All My Puny Sorrows

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide. The text uses potentially triggering or stigmatizing terms for death by suicide that the guide reproduces in quotation only.

Yolandi Von Riesen (Yoli) remembers watching her family’s former home drive away on the back of a truck. She, her sister, Elfrieda Von Riesen (Elf), her mother, Lottie Von Riesen, and her father, Jack Von Riesen, waved as it disappeared down the road. It was 1979 and Jack had built the house when he and Lottie first married. They were in love and the East Village neighbors were shocked by Jack and Lottie’s behavior, as they were in the Canadian Mennonite community.

The family spent a few days “in the Badlands of South Dakota” in the United States waiting to move into their new house (8). Elf complained about camping throughout the trip, and one night their propane grill caused a fire. They returned to the road and headed back to East Village in Canada. On the way, they stopped to see some Indigenous rock paintings.

Back in East Village, the family moved into their new home on First Street. They’d lost the first house because Jack agreed to sell it to a local car dealer.