Most people have a 'what if' scenario in their head.
A plan of action to take if times get really tough. It might be cashing in the RRSPs, moving in with relatives or heading to Alberta to make big bucks in the oil fields.
That's just what 48-year old Barbara Stewart did when she found herself bankrupt, homeless and unemployed. At Trinidad 11 oil camp, she worked hard, worried about her personal safety and hard-won sobriety and wondered if she'd get out alive. All for $100 a day.
Campie, a new release by Heritage House Publishing, is the best book I've read in a long time.
It's refreshingly different, funny, heart-warming and inspiring. I was hooked right from page one. The writing is simple and brilliant. There's no artifice or fancy manoeuvring, just a great story told straight from the heart.
Stewart, who worked as a bank loans officer in Courtenay and Comox for 11 years, will read from and sign copies of her book at the Courtenay Library this Friday at 6:30 p.m. and Saturday at Blue Heron Books in Comox at 1 p.m.
It took three years for Stewart to go from a clear title homeowner in Victoria to owning nothing aside from a few boxes of belongings.
"It was a combination of things," she says. "Grief and bad decisions were part of it. I was broke and mentally messed up but not sick enough to be locked up. I lost everything.
"I never expected to find myself in that situation," she continues. "The shock is enormous. Then you have to do what you have to do."
So Stewart found herself driving north in an old Toyota to meet a man she didn't know to be taken to an oil camp in the middle of nowhere. Once there she mopped floors, scrubbed bathrooms, changed bed, did laundry and picked up a seemingly endless supply of empty booze bottles.
She found she liked taking out the garbage the best. This was her chance to be alone, to listen to the crunch of her boots on the snow, inhale smoke-free air and gaze at the star-studded sky.
"I was isolated and alone, surrounded by booze, drugs and cigarettes," she recalls. "I'd been dry for a long time but I knew this was a really unhealthy place for me to be. I'm blood and guts like everyone else; sooner or later I'd succumb.
"And the men were big, I was on edge when they were drinking," she adds. "Even though I was old enough to be the mother of most of them, at 2 a.m. when someone's drunk, you never know. And there was no way out. Unless you caught a rare ride, you were stuck. "
Stewart knows now that her story is not unique, especially in these days and times.
"This is the story of any man or woman that suddenly finds themselves homeless, bankrupt and without a job," she says. "This is why I wrote this book, I want to say, 'Yes, this can happen, but you can survive.' Campie is as true and honest as it can be."
Now 57, Stewart has done more than survive.
In 2006, she returned to university and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (with distinction) from the University of Victoria's writing program. There, with the help of an instructor, she began shaping her oil rig notes into Campie.
"Altogether I wrote at least 10 drafts," says Stewart. "And I mean 10 full revisions. I had a lot of help at UVic and from an editor at Heritage House but it was a long journey."
Stewart's work has been published in Event, Grain and The Walrus and has been shortlisted for several prizes. In July she begins studying for a masters of fine arts degree at the University of BC.
She is working on a novel based on items of clothing scattered along the road where she runs in Langley.
Campie (190 pgs., softcover) retails for $17.95.
