I need to correct my May 5 column. Rose was not from Wisconsin, but Minnesota. I know this because Jenna Perry and me revisited the letter we found before visiting with Alice Richardson. Alice, having read my column, kindly called to let me know that she had once met Rose, and would I like to hear the story?
Naturally, I said yes. So like blindfolded explorers following a single string through the web of history, we went and sat at Alice Richardson’s kitchen table.
Alice is the longest-running resident of Tlell, having been here over 60 years. Her son Don Richardson takes a close second. She was five months pregnant with him when she arrived in 1953. She met Rose only once.
“Where’s that baby? Where’s that baby girl?!” boomed Rose’s raucous voice through the Richardson home in 1959. She was referring to Gwen, Alice and Doug’s only daughter, the first baby girl Richardson born in 50 years.
Rose had married Anna Beitush’s (née Giegerich) brother Napoleon Bonaparte. No, I’m not making that up. Nick Giegerich, who moved to Tlell from the United States in 1908, had four children with his first wife. They were Anna, Mary, John… and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Alice laughed when she relayed this to us, musing that the parents had either had a really bad day, or really good wine, to come up with a name like that. He was their eldest, so perhaps they learned more conservative names worked better after that. They called him Nappy for short. This was Rose’s husband.
Alice’s memory of Rose pretty much ends there, but the story of Anna Beitush was one she was familiar with and willing to share.
Sitting at Alice’s kitchen table is something of privilege. It felt much like I was being granted access to the Tlell inner sanctum.
Much of what Alice shared with us I would have to redact, were I bold enough to put it in print. But between her and Jenna, an image of life in Tlell began to emerge as the story of one person linked to the stories of all those around them.
Rose and Anna were sisters-in-law. They had a close relationship, perhaps closer than that of Anna and her husband Bob Beitush.
Anna married him when she was 27 and he 52. It was known in the community that this was not a marriage of love, but more a marriage so they could farm together.
However, two children were produced. One was Virginia, and the other was Bobby. Unfortunately, back then, post-partum depression was not at all understood. When Bobby was four months old, and Virginia only four, Anna went to Charlotte to stay with Mrs. Ross, Erick Ross’s mother, ostensibly for a change of scenery.
However, she took Bobby to the doctor, where she disclosed that she was going to harm Bobby. She was immediately sent off to a mental institution, marking a dark time in her history. Her small, unusual family would never be together again.
Anna was very close with Dorothy and Francis Richardson (Alice’s in-laws), who likely worked with Sergius DeBucy to build a cabin for Anna that ended up on the property that Jenna now owns. This is how the letters wound up in the attic of the old building on Jenna’s property, because Anna lived there after returning home.
Alice said Anna and Dorothy were close simply because there were only about 10 women here when they were younger. It was a hard and sometimes lonely way to be. You can imagine Anna’s experience, having two young children living near the mouth of the Tlell River. This is the property that was known as the Flood’s before the Council of the Haida Nation was able to purchase it just a few years ago.
Before it sold, I would occasionally cross paths with a beautiful tall silver-haired woman out among the fruit trees there. This, I now know, was Virginia Beitush, who had married Wayne Flood.
Her own story, of which Alice shared some, was also touched by tragedy. Yet, as with all stories of tragedy, the real story is in the resilience that follows.
We spoke with Alice for over an hour at that kitchen table, and there are many more stories and threads. In fact, Jenna herself added a thread that Alice didn’t know.
When Jenna was a young girl, she found a blue hat on the beach with Anna’s name embroidered into it. When she excitedly returned it to Anna, Anna immediately grabbed it and threw it in the fire.
Jenna later understood this was the hat given to her at the mental institution, and she had likely tried to throw it in the ocean to rid herself of the painful memories.
Before we left, Jenna asked Alice what her favourite thing about Tlell is. She slyly answered that she hasn’t figured it out yet. If you have, email me at sewnart@haidagwaii.net.