Coast resident Gwen Abram sought tranquility when she visited friends on the Sunshine Coast in 1963.
As a girl, she had lived through the wartime bombing of London and had nearly been killed three times. Then she and husband Ken had moved to Canada to begin a new life as immigrants. One day, she found her little bit of heaven on the beach at Mission Point near Davis Bay and knew that this spot, Tsawcome, the leased property on Sechelt Indian Band lands, was where she wanted to live her life.
"I was at peace with myself," she says. A verse of a song popped into her head. She wrote it down.
Forty-two years later, in March of 2005, she wrote the second verse that diplomatically described some of the changes and development that had taken place in her piece of heaven. But the song remains a positive one and closes with a chorus of: "It's just a gift to hold some say, a dream that has come true. So say a prayer, enjoy the gift the Sechelts share with you."An old friend from Delta, Randy Sorley, offered to add music and use his home recording studio to make a CD. The result is a song of warmth and charm. Abram decided to give something back to the Sechelts. She phoned the band office and asked permission to speak at the next council meeting.
"I wanted to give a gift to the chief, the council and the band at large," she says.
On April 18, she turned up with a CD player and copies of the lyrics for each council member. No one knew quite what to expect. "After we played the recording, there was a dead silence," she says. "My mouth went dry. I was shaking. All of a sudden they looked at me and said 'that was beautiful'." The Sechelts, including former chiefs, lined up to shake her hand and Chief Stan Dixon encouraged her to promote it on the radio and newspapers. She will appear on Coast Cable in the near future with musician Sorley. "We are grateful that somebody appreciates what we do," said Dixon later, thanking her for her insight and honesty.
Abram has written other lyrics - her most recent is "Magnificent Maple Tree" that describes the giant heritage tree at her driveway. The collaboration with Sorley has also produced "Marmaduke," the story of a visiting heron.
