Vicki Grant's "Being 18" video

Motivated by the experience of saying good-bye to her 17-year-old son when he went to university several years back, author Vicki Grant created the accompanying video as a personal project.   

Vicki Grant, author of youngCanLit including  The Puppet Wrangler (Orca, 2004), Quid Pro Quo (Orca, 2005), Not Suitable for Family Viewing (HarperCollins, 2009), Betsy Wickwire's Dirty Secret (HarperTrophy Canada, 2011) and Hold the Pickles (Orca, 2012), is well-known for her quirky storylines and wonderful sense of humour.  So I was surprised and delighted by the video but curious about the provenance of its concept.  It seems that when her son went off to university, Vicki Grant could not stop crying when leaving him.  She was astonished to realize that her grandmother would have been saying good-bye to her seventeen-year-old son, Vicki's father, at that same age but he would have been heading off to war.

Vicki Grant shared that she met the female veteran who appears at the conclusion of the video while doing research for an upcoming mystery set in World War II Halifax, and that her daughter and nephew participated in the making of the video.  Even without these personal connections, the video Being 18 is poignant, sharing the message of differences between teens of different eras and most important that we should always "Remember Them". Enjoy the video and remember.

Being 18

Published on Nov 2, 2012 by Vicki Grant to YouTube