(Anne Remmel, an artist with a Ph.D. in Education Theory, has aptly captured the interplay between family heritage and Canadian reality in this third installment of her forthcoming book “My Hyphenated Life”).
(Part two can be found here.)
Instead, I find a very special and small moss-covered area under the hickory tree at the back where I will build my little farm with plastic farm animals. The moss is soft and the perfect yard for my little farm. There is a big rock beside my little farm, which I think is really a mountain.
This is a unique cottage in that Aunt Hilda and Uncle Volli live on the other side of the dividing middle wall. My mother and aunt have convinced their husbands that this way, we are separate, yet together. It is a Viceroy, pre-cut building which gets assembled by builders in rapid order. There is a living area, tiny kitchen and one bedroom. Mother and I sleep in one bed, father sleeps in the kitchen. His snoring resounds, as usual, through the whole building. There are also two separate outhouses. These are pretty gross, especially as summer gets hot and the smell, even when mixed with lye, is overpowering.
