I have altered (slightly) the spelling of his surname so his grandchildren won’t be embarrassed. My mother’s friend (I forget her name) adopted or sponsored or supported him when he arrived in Canada from Latvia (via Germany). It’s a long story that my mother told me. My mother and her friend would go to hear him play with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. My mother quoted some critic who said, “No one has ever played Rach 3 like Arthur Ozolins.” But here’s the thing. He hated my mother’s friend. Maybe he felt controlled or indebted or intruded upon. She was an older unmarried woman. Maybe she wanted a child. Maybe he was a nasty person. I can’t find out because everyone is dead now: my mother, her friend, Arthur O, his wife, his children. His grandchildren would think I was a crazy person.
Heather Cadsby is the author of five books of poetry. The most recent is Standing in the Flock of Connections (Brick Books, 2018). In the 1980s along with Maria Jacobs she produced the monthly periodical Poetry Toronto and founded the press Wolsak and Wynn. In recent years she has served as a director of The Art Bar Poetry Series.
