Lögberg-Heimskringla - 22.04.2005, Page 2

Lögberg-Heimskringla - 22.04.2005, Page 2
2 * Lögberg-Heimskringla » Friday 22 April 2005 Her I Q | saved bu a 50 lí I boat THE ‘UNLIKELY' PROSPECT OF A WRITER FROM RURAL SASKATCHEWAN PHOTO: DAVID JÓN FULLER Joan Eyolfson Cadham is a writer living in Foam Lake, SK. ly realized that if I was going David Jón Fuller Foam Lake, SK Somethingsarebestleamed in a one-room schoolhouse. For Joan Eyolfson Cadham, that was a love of language. “It was a fortuitous combi- nation of a one-room country school, with kids from grade one to grade eight, and nine and 10 taking correspondence, and an absolutely magical teacher name Marion Ford.” Ford realized Joan could already read and made sure she had books that were at her level. “She also read to us after lunch every day. What I remem- ber her reading to the grade eights and nines and tens is classic poetry. And she told me later, after I moved back here [from Quebec], that she looked at me across the room and she said, ‘Your pencil would be on the floor on one side, your note- book would be on the floor on the other side, yöu’d have your chin on your hands and it never occurred to me to tell you to get back to work, because I figured you were working really, really hard.’” “It was that cadence of words that were well put to- gether and read by somebody that read beautifully and with passion, and I think that taught me how sentences should flow and how they should sound.” In the process, she absorbed many words she didn’t know — and was too embarrased to ask about. “I leamed there was a Iot of stuff you didn’t ask adults about, so I carried words around in my head for up to ten years before I found out what they meant.” Though she now lives on her income as a freelance writ- er, Joan says it wasn’t always easy to think of herself writing professionally. In the 1940s and 50s, she says, “girls were sup- posed to be teachers, or nurses, or clerks, and writers came from London, England, and Los Angeles, and New York, and Toronto.” Nevertheless, she rebelled against becoming a teacher, even threatening to join the Air Force. She enrolled in joumalism at Ryerson Polytechnic in To- ronto. “Funny thing is though, the sense that a writer can’t come from rural Saskatchewan was burnt right into me, and I worked briefly at United Church Publishing House, and fled into an unsuccessful marriage. It was almost like the self-fulfill- ing prophecy: you couldn’t be a writer and come from rural Sas- katchewan, so I wasn’t going to be one. And I raised kids, I taught nursery school, and then I spent 26 years [working] wilh emotionally disturbed kids.”' Those 26 years in Montreal eventually burned her out, and a second marriage came and went before she met her late husband Jack, who was restoring a boat. When she started helping him, she had a revelation. “I discov- ered that there was something absolutey soul-saving about sanding old wooden boats,” she says. “I was working with emo- tionally disturbed kids. And I had a house full of teens and preteens, and I could go down to the boat and I could work on it, and if I sanded it all day, it wouldn’t unsand itself while I was at home. Somewhere in sanding an old wooden boat, right along the shores of Lake St. Louis, I started writing. I couldn’t stop. I had to carry a notebook with me. And I íinal- to work that hard, that’s what 1 was going to do.” She retumed to Foam Lake and has written for many pub- lications, including the Foam Lake Review, CBC Radio, and is the author of two books, Bent But Not Broken and Red Right Returning, both published by Shoreline Press. Currently, she is contribut- ing her writing and editing to The Wynyard Stoiy, a history book which is to be published this year. Despite the uncertain in- come, Joan has no regrets about her career. “It’s fun and I get to meet the most fascinating peo- ple on the face of the earth.” Does she have any words of advice for aspiring writers? “Do it!” she says. “Don’t let anybody tell you, ‘Dearie, there’s no money in it, you should get yourself a real job.’” ARGYLE Transfer Ltd. Specializing in livestock transportation Wally &. Linda Finnbogason Stonewall, MB Wally 467-8822 Mobile 981-1666 Daryl 322-5743 Mobile 981-5460 ybur ‘Trusteifftdvisorfor !%euf'Estate Services in tfie 'Etfnonton Slrea Bob Gislason (780) 431-5600 ROYALLePAGE Noralta Roal Estata www.BobtheRealtor.ca Lögberg-Heimskringla proudly sponsors [ \ The 2005 lcelandic . #pen Come ouf and svvíng like a Vikíng! Oon t Delay. It s alvvays a sellout! Tke Stk áuauuU IceicuuUc Opeti AT LINKS ON THE LAKE, GIMLI, MB WHEN Friday, July 29,2005 TIME 9:30 AMto 10:30 am START 11:00 AM ShotGun Start FORMAT Texas Scramble /18 holes of golf / cart provided C0ST $150.00 perperson DinnertofollowatJohnson Hall 6 pm Entry also indudes lunch, tee box gift and prizes for everyone! C0NTESTS Putting and Driving EARLYBIRDENTRY: RegisterbyJune 1 tosecureyourteam andtobeeligibleforonefreeentrytonextyear's2006Toumament For registration and sponsorship information please contact Registration Chairman, Brian Tomasson at the L-H 204-284-5686 or 1-866-564-2374 or e-mail: lh@lh-inc.ca 86th ANNUAL INL of NA CONVENTION '&uHe ^V<uue fo " VATNABYGGÐ, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA April 28, 29, 30, May 1, 2005 CONFERENCE: Wynyard Civic Centre ÞORRABLÓT (Sat. evening): Foam Lake Community Hall YOU MUST BE PRE-REGISTERED VATNABYGGÐ CONTACTS: Joan Eyolfson Cadham 306-272-4994 / cadham@sasktel.net Dave or Audrey Shepherd 306-554-4131 / ol.shepherd@sasktel.net Registration form available at www.inlofna.org or www.lh-inc.ca Visit us on the web at http://www.lh-inc.ca

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