by Barb Green
Hetty Roessingh says her “window on the world” is on the east wall of her house on 12 Avenue, kitty-corner to Briar Hill school.
From the dining table adjacent to the window, surrounded by books, papers and bits of memorabilia that reflect the many other windows on the world her curious mind investigates, Hetty notices things.
She notices the kids going to school each morning, some with parents, some with caregivers or grandparents. She can name them all and estimate their ages.
“The morning ‘parade’ of little kids passes by my window between about 8:15 and 8:40 am,” she says with the air of someone consulting a train schedule. “The doggie walkers on 21A Street start at around 7:45 am with Jerome showing up first with Scout – you can set your watch. Jerome. Tex comes by several times a day … he’s the ‘old one’ across the street who doesn’t make it very far.”
“Cookie is old, too … She’s out several times a day, but I have seen Sophie out with Cookie on my way home from work, around 5:30 pm or so. Barb (Finlay), Gerri (Finias), Sharon (Java) are unpredictable.”
“Beau is maybe my favourite … he is the Shepherd dog who is so full of energy. Alan is his human, and they are out several times a day. You can catch him lazing on the front porch often … he’s usually ready to welcome me home from work with a friendly wag of his tail,” she concludes.
Hetty officially retired a few years back but is still very active as Professor Emeritus in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, and she walks there and back most days. Along the way, she makes a point of chatting with the people and pups she encounters, and obviously, she never forgets a name or a shaggy little face.
“When I go walking, I’m not shy to say, ‘What’s your puppy’s name?’” she says, adding that having a dog to walk in the neighbourhood is a great way of increasing engagement with your neighbours.
Hetty’s noticing is another answer to the question, “How do we build community?” although she admits laughingly that there may be a thin line between “concerned citizen” and “nosey neighbour,” and that boundaries differ person to person and culture to culture.
It was an article about a woman who’d died in her home alone and was not discovered until the mail piled up outside her house that motivated Hetty to go beyond the casual interactions with her immediate neighbours and start the “Let’s Talk” series of presentations and discussions at the Hounsfield Heights-Briar Hill community hall last year (second Tuesday of the month at 2:00 pm). So far, topics have ranged from community crime and safety to healthy aging to making self-watering tomato buckets.
An upcoming session will reflect one of Hetty’s professional interests: the importance of handwriting in early education. She’s working with a local calligraphy association to build resources for educators about the importance of handwriting in building neural pathways in developing brains, but she also puts handwriting to good use in practical ways, as neighbours discovered when they woke to find handwritten Valentines and chocolate from Edelweiss in their mailboxes – Hetty had negotiated a discount on 200 remaindered chocolate letters with the local German food store and fully intended to remain the secret Valentine for her block.
“I was busted by a porch cam!” she laughs, adding that she received a lovely response from the neighbour who outed her, letting her know that the little bit of sweetness had come at just the right time.
But our community needs more predictable opportunities to come together, she says.
“When I walk into Louise Riley library these days, it’s buzzing. There are little kids in the children’s corner, people playing chess, others on computers,” she says. “Now we need to add a place to sit and have a coffee and chat.”
She’s begun a conversation with HHBH CA Chair Jeff Marsh about how to create a space like that in our neighbourhood. If you’re interested in being part of that discussion, email Hetty at [email protected].
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