dog either.

But I had such a good job, complete with benefits, a pension, and paid vacation. I had created a good life. Good friends.

My kids were living their own lives by now and I had….nothing that brought me contentment in my day-to-day existence.

It was the summer of 2019 when I went to visit a friend in a tiny little place called Lone Butte in British Columbia.

I seriously thought I was being put on when he told me the name as I could not find it on any maps. Until I looked on Google and zoomed in…and zoomed in some more…and zoomed in even more.

There it was!

I did not realize it at the time but my heart fell for the South Cariboo during that first visit.

A month went by and I felt the lack in my life even more.

I went for another visit. This time I brought the dog I had adopted knowing I would find the perfect place to live and a job and all the other things my heart was telling me I was missing in my perfect life.

I found the perfect place out in the boonies just a two-minute walk to the lake and the dock where I would keep my kayak. Not that I owned one at that point.

Everybody thought I was nuts and gave me a year tops before I came to my senses and moved back to civilization.

But I didn’t. Instead, I set about making the perfect life for myself.

I hung out under night skies so big and clear I felt I could reach out and touch the stars.

The sounds of nature lulled me into dreams each night.

Morning coffee spent watching the sun rise in colours unique to Mother Nature.

The chickens that followed me when I went to take photos of the Canada Geese and their babies.

Getting to know the tiny community was an adventure in itself - the characters, the historians, the volunteers, the farm people, the horsey people and so many more.

I decided to work for myself doing invitation design. As I had the dog this allowed me to be home with him instead of leaving him alone for during the day.

Everything was off to a promising start when the pandemic hit. Suddenly there was no call for invitations.

So I took up cleaning.

I cleaned houses and offices, did yard work, and detailed trucks, cars, RVs, dump trucks and all manner of heavy equipment. Thinking about the layers of grime coating the big machines used fighting forest fires still sends a shiver down my spine.

After purchasing a pair of work boots, I went to to work at the local recycling centre.

It was hard work but I thrived.

I did manage to take on a few graphic design jobs before fate intervened and I was hired as a multi-media journalist for the local paper.

I covered it all.

From dancing turkeys to ghost hunters to bird watchers and botanists. The athletes, the crafters, the volunteers and the politicians. The horse people, the artists, the dancers and those who try to make a difference.

I’ve bowled with the White Cane Club while wearing glasses that simulate what it is like to be sight-impaired. I went cross-country skiing for the first time in 40 years and shared pictures with the community of the bumps and the bliss of the afternoon. (My editor had way too much fun snapping photos of me sprawled in the snow banks.) My lack of artistic skill was put on display as I tried to paint two ceramic frogs - Frodo and Frieze, I’m sorry.

The creativity of people astounded me and I laughed and cried as I learned their stories.

Then, ten months ago I decided to go back to school full-time. After a couple of months, I realized that going to school while working full-time was too much to handle.

Thankfully, my boss was understanding and I cut back to part-time hours. It was a nice feeling to be in bed again before midnight@

It was at that time my situation took a turn and I made the decision to leave the forests of British Columbia for the wheat fields of Saskatchewan.

The day when I handed in my notice was a hard one. I loved the work and have never worked with such an amazing group of people.

So it was, on a cold and snowy day in January 2024, I packed up what would fit in my jeep and put the rest of my belongings in storage, With tears in my eyes I began the long drive to the prairies.

But that is another story.

The last five years have been incredible. My experiences have taught me to reach out and grab life with both hands; I’ve hit black ice from time-to-time and wound up skidding into the ditch but I always managed to ease my way out again.

My perfect life is far from perfect. But it brings me a level of happiness and a feeling of contentment I was missing.

Some days I am still amazed I dared to toss everything away and begin this new stage of my life.

Let the adventure continue!