Family Environmental History
April 20, 2022 By: Charlotte Knudsen
My family history is a little all over the place. The majority of people in my family have been teachers, four people in total including my grandmother, grandfather, great aunt and great grandmother. I currently teach English as a second language remotely online to Korean adults, so I guess that it comes naturally in my family. Other members have been chefs, doctors, film workers and I also desire to work in film one day.
I no longer have contact with anyone on my fathers side due to personal reasons. I do not know much about this side of the family, but I will share what I do know for the purposes of this exercise. My grandmother on my fathers side grew up in Norway. She became a flight attendant and got to travel the world. Eventually, she married a pilot who was my grandfather. I never got to meet him because he died from cancer the year before I was born. She got to live in many countries in her life. She lived in England for a while, but I am not sure what she did there. She lived in Japan and raised show dogs there. At some point she had three kids, my two aunts and my father who was the youngest. My father was born and lived out his childhood years in their hometown of Bergen, Norway. In his early teen years they moved to california for awhile before finally coming to North Vancouver in Canada where he finished highschool. He has since lived all around Vancouver although I am not sure exactly where he lives today. This is all I know about this side of my family.
My family on my mothers side is my family that I have spent most of my childhood and life with. My grandfather grew up in Hope, BC and was the third of five siblings. My grandmother lived her childhood in Golden, BC but eventually moved to Hope where she went to highschool and met my grandfather. Hope is a small town with a mountainous and natural environment. Neither came from affluent families, so money was tight. A few years after finishing high school, my grandparents moved to Vancouver to pursue an education and they eventually married. My grandmother studied to become a nurse’s aid and after a couple years of figuring it out my grandfather pursued a career in education. They lived in a tiny apartment and my grandma supported them with her salary as my grandfather pursued his degree.
When he finished, they moved to a town in northern BC called Fort St. John. As a young couple starting out, they lived in a mobile home. Fort St. John has harsh winters that can reach around negative twenty degrees. My grandfather was a teacher who became a school principal. They had two children, my mother and my uncle. My grandmother struggled to find work in the medical field in this town, so she took a job as a meter maid. She decided to pursue a degree to teach because she loved children and missed working with them in hospitals. When she became an elementary school teacher, they were able to eventually buy a house and settle permanently in the town while their children completed high school. Everything that they have they built themselves. They enjoyed the wilderness and often hunted, used skidoos, and did other activities that were popular in northern BC. They have always been fond of nature and doing things outdoors.
When my mother graduated highschool, she moved to North Vancouver to pursue an English and theater degree. She met my father at her job at a restaurant and they had me. My mom became a single mom and moved to where we currently live in Coquitlam which is a suburb near Vancouver. Living in the city is very different to living in the country. You do not get as many opportunities to be immersed in nature and enjoy it as you would in the countryside. I do not think that gender has limited my family members in many ways. My grandmother was the breadwinner at one point and my mom was too because she was a single parent. Currently, my grandparents live in a small town in interior BC called Ashcroft. They bought land and built a house as a bed & breakfast there which has been in business for over twenty years. They have a giant garden and still enjoy nature to this day. Ashcroft is a desert, so creating a large garden definitely transformed the environment. Many animals frequent their garden for food and to drink from their pond since there are not many water sources nearby. My grandfather goes golfing and hunting, spending most of his time outdoors and my grandmother goes hiking and kayaking almost everyday. Despite living in the city, I think that their love for nature influenced me. I go for nature walks near my home almost everyday with my dog and love being outside. I have also been vegan for six years and care deeply for animals and the environment. I think that my grandparents’ love and appreciation for what the environment has to offer has impacted me. Anyone can enjoy nature regardless of their economic situation.