The Smith family and their Robbie

Lockeport, Nova Scotia 8/4/19 

I first met the Smith Family when I wandered down a dirt road looking for property in Nova Scotia. Towards the end of the road finding it impassable due to flooding, I headed down a long dirt driveway where I met Carl and Robert Smith.

At first, they tried to discourage me from proceeding further down the road but then as we talked they realized I was, like them, a lover of nature and so they warmed to the idea of me as a potential neighbor and urged me to explore further.

That was the beginning of a 15-year friendship in which, each summer, I would return to visit them in the house they lived in with their two sisters Leona and Annie. A big round house which the boys in their twenties had built from a kit setting it on top of a huge rock with large picture windows overlooking beautiful Jordan Bay. These “boys and girls” were actually now around my age. Carl my exact age, in years, Robert a bit younger and Leona and Annie a bit older.

They had managed to stay together into ripe old age except for Leona who briefly went off to sing in the more populated centers of Canada. She didn’t stray for long, however, but just long enough so that when she did return she brought a new member of the family, her new son Robbie. Robbie grew up and stayed with the family well into adulthood until he was finally able to escape their tight family bonds to freedom and independence in the nearby town of Shelburne.

Five or so years ago Leona passed on and then a few years ago so did Robert. That left Carl and Annie and of course Robbie. Then Annie perhaps the brains and matriarch of the group slipped into forgetfulness, that all too common scourge of the elderly.

Among my best memories of Nova Scotia are visiting the Smiths in their round house where we would sit in their living room with the view over Jordan Bay and watch the sunset. Talking of world events far away and of the time they lived for a while in Quebec before returning to Nova Scotia and also recounting their occasional but not many travels into civilization from their rural Shangri La.

 I especially loved to visit in November, just before returning to my winter home for American Thanksgiving.

Then, in the late afternoon chill I would walk with Carl out to his favorite lookout spot over the boulder-strewn rocky shore gazing up and down the bay as the wind rippled the moving tide while the sun grew an ever deeper orange. I savored the taste of the cold winter to come knowing that in just moments I would be in the warmth of the Smith home with its wood stove and in just days I would be back in the warmth of my own home and family in Baltimore.

A year or so after the passing of Leona the round house’s ongoing deterioration became critical. There were great holes in the roof over the living room exposing them to the elements. While Carl wanted to leave for survival, Annie and Robert resisted mightily, fighting the inevitable, until finally, reality overcame their heroic stubbornness.

Today I saw my friend Carl at a celebration of Robbie’s life. Sadly Robbie passed away early this year far before his time from a sudden unexpected bout with cancer.

Robbie was and is the wonderful product of this very unique and close-knit family. A tremendously talented and gifted musician, composer, player, singer and writer of songs. He was celebrated today with his music and the tribute of his many friends.

As I drove into the town of Shelburne to attend the celebration, I passed the fire hall with its auditorium in the back and noticed a great number of cars completely filling the very large parking lot wondering what it could be for. And, of course, it was for Robbie.

Hundreds attended, by far the largest assemblage I’ve ever seen in the town of Shelburne.

Robbie left way before any of us were ready to see him go, but unlike so much in this fast-changing world we can be grateful that Robbie will continue to live on with us with his wonderful music and spirit.