'There's no place like the Magdalen Islands': English-speaking islanders flock home for community celebrations

Homecoming celebrations are underway this week in the municipality of Grosse Ile in the Magdalen Islands, Que. 

The week-long celebration, organized by the municipality and the Council for Anglophone Magdalen Islanders (CAMI), kicked off Monday with a community picnic.

Several former Magdalen Islanders arranged to come home during the celebrations to see longtime friends and catch up with family they haven't seen in a while.

CBC News is on-hand for the celebrations and caught up with some of the returning Magdalen Island diaspora. 

Back from Stockholm

Vita Olsson (née Boudreault), 38, left the Magdalen Islands to study. In Montreal she met her future husband, Dan Olsson. The couple now lives in Dan's hometown, Stockholm, and have three daughters: Jenna, 10, Nellie, 8 and Grace, 6.

"When you are from here you always have a strong connection to here. This year was extra special to come back because of the homecoming," said Vita Olsson.

What do you miss the most when you are away?

"The close-knit community. Sometimes you wish you could walk out onto the street and know everybody. But that doesn't really happen in the city."

What do you find hardest about being away?

"[Being away from] family, especially as your parents get older and when you have children. You want your children to be around your family all the time. Yeah, that's the hardest thing."

When you come back home, what's the one thing you have to do while you are here?

"Eat Lobster! Fresh lobster, not mixed with anything, just right out of the sea."

Left for a job, comes back for the chicken

Charles Taker left the Magdalen Islands for a job opportunity with the federal government about 20 years ago but keeps a strong connection to Grosse Ile.

"I come back twice per year but it's never long enough because you never get to see everybody you want to see. But it's great to be here for this event. I've been watching on Facebook for the last week and there is this great migration toward the Island all week. Most of the people on this field today I know."

What do you miss the most when you are away?

"The whole sense of community. It's a different way of life here. I've been away for almost 20 years now, so obviously you adopt city ways. But to just pop in on somebody, when you're in the city, you just don't do that. Here you just arrive and you're welcomed. That's one thing about the culture here, being able to be spontaneous. In the city I feel we have to plan our lives all the time."

What do you find hardest about being away?

"I think it's being away when there are events happening, as your parents age and things like that. For me, my niece is growing up and I'm missing most of that. It's that whole family thing. When you move away you take on new friends, but these are the people you grew up with."

When you come back home what's the one thing you have to do while you are here?

"What I like to do when I come in to the Magdalen Islands, I like to have once per year, Dixie Lee Chicken. You don't have Dixie Lee Chicken unless you're in the Gaspé or New Brunswick, although now I think you have one in the suburbs of Quebec City." (Editor's note: there is indeed one in Quebec City)

90 years old, but still tries to visit twice a year

Mazie Kathleen McKay, 90, left to go to school in Nova Scotia when she was about 15 years old, then went to Montreal when she was 17 and has been there ever since. She comes back every summer, sometimes twice per year.

"There's no place like the Magdalen Islands, it's the best place God made. It's beautiful and the people are so friendly, but I find the young people stay more at home on computers than they go out. Then of course there's the fishing you can't get better fish than what you get here."

What do you miss the most when you are away?

I don't know because I phone every week. And I phone my sisters in PEI, phone my cousin in Calgary and I travel quite a bit.

What do you find hardest about being away?

Oh, I don't mind it at all. For me Montreal is my home now, and I've been there for a long time. I have a lot of friends and we go out every day. And now that I'm retired I have the life of Riley."

When you come back home what's the one thing you have to do while you are here?

Visit all my friends. They don't visit like they used to but I still go anyway.

A family, reunited

Each founding family of Grosse Ile was represented at the homecoming. One branch of the Turnbull family tree includes 12 siblings now aged between 52 and 72 years. All 12 are in Grosse Ile this week. Six of the seven Turnbull sisters — Eunia, Trudy, Vicky, Penny, Wendy, and Glenda — spoke with CBC.

Only two of the six still live full-time on the Islands; the rest made the trip home.

"We might be far away but we are a very close family. The Magdalen Islands are the heart. As they say, you can take the girl out of the Island but not the Island out of the girl."

"It means the world to me to be with (my sisters)."

What do you do when you all get together?

"Oh we party, we love to party. We play games, we reminisce, play music. Just have a great time. BBQing and dancing. We love to dance wherever the party is. House parties, building parties. Building parties are in our garage. It's all cleaned out and everybody gets in there and we have a good time."

What's the one thing you have to do when you are all together?

"Take family pictures. We just took some. We made a circle of us all, and some of us are over 70 and everyone was lying on the ground face up. It was our circle of love. 12 kids, 12 of us. We just did this the other day."

What do you miss the most when you are away?

Oh, the beach, the ocean. The people. Mostly the people.

When you come back home what's the one thing you have to do while you are here?

Beach days and more beach days. We just lay around and gossip and swim. Just the usual things. We don't plan our days. We just wait for a phone call in the morning and then we are gone.