Best of the Season! Paul’s Family
- No law here!
During a FaceTime visit I asked my daughter Cassidy for her help with a Seasonal column topic. She responded: “It’s a time for family – you should write about your family.”
“All about me then?” I asked. She scowled and clarified: “No, about your family!”
Who the heck would want to read about my family!? I’ll wish you a quick “Happy Holidays” in case your eyes stop here.
Where to start.
I’ve lost my parents. Beautiful people. Each of them had pursued a life in the Catholic Church and spent time as missionaries – my father as a priest in Brazil and my mother as a nun in Guatemala – before quirks of fate caused them independently to leave their calling and find each other.
Their unconventional path shaped our small family in unexpected ways. One feature is that their experiences of famine in the third world eliminated all manner of luxury, as well as stripped Halloween, the Easter Bunny, and lavish Christmas gifts from our childhoods!
I have one sibling: my older (by 362 days) brother John. John lives in Regina, as does my niece Danna, an elementary school teacher. I miss them. From time to time my brother and I put on virtual reality headsets and shoot bad guys together.
There’s an engraved silver pendant on a chain around my neck displaying July 17, 1999, the date I married Terri.
Terri is my everything.
She was 35 years old with an 11-year-old daughter when we were married.
I figured I had all the children I needed in my life. I had previously established a strong connection with a wonderful little girl named Robyn – I had lived with her and her mom for a couple of years. And then there was Terri’s daughter Nicole.
I am incredibly lucky that Terri was up for going back to diapers – It means three wonderful people call me “Dad”.
Ironic, because my brother and I never knew our parents as “Mom” and “Dad”. They raised us to call them by their names, Lois and Al, much to the puzzlement of our peers. I don’t recall their reasoning, but it made sense to me as a boy when, in a crowded space of children and their parents, some kid yelled out “Mom!”.
Cassidy, age 24, was the scholastic one. Until she decided to put her incredible talents to use pursuing a career in the performing arts. She kicked butt in last year’s Kelowna Fringe Festival with a solo show that featured a stripper pole called “Do I look like my Dad?”, giving me a 5-second cameo to illustrate the resemblance.
She’s one of the strongest people I know – both physically (she is a pole dancing instructor!) and emotionally, riding the roller coaster of her career choice.
Morgan, age 21, is our princess. Following in her sister’s footsteps she’s spent a lot of time on stages in musical theatre productions. She also gravitates to working with children, having spent the last several years of her spare time teaching after-school and summer program musical theatre classes. She’s on track to achieve her career goal of being an elementary school teacher.
Morgan is also remarkably fit. She decided to start an annual tradition of her and me doing a triathlon together. This coming year will be our third. We were joined last year by Cassidy, and maybe we’ll rope Caden in for 2026.
At age 19 and 6 feet 1 inch, Caden is our tallest baby. He’s another talented musical theatre performer who has been one of the regulars on stage at the Kelowna Actors Studio. I’ve got all my eggs in the Caden basket of being able to pass on a legacy of Hergott Law. His compass seems currently to be pointed in the direction of a career in law, but who the heck knows with young people!
Rounding out my family is my stepdaughter Nicole’s brood. Nicole is a motivated CPA who has temporarily exchanged that work for raising children. She and her partner have given us three beautiful grandchildren, aged 8, 5, and 2, who we have the privilege of hanging out with a lot because they live only a couple blocks away.
Did you make it to the end? I’m flattered!
I wish you and your family the very best of the Season and as happy a 2026 as can be hoped for.
