I have the good fortune to live with a very wise woman. That was never clearer to me than it was late in the afternoon of a cold January day back in 2016.
Arriving home, just a half hour removed from being un-hired by Peterborough This Week, I was a mess. Being let go from the only job you’ve known for 33 years has that effect. Despair, confusion and anger overwhelmed me as I broke the news to my partner in marital crime.
There was a short pause before Mary spoke.
“Now you can do what you want to do.”
What I wanted to do was what I had been doing since August 1980 when I was hired as a reporter for CKAR/CKQT in Oshawa before being hire three years later by Oshawa This Week — share people’s stories.
But how? The platform for doing just that had been abruptly taken away from me. And I was still angry. Angry to be deemed no longer useful because I made too much money (I didn’t), had too much vacation time (I earned it), and that my publisher at the time hid in his office, sending an underling to enact his decree. I felt I deserved some respect.
Having found comfort in the fact that I left 884 Ford Street with the balls he didn’t have, I spent a few days mulling over options. I was 57 years old. There was still plenty of ink in my pen. Then I picked up the phone.
Let me take you back to about a year earlier. Mary and I were at the Black Horse Pub when we bumped into Jeannine Taylor and her partner Bruce Head enjoying, as I’ve since learned, some rare time away from their many responsibilities as, respectively, publisher and managing editor of kawarthaNOW, a digital media platform they founded and launched as quidnovis.com in April 1996.
We made small talk, mostly around the state of the local media landscape, current city issues and such. Before calling it a night, Jeannine spoke the words that brought me to your reading mine.
“If anything happens to you at Peterborough This Week, give me a call.”
Remembering well her direction of a year earlier, I phoned Jeannine and said “Something has happened.”
Shortly after, on February 3, 2016, my first kawarthaNOW article was published — a preview of an upcoming Heart Healthy Seniors Fair headlined “Getting to the heart of matters at Activity Haven.” It wasn’t anything close to award worthy but it was, and remains, among the most satisfying pieces I’ve written. I was again doing what I always what I always wanted to do. The wise woman’s direction had been followed.
Since then, my byline has appeared atop 876 kawarthaNOW articles, including this one. I’ve interviewed, and shared the thoughts and views of politicians, professors, musicians, entrepreneurs, actors and activists, and pretty much everyone in between. Countless keyboard pecks have been accompanied by smiles. By tears, too.
I can’t honestly say that anyone I’ve sat down with has been a favourite over another. Each interaction has been satisfying for different reasons.
What I can say is that it has never been lost on me what a tremendous leap of faith it is for one to share their story and thoughts with another — a complete stranger, in most cases — and hope he or she gets it right. I am as humbled by that trust as I am by the responsibility.
Reflecting now on what has transpired since that dark time in January 2016, I take great satisfaction in the fact that being self-employed has allowed me the flexibility needed to pursue interests and causes that have been, and remain, near and dear to my heart.
In 2018, I ran for a city council seat. I came up short, but better for the experience.
I’ve been able to continue my affiliation with Peterborough Family Literacy Day as its longtime honorary chair and emcee, and from 2016 to 2024, was a member of the Peterborough Musicfest board, serving two years as its chair.
In 2020, I co-founded Peterborough Performs: Musicians United To End Homelessness, which I still organize. That local music showcase has raised close to $150,000 for United Way-supported agencies on the front lines of homelessness. And, in a few months’ time, my term as chair of the United Way campaign will end, hopefully with the news we have achieved the $1.6 million goal.
Now, on the surface, it would seem I’m pumping my own tires by relating all this this. I get that, but bear with me — there’s a method to my self-promotion madness.
None of what I listed would have been possible without the patience and understanding of Jeannine and Bruce. They have a business to run and count on those in their employ to be ready as needed. I owe them both a huge debt of gratitude for being accommodating.
They say time heals all wounds, and on reflection, despite how things came to an abrupt end, Peterborough This Week provided some good times, the memories of which remain fresh. Back in 1989 into the following few years, the original newsroom crew was an absolute joy to work with.
The many industry awards claimed thereafter were a thrill to receive, but I revelled more in the accomplishments of those I worked with, knowing I had, as managing editor, a hand in their success.
To this day, I miss working alongside certain people. Others I don’t miss one bit, along with the never-ending office politics that wore me down bit by bit.
Through the good graces of Jeannine and Bruce, I’ve since been able to still do what I want to do. I’ve been blessed to have a transferable skill that they saw as a good fit with kawarthaNOW’s day-one mandate of providing current events and community information to residents, visitors and cottagers in Peterborough and the Kawarthas, and surrounding communities.
Jeannine has said to me many times that her strength is recruiting good people. No argument there. Just gratitude to be among those she has brought on, then and since.
On April 23rd, I’ll attempt to blow out 68 candles on my birthday cake. Before or after that exertion, on that same day, I’ll text Jeannine and wish her a happy birthday, one reliable and practical and, ya, stubborn Taurus to another.
Are there another 876 kawarthaNOW articles to write? Perhaps, but one never knows what’s ahead. That was the case 10 years ago and is certainly the case now.
I’m not remotely qualified to give advice, but I will leave you with one thought: if you’re not doing what you want to do, what are you doing?
The wise woman was onto something. Still is, in fact.
