I visit Sardis and Chilliwack each week to further my research. I am getting to know Shannon Bettles, the archivist at the Chilliwack Archives, well by now. Many leads go nowhere. But every now and again, I find the needle in the haystack. This keeps me going. I spend an afternoon with Marie Weeden, a pioneer from the Chilliwack valley. She is the niece of Ray Wells who was the manager of the fishing lodge at Chilliwack Lake during the 1950s and 60s. She shows me photographs of Ray’s childhood. Just as I am about to leave, she mentions that Ray Wells wrote a diary. Does she have a copy? Yes, she does. She makes me a copy and gives it to me. I can’t believe my good fortune. When I leave her house, in the dimming light I sit in my car and read his diary. Only five pages but it brings him back to life for me.