HER STORY + dreams
DREAMS REALLY CAN COME TRUE BY THERESA JARVELA | SUBMITTED PHOTOS
A
Pictured are a young Theresa and her horse, Babe, by a corral her dad made. Theresa Jarvela and her cousin, Colleen, take a cart ride.
40 | Her Voice Summer 2021
s a child of six years I loved baby dolls, pretty dresses and curly hair, but most of all I loved horses and more than anything desired one for my very own. Second born of 11 children, I remember my father as a builder of additions. Warm summer days I watched him in the backyard carry boards to sawhorses, measure and saw them by hand. I loved watching him work, but to be honest, I had my eye on the sawhorses. When he started pounding nails I would climb onto one of them and suddenly it became my big, black, beautiful stallion. We shared many adventures together, my horse and I, while we traversed creeks, explored green forests and rode with abandon through sunlit canyons. (I watched a lot of westerns as a kid). Wherever I wanted to go, my horse would take me and I loved him. And when Dad needed the sawhorse, I jumped off and galloped around the yard. Not much kept me and my horse from our adventures. As time went on, the desire for a horse of my own grew and set me on a path to achieve my dream. I entered “Name the Horse” contests (always Fury which wasn’t very original). When I didn’t win the first contest, I entered the next one. Then one day I found a catalog that sold ponies. Maybe I could buy one if I saved enough money! Around that time measles came calling and I found myself confined to bed, horse plans on hold. Then one day while headed for recovery, my mother called me into the kitchen. Standing beside her, I wondered why she had summoned me when through the outside door and into the house came my father with a smile on his face, reins in his hand and leading a real live horse. And he said it was mine! Exciting times lay ahead for Babe and me (not sure if Dad or Grandpa named him Babe — he didn’t look like a Fury anyway) but little did I know how exciting those times would prove to be.
