The Voyage of the Northern Magic: A Family Odyssey

by Diane Stuemer

  Michael, Jonathan, and Christopher, thank you, my precious boys, for leaving your comfortable home, your bikes, and your friends for four years; for putting up with uncomfortable conditions without complaint; for finding your own granola bars when I couldn’t manage a meal; for liking Kraft dinner made with mouldy noodles and rancid powdered milk; for gleefully keeping track of how many times I barfed; for making me share my Hershey’s Kisses with you in the middle of the night; for teaching me to play Magic Cards; for making me laugh; for being resourceful and cheerful no matter what; for countless snuggles and back-scratches; for giving me the incredible privilege of watching you grow up with the entire world as your playground. Thank you for being a part of this dream, even though it wasn’t always yours.

  And my final thanks goes to my brilliant, stubborn, resourceful, sometimes infuriating, and always devoted husband, Herbert, who first dared to dream, and then made it all happen, no matter what.

  Photo Credits

  All photos are copyright © Herbert and Diane Stuemer, except for the following:

  this page, photo on front page of Ottawa Citizen, courtesy Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen;

  this page, photos of kelotok, loggers’ camp, Rosemary and babies, and young gold miners, courtesy Andy Schinner; photo of Magic the gibbon, courtesy Grace Dodge;

  this page, photo of Maasai boy, courtesy Linda Maslechko;

  this page, large photo of Maasai grandmother, courtesy Linda Maslechko;

  this page, photos of arrival in Nova Scotia, Mike diving, Herbert hoisting sail, Diane and family, and Diane on Citizen front page, courtesy Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa Citizen; photo of crowd, Aug. 26, 2001, courtesy Bruce Johnston.

  I am a part of all that I have met;

  Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough

  Gleams that untravelled world, whose margin fades

  For ever and for ever when I move.

  How dull it is to pause, to make an end,

  To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!

  As though to breathe were life.

  Alfred, Lord Tennyson,

  Ulysses

  Diane Stuemer’s journal of her family’s voyage appeared weekly in the Ottawa Citizen from September 1997 to August 2001. The articles enjoyed phenomenal success and the Stuemers appeared on the newspaper’s front page on nine occasions.

  On March 15, 2003, five months after The Voyage of the Northern Magic was first published, Diane lost her battle with melanoma. Her husband, Herbert, and their three boys, Michael, Jonathan, and Christopher, continue their commitment to activism and humanitarian work. They live in Ottawa.

  To learn more about the Stuemers, their voyage, and the family’s ongoing international projects, visit www.northernmagic.com.