If you have looked up at a hazy sky this week or felt that familiar smell in the air, you already know. Salt Spring is in smoke season again, and it is here now.

This is not the same island many of us grew up on or moved here for. As our climate warms, fire seasons are starting earlier, lasting longer and sending smoke our way more often, even from fires burning hundreds of kilometres from here.

We cannot control the fires themselves, but we can control how we protect ourselves and each other while the smoke is here.

Smoke is more than an inconvenience. It carries tiny particles that get deep into your lungs and can affect your whole body.

Anyone can feel the effects, but babies, older adults, pregnant people and anyone with heart or lung trouble need to be extra careful right now. Salt Spring has a lot of older residents, so this matters for many of our neighbours today.

Watch for…

Twenty-three came to this ASK Salt Spring gathering for the complicated and emotional discussion about the supports needed to allow us to age safely and comfortably in our homes.

Leading this conversation were Valerie Louvet, owner of Homecare Salt Spring, and Cecile Petra, Occupational Therapist and Coordinator of Hospice Home Visits.

For more about our Hospice Society, you may want to re-read the ASK Salt Spring report about its visit with us.

After an Acknowledgement by Constance Gibbs, one of our Hospice volunteers who selected this topic and invited our guests, we each had an opportunity to introduce ourselves.

The group was split into folks who wanted to learn more to better support their parent and those who wanted to begin planning how they could age comfortably and safely in their home.

We soon learned that, unless one is cared for by a loving friend or relative, home care decisions are often forced to strike that ba…