Kevin Loring - Photograph - Alex Waterhouse-Hayward |
My eldest daughter Alexandra in 2007 left Vancouver and
bought a one acre property in Lillooet. When my Rosemary and I went there for
the first time we could not
understand why anybody would have to suffer such heat. In the middle of the
night it all seemed like a nightmare. In the end we know she made a good decision.
Since then Ale has happily taught elementary school there and when we moved from our large garden in Kerrisdale to our present little duplex in Kits, Ale’s garden became a refuge for all my Gallica Roses and hostas. They are happy there and they seem to tolerate the temperature extremes.
Depending how we went to Lillooet either by the Whistler/Pemberton road or by Highway 1 we would drive (the Highway 1 route) through the little town of Lytton.
Today as I have read of the fire conflagration that has virtually destroyed the town and much of its First Nations neighbourhoods past the Fraser and Thompson Rivers.
And there was only one thought that came to my mind and this was of writer/actor Kevin Loring who is from Lytton and wrote a lovely play, Where the Blood Mixes about his town. My Rosemary and I went to the opening of his play at the Kay Meek Centre. I wrote about, see below.
Where the Blood Mixes Inside My Heart
Residential School play - Children of God
For the Pleasure of Seeing Her Again
Lillooet - The Blood Mixes in My Heart
In a city with a poor memory I wonder how many others will remember Kevin Loring and his play (the only one ever written about Lytton I would guess).