Me and the Farm Manager used to run into Wilmer Nadjiwon quite regularly at the Top Notch Restaurant. We'd exchange "how-ya-doin'"s but, to my regret, we didn't know anything about the guy till after he passed away.
Turns out this elderly native dude of patrician bearing had written a book about his life, and what a life it was. Born in 1921 (he looked a good twenty years younger than his age), Mr. Nadjiwon had survived, in no particular order, the depression, residential school, sexual abuse, German U boats in the North Atlantic, alcoholism, poverty, front line action in WW II, and a lifetime of anti-native racism.
Even more remarkable than his life story is the fact that there is not so much as a wiff of woe-is-me in his telling of it.
We don't breakfast at the Top Notch as often as we used to, but we stopped in today. In addition to a decent meal at a fair price, we came away with this.
Wilmer was a prolific artist. We're proud to have a piece of this great man in our home. We're now trying to decide where to hang it.
It demands a place of honour.
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