Collingwood retiree writes children's tales featuring her spaniels

In addition to all the experiences and memories, life also offers many lessons. So it goes to reason the older you are, the more lessons, experiences and memories you have had and can therefore share.

Katherine Huycke got to thinking one day when all her tasks were done and she suddenly found herself with time on her hands. Why waste all that, she thought. And the she set pen to paper.

She began constructing stories with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Pixie and Jazz as the main characters. And exercising her artistic side that she had long honed, she illustrated each one. There are currently 25 stories in all, 12 of which she has put together in a series of four self-published books under the title The Jazz and Pixie Stories.

“It’s something seniors can do to reflect on their lives,” she says about the exercise of writing. Physical ability, she adds, has no role in the process.

For Huycke the audience is children. She envisions parents would read the stories, about 10 minutes each, to kids and a discussion would follow.

Huycke came to Collingwood 50 years ago to raise her family when it was a very rural town. Originally from Ireland she was raised in Toronto and after marrying at age 19, she called many Southern and Central Ontario homes as her husband was moved from place to place within his company.

While living in Windsor she enjoyed going to the Hudson's department store where she could find all sorts of fabrics, threads and sewing items. But no such store existed in Collingwood, so she created the Cloth Shop of Collingwood in the early 1980s.

During the 20 years she had the shop she also found a business in helping people select fabrics and wall coverings and she found herself involved in interior decorating.

Throughout, she was involved in the community and many activities.

In 2018 she was awarded the Sovereign's Medal for Volunteers for dedicating decades of her time to Collingwood’s art and culture scene by volunteering with Theatre Collingwood and Gaslight Community Theatre Productions, using her creative talents to design themed fundraiser receptions, directing plays, making costumes and painting sets.

In 2003 Huycke purchased an abandoned property in southern France, where she finds it always warm. And over the course of several years, she rented her house in Collingwood to skiers to spend time in France for months on end, converting a stone barn into a spectacular exhibit and living space.

She brought in guests for art workshops, providing them with a place to stay and continues to make the villa available to visitors.

“While I was over there and it was quiet, I started writing stories about my Cavalier King Charles Spaniels,” she recalls. “I was there on my own. I didn’t have particularly any housework to do other than take care of myself. … I decided I would write and illustrate these small books.

“Just recently, I was able to put them on to Amazon, so I have four books, comprised of 12 short stories.”

Each book contains three illustrated stories that follow the dogs as they travel and experience the world, making friends and supporting each other along the way. They explore cities, have picnics in the countryside, take a ski trip to Grenoble and have adventures that open them to new experiences and life lessons.

Each story, she adds, includes a positive moral tale with hints on behaviour providing a nice jumping off point for further conversations.

The project, which continues, has been in the works for 10 years.

Huycke, who lost her husband 20 years ago, says she’s always busy and has some sort of project on the go. It’s something she’s determined to continue as she ages.

“It’s a quiet thing to do… I think (writing) is art of our life… we can remember the good times or remember family stories and put them down on paper so that the rest of the family could read them.”