For Rebecca Smith and her husband Brandon, Bowen Island launched their married life and the rest followed, shortly after.
The wedding took place under the Opa tree at Xenia, three years ago this week.
“We wanted the wedding to be entirely local, so that really helped us get to know the community in a new way,” says Smith, who goes on to rhyme off a long list of local businesses and individuals who made their wedding day magical.
Rebecca and Brandon had looked in to moving to Bowen before their wedding, but with two small kids, were deterred by all the cliff-side properties. After the wedding, Rebecca said she scoured Craigslist constantly looking for the right rental property. When, a year later, one finally popped up that looked suitable, she says she booked a viewing right away.
“The owners saw that we were a good fit, so it worked out,” she says.
However, as they were preparing to move, Rebecca and Brandon were also waiting for the official diagnosis of autism to be handed to their younger son, Ari.
“The week before we moved I went to a big autism conference with my brother,” says Rebecca. “We were sitting in the audience, listening to story after story of people who struggled to travel into the city in order to get their kids treatments that were not available in smaller communities. We were moving to Bowen from West Vancouver... away from all the accessible therapy options for Ari. But we’d already made the decision that we wanted something different for him.”
Rebecca says that they wanted to slow down, and to focus on spending time with Ari instead of focusing on treatment.
Ari was two at the time of the move, and following his diagnosis, started a program of parent-centred therapy. Rebecca also started a routine of taking him into the city for various programs once per week.
She says his progress in the past two years reassures her that they made the right decision.
“He still doesn’t speak, but he knows a lot of words and shows a strong interest in language. He is toilet trained. And he is much more regulated, emotionally, than he used to be. Ari loves hanging out in the backyard, walking in the forest and going to the beach... he’s even made a few friends.”
She adds that it is unlikely her husband will ever manage to get her off of this rock, but it doesn’t seem like he’s eager to leave either.
