Dear Canada, you seduced me at age 11 in Trinidad! At Christmas time, as a yearly ritual, my mom bought red-delicious apples with proud little B.C. stickers. She wanted no other kind.
Curious about the letters “B.C.,” I biked to the nearby American library, where a kind librarian gladly showed me a map of Canada, highlighting B.C.
I returned home, childishly naïve and wildly excited, pronouncing that I would go to B.C. one day. Quizzically, my mom looked on, then said: “OK,” but inquired: “Why B.C.?”
I replied: “To get more apples!” I still buy red-delicious apples. I believe I also came “because of Christ,” my faith birthed in Trinidad and nurtured in Canada.
Fast track to 1963: St. Francois Girls High school, my all-girls grammar school. Four caring Canadian teachers on an exchange program landed at our doors. Excitement galore!
I became close to Verna, my biology teacher, who had us running around catching butterflies in the surrounding hills. Dave taught us chemistry. He was very serious. I loved chemistry.
Margaret, our witty librarian, fostered in me a beginning love for research and shared her ideas of “love” at a class retreat on a nearby island. We girls chuckled at night as we pondered over her philosophy of love, not having a clue.
Then there was our wild, rum-loving gym teacher, who danced with two left feet on tables.
Those dedicated, truly loving Canadians left an indelible impression on me. “Give me a girl at an impressionable age, and she is mine for life” (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Sparks). My Canadian teachers lit a blazing fire in my soul.
Verna returned to Calgary in 1967. I contacted her about studying in Canada. She wrote my mom saying she would be a “surrogate mom” and help guide me should my mom agree.
With my mom’s love and blessings, I alighted on Canadian soil as a teenager in 1968. Verna has since died, but memories of her quicken me; so does my love for her, Calgary and Canada. I say this with a tender heart and a warm glow of gratitude that sustains me.
Time has since etched my life with a profound experiencing of the holy, hard-earned maturity through acute loss, healing and resilience, a legacy of love endowed to me by my beloved, deceased husband and children, world travel, immense joy, doctoral studies, and a dedication to raising consciousness and educating lives. All the while living life from the inside out with much humility.
Canada continues to provide the womb to grow and to become. At age 11, my instincts were spot on. I am indebted to this land, its beauty and loving people who have autographed my life. I came, I tasted and I stayed. I chose the best country as my home. Thanks, dearest mom. Thanks, Canada. Lucky me, eh!
Shanti Persaud holds a PhD in counselling psychology from the University of Victoria, where she teaches in the masters of counselling program.
