Geography Lessons

My sister Hilary lives in Calgary.  For those of you who have been anywhere in Canada this past month, not living under a rock, this little fact should resonate and immediately instill a feeling of cold sogginess.

It also just so happened that Hilary’s birthday landed on the  “uncertain” day of the flooding.  Where towns “around Calgary” were being evacuated and specifics had yet to be divulged.  Her little town of Okotoks, I am reluctant to admit, is “about 20 min from Calgary” in which direction I am unsure but close enough that for family she was in the “worry zone”.  If I have learned anything from this week it is that my Alberta geography knowledge is severely lacking.

It just so happens that we had reason to worry.   I learned this all via text messages which started with the inocuous “Happy Birthday’ and culminated in frequent updates on the flood and evacuation situation from her hospital.

My sister was one of the heroes.  As an OT at the local hospital, she diligently showed up to work (on her BIRTHDAY!!!) unknowingly committing herself to a 48 hour work day that climaxed in a code green evacuation from the roof and didn’t end until 1:30am a few days later after she had successfully managed to transfer each of the 120 patients into evacuation vehicles and off to safety.  Only then did she return home to check on her own house and husband, which were (thankfully) just fine.

During the course of these days of short-texted-updates, it suddenly became important to me to share this scenario with Toby, both to help drive home to him the reality of world events and to bring him closer to his Aunt Hilary.

Toby listened very attentively as I told him the story of the floods and of Aunt Hilary who was stuck at work, at a hospital, helping patients out (just like Mommy does) on her BIRTHDAY.

 We took a brief respite as I ran into the local strawberry farm to pick up a flight of strawberries for Rob to freeze that night.  We got side tracked by the delicious snap peas and asparagus.  Toby loved perusing the produce and we had an enjoyable stop over.  I had all but forgotten our previous discussion but Toby hadn’t.  I hadn’t even turned the car back on before he piped up,

“Ok, Mommy, tell me that story about Aunt Hilary again but start from the BEGINNING this time and go more SLOWLY.”

And so I started again.  I explained about rivers and floods and spring run off.  I talked about rain and precipitation and the prairies.  I was interrupted once to clarify the discrepancy from my first version of the story in which I said the waters came up “to about halfway up Mommy’s car” and the second version when I stated that the waters were so high people needed to be rescued by helicopter or boats from their roofs.  In hindsight I recognize the gravity in this error – there is a HUGE difference between “half way up a car’s” height and “to the roof of your house” height.  Toby was at full attention and there was NO putting anything past him.

It wasn’t until I moved on to politics, evacuation policies and job requirements that Toby revealed to me his level of understanding.

“OH, I get it, Mommy.  It’s kind of like in the three little pigs.  When the first guy had his straw house blown down he moved to his BROTHER’S house.  And then when THAT was blown down they both moved to the BRICK house.   That’s called an EV-A-CU-A-TION”

I guess he had gotten it.  Sort of.   And the question that came next was obvious- what would WE do if we ever got evacuated?

I reassured him that we would probably just go to Grandma Lynda’s house in Toronto if we were ever evacuated.

“Oh well that would be just FINE then,” he said with a shrug and a flick of his wrist, “Grandma has LOTS of toys.”

And just like that all of his worries about the scenario had ended.   How simple life can be for these little creatures.

At the end of the day Hilary is just fine; she is back home with her shrewd husband who chose to build on high ground.  Toby has attained a little knowledge about evacuations, geography and flood politics as well as a bit more context for his Aunt Hilary who, previous to this, had been known mainly for the awesomeness of her last few Christmas gifts.  And I humbly admit to having benefited as well – not only do I have a better sense of Alberta geography but also a newfound respect for my sister and her dedication to our mutual work in healthcare.

Well done, Hil.  I’m glad you’re safe.