Kootenay Crust

By Ian Cobb

East Kootenay News Online Weekly (e-KNOW.ca) quietly turned 14 on Sunday, July 6, aside from a nice mention on Global News BC.

I barely reflected on the time marker aside from grunting and muttering something Irishly whiney such as “suppose I ought to write something about it” before finding something, anything else to do and forgetting about it, until now.

Fourteen years ago we embarked on a new business and career adventure that has allowed us to become completely infused in the dynamics of the East Kootenay and live and work in this incredible corner of our ever increasingly troubled world.

In 2011, there was no sense of a near future populated by reality television lie mongers and neo nazis or a threat of impending global war. We had emerged mostly unscathed from a near depression in 2008 and the world seemed much more oystery, though the media business was already plunging from prominence as corporations masterfully whittled journalists off the staff as the titans, Google, Facebook etc. gobbled up the majority of possible revenues to allow for necessary journalism.

The business plan I prepared before launching e-KNOW was tossed into the bog fire of change immediately after we opened for business and it’s been 14 years of adapting and rolling with punches.

Of course, aside from e-KNOW there is life. (Ooh, how deep.)

A year ago last June we had freshly returned from a journey of a lifetime in Italy and were busy returning to ‘normal life’ heading to our business’ 13^th birthday. A week later we headed to the Columbia Valley to tangle with dear friends and former colleagues, while treating our grand-daughter and niece to a weekend at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort.

After a nice time with our friends, we returned to the resort for dinner with the girls when the floor opened wide and swallowed us. Carrie received a phone call informing us our house was on fire.

And it’s been a helluva ride since. One helluva year. A beauty. We joined a club consisting of people who have lost their homes, possessions, memories and more. We were lucky, though. No one was hurt or killed.

Thanks to the amazing work of Cranbrook Fire and Emergency Services, a bad situation did not become a catastrophe. We live in the forest outside Cranbrook and it was 35 C the day of our fire. The woods were tinder dry. It still gives me the quakes when I think about what could have happened and I cannot quantify my gratitude and respect for the emergency services personnel.

Life after a house fire, for the victims, is all about restoration of what once was and that is a steep, unmapped climb that tests you to your core.

Following the fire we were able to secure travel trailers to live in on the property and our daily lives after that were interrupted by a myriad of small but necessary tasks that led to some major tasks and decisions.

Once we moved into a rental home in the city for the winter month, I started to get really angry. I’ve always had a temper and am, how do I put this delicately, a tad passionate about some topics but I began hitting excessive new heights. That led me to seek out professional help to deal with the anger, which I believe was magnified to the Nth degree from PTSD.

As Carrie has said, the first six months after the fire was a smoke-stenched haze, where the daily passage of time held surreal surprises around unexpected corners and damnable dead ends. We were detached and dispatched and that was when family and friends became so incredibly important, from son Steven’s immediate and constant help, daughter Amanda’s daily support and all our friends for so much love, help and advice.

Experiencing a disaster tests your mettle and digs into your heart and soul and without the strength and love of friends and family, it could end you.

This past year was the longest of our lives but it blurred by at neck-snapping speed.

Now, as we approach the one-year anniversary of the fire on July 12, there is a stronger sense of forward momentum, with re-build plans about to hit actuality stage, hinging on permitting, easements and other required bureaucratic steps. We can see the horizon for the first time in a year.

As my friend Peter Christensen eloquently observes in the column neighbouring this one, a lifetime goes by in a moment. In this case, a year has gone by in fits and spurts and depressing drags and deep realizations that have, as cliched as it sounds, made us stronger and even a bit smarter (Carrie anyway).

As we quietly celebrate e-KNOW’s 14^th birthday and prepare to mark a dark day by pushing it into the past, I wish to again thank everyone who has been there for us this past year.

And thank you to all our regular contributors, readers and the advertisers and sponsors who are the reason we can present community news and information to East Kootenay and area residents.

I said immediately after the fire that we were down but not out. Thanks to this community we are blessed to call home, we are no longer down and definitely not out.

– Ian Cobb is owner/editor of e-KNOW

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