A doll bassinet sits in the middle of the table, cradling not a doll, but one month old Patrick Houle. All around him is the chatter of parents and the noise and cries of all the babies born in 2014, feted at Saddle Lake’s annual baby celebration on Wednesday at the Ayiwakes Cultural Centre. Through it, Patrick sleeps peacefully on.
Patrick was born on Dec. 3, to his mother, at 30 weeks, but he came home with his great-grandma, Donna Houle. She welcomed the boy into her already busy household, which includes her son, his wife, her nephew, and 10 children.
“You know that saying, ‘It takes a community to raise a child? Well, we take it literally,” she said, surrounded by some of her extended family members who also came by for the celebration.
She explained her granddaughter was unable to care for her son, and said, “I took him, no question.”
She didn’t want Patrick to end up in the child welfare system, since she knows eventually, her granddaughter will find herself, saying, “She’ll want him back one day.”
Now she juggles looking after Patrick, with her work at the Head Start program at the reserve. It’s no problem, she says, adding he comes along to work with her.
Shannon Houle, a Saddle Lake band councillor, says that events such as the baby celebration are meant to break the cycle of trauma, abuse, addiction and unhealthy lifestyles that sometimes leave people unable to look after their own children. She noted she became pregnant at 15, and made the decision to raise her own child, learning along the way lessons about positive discipline, spending time with children and above all else, unconditional love.
The event, which is organized by the reserve’s health centre with the support of chief and council, has also become a way to celebrate good news. The cultural centre is often used as a place to gather and mourn lives lost, but when the baby celebration began five years ago, it also became a place to welcome and appreciate new life introduced in the community.
“I really believe babies are gifts, gifts from God, and this is our way of celebrating them, and celebrating parents for doing an amazing job,” said Charity Wenger, who, along with Gloria White, runs the community’s prenatal program and who helped organize the event.
Beautiful handmade rattles were given to each parent attending, with prizes, such as three-wheeled strollers, themed toddler beds, booster seats, fruit baskets and more, given away to those attending, while lunch was served courtesy of Portage College’s culinary program.
The event of plenty was not to be missed, according to Donna, who said she took a couple of hours specially to come with Patrick.
Her life looks different now with his arrival. Once, she said, she had planned to travel to Jerusalem, but had put it off with a death in the family. Now, with Patrick’s birth, she thought she would likely postpone the trip abroad forever.
“I could have been free,” she jokes, adding now she, like other new moms, has the joys of changing explosive diapers and spit-ups. But with some seriousness, she tickles the sleeping infant in his perfect swaddle, and says, “This kid will take care of me when I’m in a wheelchair. He’ll owe it to me.”
Clear in her eyes when she’s looking at Patrick is love, rather than regret or bitterness.
“I think it’s the best thing that can happen to an old person,” she says of her chapan, or great-grandson. “It rejuvenates you. It gives you a reason to live.”
And that is a gift certainly worth celebrating.
