The Almashhoud family arrival at Stanfield International Airport – October 11, 2016

“We were so excited and relieved when we got the call that we had been accepted to travel to Canada. The suffering was going to end, and we were about to start a new life.”

Meet the Almashhoud family.

Aleppo is situated in the northwest corner of Syria, near the border of Turkey.  It is believed to be among the world’s oldest continuously inhabited cities. Yaser Almoustafa Almashhoud and his eight siblings were born into a middle class family. His future wife, Raghda Ahmad, and her seven brothers and sisters were also born in Aleppo. Her father taught at a trade school and owned an appliance repair shop. Both families lived a very peaceful existence.

During his high school years, Yaser had worked part time as a car mechanic so it was no surprise that he enrolled at the Syrian Republic Institute to take a car mechanic course. After graduation he did two and a half years of mandatory military service. Early in the new millennium he changed course and joined forces with his brother, who had a business in the burgeoning satellite television industry. The first satellite dish that he installed was at his parents’ house where he was living at the time. He was hooked on electronics.

Like many Syrian men, the trajectory of his life was fairly predictable: complete high school; take additional studies at a community college or university; complete military service; get a job; get engaged; get married after achieving some financial stability, and have a family. And, like the fairy tales, they would live happily ever after.

The fairy tale would eventually become a nightmare.

There is a Syrian proverb that goes something like this: “When you get engaged, the money will come.” Because of the success of the business, Yaser and Raghda were able to get married in 2002. The next ten years brought happiness and prosperity as Yaser and Raghda moved to increasingly larger houses with the births of their four children, Shahd, Nour, Mohamad and Yousuf.

The satellite dish market became saturated quickly, so Yaser moved into the new and exciting field of cell phone repair and service. Like most places in the world, cell phones were transforming the way people communicated.  He quickly became proficient with the technology and opened a small shop. From humble beginnings, the business flourished.

The rumblings of civil unrest began in the south of Syria in 2011. By 2012, Aleppo started to experience protests against the regime. These were peaceful gatherings with no signs of weapons or violence. This did not last long as the protests turned violent.  Yaser moved the family to a safer part of Aleppo. Things deteriorated quickly as they experienced food and fuel shortages. In late 2013, bombings erupted in the suburbs where the Almashhouds were living. The family was very frightened and at Raghda’s urging they decided to move to Idlib, where Raghda had relatives. The trip was not without incident as the terrified family encountered sniper fire along the route.

Less than 24 hours after arriving in Idlib, Yaser received a call from a neighbor in Aleppo inquiring about the family’s wellbeing. His friend was extremely concerned, as Yaser’s house has been flattened by a bomb that day and he was worried that the family had been inside. To this day, Yaser credits his wife and children’s instinct that it had been time to leave Aleppo.

After a short stay in Idlib, the family then moved to Al Bab as there was no work for Yaser in Idlib. Yaser also has relatives in Al Bab. After a few days in their new locale, bombs started to rain down on the city. Yaser and the entire extended family decided that it was time to leave Syria and they agreed to go en masse to Turkey. The departure was scheduled for 10:00 in the morning but was delayed until 2:00 that afternoon.  Yaser took the opportunity to get a haircut and shave at a local barber shop. While sitting in the chair, he could hear explosions nearby. He received a frantic call from a cousin who informed him that the house where the other family members were waiting prior to departure had been destroyed by bombs. Nine relatives, including aunts and uncles, died that day.

The next few years found the family moving numerous times in Syria and Turkey as the civil war raged on. Yaser eventually opened another store in Aleppo. He witnessed carnage on a daily basis, often taking the dead and dying to nearby hospitals. One day, he heard mortar fire and stepped outside his shop to find the lifeless bodies of more than two dozen people.

After many relocations and dislocations, the family ended up in Kilis, Turkey. At one point, the family occupied a cold, barren house that had no furniture. The family huddled together, sleeping on the floor under a couple of blankets. They remained in Kilis until January of 2016 when that city experienced bombing. A friend jokingly inquired if Yaser and the family were interested in registering to travel to Canada. Yaser immediately completed the paperwork.

They moved to the Turkish city of Mersin and in April 2016, they received a call from the United Nations Refugee Agency. They were very excited that there was now a file open for possible resettlement in Canada. A clerical error resulting in an incorrect phone number on Yaser’s application caused a delay, as the Canadian Embassy was trying to track the family down to tell them that they had been cleared to travel to Canada.

While they waited for news they enrolled the children in school in Turkey. On the day school started, they received the life-changing call that they would fly from Istanbul to Canada on October 10^th of this year.

Near midnight on October 11^th, a tired but very excited Almashhoud family came down the stairs into the arrival area of the Halifax airport. They were greeted by a group of Antigonish residents, including members of our growing Syrian community.  

As this family continues their journey let us welcome them warmly, with wishes for peace and safety in their new home.

“I’m still a grassroots community guy. I still have a passion to help in any way I can, whether it’s Pomquet or Bangladesh.”

Meet Clarence Deyoung.

Clarence was a middle child, the seventh of 13 children born to Annie and Arthur Deyoung. Like most families of that era, the Deyoungs were self-sufficient because they had to be. They had a small farm with livestock and large gardens. Everybody had chores to do before and after school. “Did we growl and complain? Probably. But it helped shape us and developed character,” says Clarence. He vividly remembers seeing ten or more lunch cans lined up by the door each morning.

His early years of schooling were in Pomquet and he attended Antigonish East High School. “I liked grade eleven so much I did it two years in a row,” he quips.

In 1969, there was a lot of economic activity at the Strait of Canso with the paper mill and the Gulf Oil Refinery. The summer after completing grade eleven, Clarence headed to Point Tupper to tie steel. In what remains a mystery to this day, Clarence was approached one evening at home by a recruiter from the DeVry Institute to take a computer technology program. A 17 year old boy from Pomquet, who had only been as far as Halifax a few times, headed “down the road” to Toronto.

He was understandably homesick, but the kindness and generosity of his billets, Iva and Jim Riggs, got him over the hump. The program ran two years straight without any breaks. During this time, he had five different part time jobs to pay for his room, board and schooling. His upbringing of hard work had prepared him well.

He finished his program on a Friday and started work the following Monday with a company called Miscoe. The work consisted mostly of repairs to computer monitors and printers. Ten years later he received an offer from the owners to buy the business. He and his wife, Mary Ann, wondered how they could possibly finance a business with their modest resources.   At the time they had two young children.  Clarence did his due diligence, travelling to the U.S. to try and ascertain where the industry was heading. After several rejections, he found one bank that believed in him. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Clarence’s timing could not have been better. The business took off, and at one time his company had locations in 34 cities and towns across Canada.

In 1987 he was approached by Apple Computers, who made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Two years later he called it a day and decided that he would devote the rest of his life to volunteering.

Volunteering was in his DNA, and he credits his mother for instilling this in all of his siblings as well. In the book “Baker’s Dozen” that documents the Deyoung family, he describes his mother with these words and phrases: “Unselfish, giving, kind, compassionate, caring, wonderful heart, ethical,  strong moral values, lots of goodness, witty and honest; all qualities which she passed on to us siblings, not by sitting us down at the table and teaching us, but by her actions.”

During the early 80’s, Murray Dryden (father of Ken and Dave) gave a presentation at Clarence’s daughter’s school. He was the founder of “Sleeping Children around The World” (SCAW).  When Clarence retired, he tracked down Mr. Dryden. He was blown away by the simplicity of the initiative. SCAW provides bed kits to children, evenly distributed between boys and girls of any religion, focusing on those with the greatest need. These children are typically located in underdeveloped and developing countries. Every dollar raised goes to the bed kits … “the 100% gift” (www.scaw.org ).

To this day, Clarence remains 100% committed to his charitable work. Over the years , whether it was in Toronto or Hammonds Plains, he gave of his time to St. Vincent de Paul, the Knights of Columbus and  Feed Nova Scotia to name but a few. He still travels with SCAW regularly and never tires of seeing the smiles on the face of the children when they receive their bed kits.

In 2010, Clarence and Mary Ann decided that it was time to come “full circle” and they moved back home to Pomquet. They are both heavily involved in their community.

“I have been very fortunate. I got some breaks along the way and my timing was perfect. I was lucky to grow up in Pomquet with two exceptional parents as role models.”

Annie and Arthur would be very proud of a son who has given so much to so many.

“Getting a Parkinson’s diagnosis at the age of 45 was a gift. It changed my attitude about being loved. It was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

Meet Peter Davison.

Peter and his two sisters were raised in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia. Like most small towns, there were upsides and downsides. “You never had to lock your home or bicycle. But everybody knew your dog’s name and what kind of milk you drank.”

His mother was a teacher and a social worker and his dad was an electrician and a man who could do anything with his hands. In addition to providing a nurturing home, his parents taught valuable lessons about being community minded and having high ethical standards.

After completing high school, Peter ventured off to King’s College in Halifax without the faintest idea of what he wanted to do. After his third year, he decided to take off to Europe to “find himself”, a popular pursuit during that era. While lying on a beach in Portugal, he came to the conclusion that teaching was in his blood. He returned to university and completed his studies, earning a B. Ed from Mt. St. Vincent University. His first teaching assignment was at his old Junior High School. It was odd being in the staff room with teachers who had taught him a scant few years before.

He spent a year teaching in Ontario before returning to Halifax. Over the years he developed and offered conflict resolution workshops for other teachers. The Montreal Massacre in 1989 was a seminal event for Peter. He became involved with the “ Men For Change” movement which promoted positive, healthy masculinity. He helped develop a teacher’s guide entitled “Healthy Relationships: A Violence Prevention Curriculum” which spread beyond Nova Scotia to places like California and Northern Ireland. He travelled often to do presentations for other teachers and professionals who worked with young children.

During this time he became a peace activist.

For a number of years, Peter worked on a Provincial Government program called, “Family Violence Prevention Initiative.” The work was emotionally draining and at the end of one particularly stressful and exhausting week, he fell asleep on the beach at White Point Beach Lodge. When he woke he spotted a derelict lobster trap that he took home to remind him that, in order to help others, he needed to look after himself.

From 2000-2014, he did training and motivational speaking. In 2005, at the age of 45, Peter noticed that he was having difficulty completing simple tasks like writing and brushing his teeth. He received the devastating news that he had Parkinson’s disease. How could this have happened to someone who had run marathons, never consumed alcohol nor smoked, and had hiked to base camp at Mt. Everest?

He kept the diagnosis from family and friends for a year. In 2006, he attended the Stan Rogers festival in Canso where he met an acquaintance from his past. Eighteen years earlier, he had criticized Andrea, a friend at the time, for wearing leather pants. “I was a self-righteous activist when I knew her before.” They rekindled an old flame and in short order, Peter told her about his health. They married the following July:  07/07/07 at 7:00 p.m.! In 2008, they adopted an infant. Hanna was joined by a brother, Vance, who was born in 2011.

Around 2012, Peter noticed that he was starting to have issues with voice control.   Two years later, he decided that his public speaking days were over. He refocused his energy and transferred his significant talents to his wife’s business as a marketer.

While he may have lost his ability to speak the way he once did, he did not lose his voice. He discovered that there were many people in situations similar, and in some cases, worse than his. He began to document these stories about how ordinary people react when they received “the hit”.  He recently published his first book called “The Gift of The Hit”, which tells the remarkable stories of people who have experienced a cancer diagnosis, ALS, car accident, blindness, sexual abuse and much more. (You can read about it here: www.giftofthehit.com )

“My kids bring me back into the present when I start to worry about the future. They keep me grounded and in the moment.”

His life is filled with love and laughter in spite of the challenges he faces on a daily basis. Somehow Parkinson’s has changed his life in a very positive way.

Keep “the hits” coming, Peter!