Dan Yashinsky is a storyteller living in Toronto. He's the author of “Suddenly They Heard Footsteps - Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century” and “I Am Full - Stories for Jacob.” He worked for five years at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care as a storyteller-in-residence, and created — with social worker Melissa Tafler — a story-based approach to healthcare called "storycare."
Author photo by Jacob Zavitz
I’m writing in response to Danielle Snyderman’s Field Notes essay “Not Yet, The Epilogue” (Spring 2021 Intima). I wrote the poem “The Trail to Ahous Bay” to read aloud to my friend Joan Bodger. She was in the palliative care unit of Tofino Hospital on Vancouver Island. I had come from Toronto to visit with her, and to say goodbye. I was staying on Vargas Island, a short boat ride from Tofino, and had taken the cross-island hike that became the poem.
Like Charlotte in Snyderman’s piece, Joan lived for books and stories. She was a storyteller and writer, and was especially interested in mythology. She had gone to Jordan to study ancient goddess worship, and she used to lead tours of Arthurian Britain. When I came to visit her in Tofino, as she lay dying, I brought articles she’d written about the Luddite movement, and I read those aloud to her. Deep in the weariness of her approaching death, I saw a glint of light in her eye as she heard her own wisdom and scholarship reflected back to her. Charlotte, as she listened to Danielle read Maya Angelou, was given a new world to wander through, a new set of relationships and people, a new “companion story” as the sociologist Arthur Frank calls it.
Joan, in her spare palliative care room in Tofino, heard her own writings reflected back to her. As the Luddites rebelled against the tyranny of the landowners and factory owners, she, too, could remember who she remained at her core - fierce, indomitable and ready for her next quest. As she listened to The Trail to Ahous Bay, I hope she felt my love and admiration coming through. It was written as a praise-song to one of my beloved elders. I was moved to read about Charlotte, even near the end of her life, listening to Danielle read aloud. A great gift to share, in the “right now” that stories conjure and embody.—Dan Yashinsky
Dan Yashinsky is a storyteller living in Toronto. He's the author of Suddenly They Heard Footsteps - Storytelling for the Twenty-first Century and I Am Full - Stories for Jacob. He worked for five years at Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care as a storyteller-in-residence, and created — with social worker Melissa Tafler — a story-based approach to healthcare called "storycare."