“We want to be better, we want to be done, we want to be over it, and it hurts us that we’re not.”
Chantal Tkach is not alone. Several people living and working in Slave Lake just want to move on, and are looking forward to getting past May 15th.
“The people that did lose are pretty much fine bringing it up, but the ones that didn't feel probably a bit guilty about it, and they don't want to offend anyone really,” explains Hayden Zimmer, a high school senior at Roland Michener. “So, it's been quite a bit of silence, because people don't really want to bring it up. It's been more of a bad memory than anything else, and they're just hoping to look forward, and get on with things.”
When asked about the significance of the anniversary date, responses are mixed.
“We don’t know what to do with the anniversary date,” says Tkach. “I’ve said to my friends, ‘maybe I want to be here, maybe I don’t’.”
Tkach – who lost her home and her former place of business in the fire – describes this year as a constant push and pull between trying to move forward and being held back by the logistics of putting together what the fire ripped apart.
“We don’t want to be sad. We don’t want to be hurting,” she says, “but, in the same respect, it’s taking a lot of hours every week still, to do insurance, to build the house, to do the little things.”
Still, progress is being made, day by day.
“The rebuild has gone really well,” remarks Ken Vezeau, who works in the town. “People pulled together really good, and look where we are now.”
The town, and its residents will continue to push forward, but there are times when every fiber in their beings pulled them right back to May 15th 2011.
“As soon as the spring came, and the winds started blowing, and the FireSmart starts burning, the anxiety level went from here to here in about two days,” admits Brian Carleton, Principal at Roland Michener Secondary School.
“It’s automatic flashback; they start smelling the smoke, they remember those days when it was really windy.”
It’s not just young people that have that reaction to smoke and wind. Adults share that anxious response.
“It’s a trigger for us now because we had a lot of trauma associated with running for our lives when the smoke was there,” explains Tkach.
Even animals are reacting automatically to the smell of smoke, and it’s triggering their ‘fight or flight’ response as well. Tkach’s pet dog smelled the smoke from one of the town’s FireSmart program’s controlled burns and fled.
This year has seen the worst of times, but – residents say – it’s brought out the best in people. In that sense, this past year is very meaningful.
“We’ve had to overcome so many obstacles this year; losing houses, losing businesses, losing facilities,” says Cody Saskow, a Grade 12 student at Roland Michener. “It helps us, because it shows everyone in the community that we’re able to overcome the adversity.”
His Principal agrees. “There are people that’ll do anything to help you,” says Carleton. “That’s what I love about this place.”
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