By Kate Winquist
kate@yoursouthwest.com

It was mid-August of this year. I only had a few editions of Your West Central Voice under my belt. Things were going pretty well. Subscriptions were climbing, and advertising was starting to trickle in.

Joan Janzen had stopped by for a visit one morning and had mentioned that I should contact The Oyen Echo, a weekly community newspaper that serves our friends in neighbouring Alberta, a mere hours drive along the No. 7 highway.

“What’s up?” I asked inquisitively.

I can’t remember how Joan responded, but she implied that The Echo’s editor contemplated retirement and thought I might be interested.

I’m a firm believer that it never hurts to gain information if it could somehow be beneficial. I didn’t know much about Oyen, other than my husband’s cousins lived around the area some time ago. Curiosity got the better of me, and I sent off an email inquiring about what their thoughts were. I didn’t immediately receive a reply, so I thought that I would do some investigating about The Echo.

What I found immediately intrigued me. The editor was Diana Walker, who was born in Oyen in 1947. I started counting decades on my fingers and concluded that Diana was 72-73 years old. No wonder she wants to retire, I thought to myself—Diana’s start in the newspaper business was in 1969, the year I was born.

Diana called and left a message on my phone a couple of weeks later, apologizing for not getting in touch sooner. It sounded like life was getting in the way, as it has a habit of doing. After playing phone and email tag for a few weeks, Diana and I finally were able to speak. I’m not sure how long our conversation was, but I felt like I had known her for a long time. The conversation was effortless. She let me know what her thoughts were on The Echo and that she thought that I would be a good person to take over the reins because of my passion for the industry.

I promised Diana that I would give it some serious thought.

I took a drive to Oyen with my husband, Robert. We wanted to see what kind of business district the community had. We were quite impressed. Neither of us expected the town to have such a diverse selection of businesses. It took us some time to locate The Echo office, and when we did, unfortunately, it was closed. I could have called Diana on her cell, but it was a Friday, and I didn’t want her to feel obligated to come to the office on her well-deserved day off!

I emailed Diana, and we arranged to meet in person later that week. My daughter and I drove to Oyen, and finally, I met the whirlwind, otherwise known as Diana Walker. We had such a great visit. Again, it felt like we had known each other for a long time. If my daughter wasn’t so anxious to get home, I’m sure I could have stayed for another hour at least.

We continued to email back and forth, exchanging copies of our papers. On September 28, I had made up my mind. I regretably had to tell Diana that I could not purchase The Oyen Echo.

“… I’m sorry, Diana. I just don’t have enough of me to make it work. I think I have enough on my plate building what I have started here. I would hate to add more to it and have the rest suffer as a consequence. I do hope that you are able to continue or find someone local to take it on. If things change, I will surely let you know. Please do keep in touch, and I hope we can still exchange papers electronically. If there’s anything else that I can help you out with, please let me know!”

I know Diana was disappointed, but she understood. We continued our friendship and support for one another through our papers and love for community and storytelling.

On November 26, Diana emailed me, saying she had four papers to go. I asked, “Are you hanging it up at the end of the year for sure?”

“yes ;-(“ was her heartbreaking reply.

“No other prospects,” I inquired.

“No.”

“Maybe I should be revisiting this? I don’t know what to do!”

Diana didn’t respond to me, but little did she know that I was revisiting the opportunity. My husband and I talked about it for a long time over the weekend, and I told him the only way that I could see it working was if I had him to help me. To my shock and disbelief, Robert said, “Let’s go for it.”

When I started Your West Central Voice back in July, my husband told me that I was the only one crazy enough to start a newspaper during a pandemic.

It’s now six months later, and we are adding another newspaper to our publishing business.

Who’s the crazy one now?

My husband gave his official notice at his job at Nutrien Ag Solutions on December 7 and will be moving up to Kindersley at the end of the month to become a part of the Your Southwest Media Group team. He will help me in a variety of capacities, but his main job will be advertising sales.

Robert has no sales experience whatsoever, but he’s a friendly guy with a great sense of humour, and he is up for the challenge! After slugging it out on the oil rigs for thirty years and the agriculture industry, I think he is deserving of a job that isn’t so physically demanding. I am proud of him for taking that leap of faith - something that would not be easy for him. He’s not a big risk-taker, although he took a risk twenty years ago when he made me his wife, which turned out alright!

I am looking forward to the next chapter. It’s been almost three years since our family was altogether under one roof, and I am so grateful to the west-central area for giving us this opportunity.

PHOTO: My husband, Robert will be working with me at Your Southwest Media Group starting in January. We are both looking forward to this next chapter!