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<\/a>Dear Arlo: Letters to My Grandson<\/i> is Campbell\u2019s third book. Her first, Graffiti Alphabet, comprised photographs of graffiti she found around the Greater Vancouver area. Her second, A Whisper Across Time, was her family\u2019s Holocaust story.<\/p>\nThe first essay in Dear Arlo<\/i> is about Campbell\u2019s parents, Tania and Klimek. They lived in Warsaw. \u201cThey were surrounded by family and friends and had much to look forward to,\u201d writes Campbell. \u201cThen, in 1939, everything changed. The Nazis invaded Poland from the west, the Soviets from the east. Life as they had known it stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klimek would be arrested by the Soviets first, a pregnant Tania two weeks later. They were sent to different Russian prison camps. They survived, but the baby didn\u2019t, nor did any of Tania\u2019s family, most notably, her twin sister and parents, Campbell\u2019s maternal grandparents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSeveral months after their release from the prison camps, my parents found themselves in Baghdad, Iraq,\u201d writes Campbell. \u201cBy that time, my mother was pregnant with me and could go no further. I was born in Baghdad on February 14, 1943.\u201d<\/p>\n Eventually, after living in both Palestine and the United Kingdom, the family came to Canada. It wasn\u2019t an easy life, learning a new language and new culture, or a long one for Campbell\u2019s mother, who died at 52 of cancer.<\/p>\n Campbell shares her stories and wisdom with readers as a grandmother speaking to her only grandson, Arlo, with whom she obviously has a special relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI am writing this book as a legacy for you,\u201d she writes in the first letter to Arlo. \u201cA multidimensional memoir. A compilation of my writing, my art and a few family recipes. These writings and art are my responses to events in my life. The losses, trauma, grief \u2026 and the joy, happiness and love. It\u2019s about the angst and awe of life, which is ever-changing, full of challenges but also magical.\u201d<\/p>\n Brief letters to Arlo are spread throughout the memoir, which is gloriously full of Campbell\u2019s artwork \u2013 painting, mixed media, sculpture and more, all of it in colour. A graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design, she has had many exhibitions since deciding to become an artist in her 40s, having started her professional life as a social worker. She has participated in the Eastside Culture Crawl since its inception almost 30 years ago, and has been a consistent part of the West of Main Art Walk (Artists in Our Midst) as well.<\/p>\n In addition to the art and letters in Dear Arlo<\/i>, Campbell includes some of her poetry and essays. She shares how she came to write her second book, her experiences dealing with intergenerational trauma, her path to spirituality, how she found courage, and more.<\/p>\n She writes about losing her husband, in 1994. \u201cAlong with him, my plans and dreams for the future also died,\u201d she writes. He died of a stroke at 49 years old \u2013 the pair had been together for 32 years, married for 26 of those years.<\/p>\n She shares the story of how she came to have her current dog, Nisha. \u201cI was very sick in September 2019 with what my doctor now believes was COVID, before anyone had heard of COVID,\u201d writes Campbell. Struggling many months with breathing difficulties, she turned, in desperation, to Ganesha, a Hindu god. \u201cMy wish to him was to remove all obstacles to my physical, emotional and mental well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n A couple of days later, there came a knock at her door. Two work acquaintances were there, asking if she could adopt a rescue dog. Campbell did, and Nisha \u201cwas extremely timid, jumping, trembling and shaking at every sound, every movement. I held her all day every day for the first week to calm her down and get her used to me. She is still a little timid but every day she becomes more brave. She is playful, full of fun and great company,\u201d writes Campbell. \u201cShe did remove all obstacles to my physical, emotional and mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n Another uplifting essay is the one on how Campbell has \u201cnever come of age.\u201d When she paints and creates with friends, she feels like she is 5 years old, she says. When with her teenage grandson, she also feels like a teen, and sees \u201cthe wonder of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n Campbell has role models, older friends and neighbours who still have bucket lists and exercise regimes. Having traveled much herself\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013\u00a0 <\/span>Myanmar, Morocco, Vietnam, India, Cambodia, Laos, Turkey and other places \u2013 she now wants \u201cto do inward travel. To get to know myself and others around me. To find the mystery inside. To nourish relationships with the people I know and with new people that I meet.\u201d She wants to have different adventures: \u201cCreative adventures, people adventures, spiritual adventures.\u201d<\/p>\n There are more than a dozen recipes in Dear Arlo<\/i> \u2013 from an apple torte that a 5-year-old Arlo bet Campbell she wouldn\u2019t make (which she did but he never ate); to cabbage pie and Russian salad, recalling when Arlo was teaching himself Russian; to broccoli and cheese soup, vegetarian meatloaf and ginger apple tea, in response to Arlo\u2019s request for some recipes.<\/p>\n Campbell is grateful for many things.<\/p>\n \u201cI have had a good marriage and a wonderful family \u2013 my lovely daughter, her loving partner and my wonderful grandson Arlo,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n \u201cI have dealt with losses and tragedies in my life, including the premature death of my husband, but I survived, and now I am happy. Those intense feelings of sadness that I grew up with no longer plague me. I can be triggered, but on the whole, I am fine.\u201d<\/p>\n The memoir ends as it begins, with a letter to Arlo, who, says Campbell, has been \u201cthe best grandson I could ever have imagined.\u201d<\/p>\n She writes, \u201cThe past provides us with valuable lessons that we can use to inform our present and future. A sense of connection and continuity with the people who came before us. This adds a depth and richness to our lives. I look forward to having many more adventures with you.\u201d<\/p>\n We get to see Arlo grow up, in photos throughout the book. And the photo placed squarely in the centre of this last letter is perfect: Arlo in the driver\u2019s seat of his new red convertible, toque on, giving a thumbs up, smiling, with Campbell beside him, also bundled up for a cold drive, but also with a big smile.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>