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For Dan and Linda Palliser, life in Rigolet is all about family, mobility and the benefits that come from living close to the land. The couple have five children, two of whom still live at home. They like the pace of life, fresh air and freedom their small coastal community affords them. They spend their spare time hunting and fishing, gathering berries and collecting firewood. Like most people in the North, Dan and Linda enjoy a traditional diet of country food and a traditional way of life where everything and everybody is close at hand. Spending up to seven weeks at a time in St. John’s left the Pallisers feeling isolated, disconnected, fenced in… alone. The pressures added up and made Dan’s road to recovery all the more challenging.
In April 2006, Dan was diagnosed with cancer and, with his wife, made the first of seven trips to St. John’s. The couple kept a positive outlook throughout — “The doctor told us what would work best for Dan and so that’s what we did” — but it wasn’t easy. The only people they could talk to were Dan’s fellow patients at the clinic, and without any transportation, they often felt confined to their hotel room. The Pallisers found they were paying bills at home and in the city. The dual expenses were mounting. “Food presented a whole new set of problems,” Linda recalled. “There were only certain things that Dan could eat and it would have been nice if I could have prepared it for him.”
There is, of course, no place like home. Daffodil Place will go a long way to providing families like the Pallisers with the comforts and connections that they miss so much.
