Saskatchewan's ‘big sky' is home

Seeing it through adult eyes when returning to the province of her parents' birth, the author says she realized that Saskatchewan's 'big sky' was more than a landscape. It was key to understanding why her parents always spoke of the place as 'home.' I absolutely love autumn. For me, it's a time of renewal, reflection, making outdoor plans and just breathing easy. This time of year, when the harvest is in full swing on the Canadian Prairies, I find myself reflecting on summers past — two weeks of vacation in Saskatchewan, the province of my parent's birth, every few years in August, running around the family farm with my cousins, investigating my parents' old haunts, eating delicious home cooked meals prepared by my aunts and conversations around many kitchen tables that went late into the night. This Ontario girl was like a fish out of water in some ways, but the experience was immersive and has lasted a lifetime. Those vacations and my parents' stories brightly enriched my life in many ways. Even with the miles between us, I'm fortunate to still enjoy a connection to some of the family who shaped my life in ways they may not even realize. It took years before I truly understood why my parents' faces would light up and their voices would become especially warm when they talked about 'home.' At the same time, I wondered why 'home' wasn't the place where we lived. For my dad, born in 1929, 'home' was a hamlet called Tadmore. For my mum (yes, I've always written it this way), 'home' was the family farm outside a town called Canora. As an adult, I finally came to understand their deep connection to their 'home,' and why it would always be. It wasn't that they weren't happy where they'd settled. It was the place they fondly remembered, where their lives had been profoundly imprinted by cherished memories steeped in time spent with friends, laughter carried across open field, and the kind of joy that comes from simple pleasures. Community wasn't just a nice idea during their upbringing; it was a matter of survival. These were growing communities compared to the rest of Canada, built on neighbours and families working the land together, pitching in where necessary. During the important harvest season, they marked the time with the long ritual of harvesting, canning and preserving enough to last the winter. Life wasn't idyllic. From the stories my parents shared with me, it was hard and demanding in ways I could not imagine. However, it was all stitched together with resilience, belonging and the bonds of family and friends who shared the work as well as the rewards. Some say Saskatchewan has 'big sky.' They aren't wrong. As a child, I marvelled at how it stretched endlessly, vast and breathtaking. That sort of awesomeness makes you pause because it carries the reminder that you are in the presence of something greater than yourself. As an adult, and after my parents had passed, I returned to the place of their birth with my own son, and that big sky greeted me once more. Seeing it through grown-up eyes, I realized it was more than a landscape. That big sky was key to understanding why my parents always spoke of the place as 'home.'