Olive Rose is a Canadian born author with Caymanian heritage. Born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta she was the second oldest of five children. Her parents hailed from the beautiful, tropical island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. However, Olive and her siblings grew up in the mild summers, and harsh winters of Edmonton. While there, she made the most of the cold climate with ice fishing, figure skating, snowshoeing, and tobogganing. However, her favorite, and most frequent activity was hibernating under her goose down comforter with a good book. The Edmonton summers brought a welcomed reprieve, and allowed family road trips along the Yellowhead Highway. She learned to pitch tents at Whistlers campground, roast marshmallows on campfires, enjoy the native animals, and the scenic beauty of the Canadian Rocky mountains, Lake Louise, and Miette Hot Springs.
On one of Olive's camping trips she encountered a massive black bear, only 20 feet away from her tent. The bear was having his fill of forgotten food on a picnic table. This exhilarating and frightening encounter paralleled the unpredictable and chaotic nature of her upbringing. She lived under a lively, yet unpredictable roof with rambunctious siblings and a schizophrenic father who was prone to acting out. Under these circumstances, her quiet nature left her mother, teachers, and peers concerned about her own mental state. In actuality, she lived within the safety and confines of her mind. She created stories and virtual worlds that kept her from the reality of her difficult and confusing homelife. It was during this unbalanced time that reading and writing ignited in her a true passion for writing. Her teenage years brought her the unplanned, but nevertheless joyous birth of a son. She was only 16 years old and had to dropout of high school to take care of her child. Although Olive never stopped reading her fiction novels, she was able to motivate herself to delve back into scholarly academia. She finished high school, and also went on to become a registered nurse after graduating from Grant MacEwan College in 1994.
Her mother had returned to live in Grand Cayman, and sent Olive a graduation present in the form of a plane ticket to visit the island. What what supposed to be a short holiday ended up being a 15 year living and working experience. Olive enjoyed the easy going nature of the Caymanian people, and the beauty and warmth of her surroundings. She enjoyed learning about her cultural heritage, and finally felt a sense of belonging and acceptance. During her time on the island, she learned to scuba dive along Eden Rock among the turtles, lobsters, nurse sharks, colorful parrot fish and other sea life creatures that live amongst the bountiful coral reefs. She also enjoyed jet skiing, frolicking with the friendly stingrays at Stingray city, and simply lying on Seven Mile Beach enjoying the sun's rays. When she wasn't working as a nurse at the local hospital, or taking care of her son, she could be found rocking in a hammock with a good book. Living in Grand Cayman gave her the peace and tranquility to not only read, but to express her thoughts on paper. Yet during the yearly hurricane season, living on the island brought about a sense of insecurity, again paralleling the atmosphere of her youth. Ultimately, it was living through the devastating Hurricane Ivan in 2004, and Hurricane Gustav in 2008 that Olive began to feel the uncertainty of remaining on the island.
Nowadays, Olive currently lives in the cosmopolitan city of Toronto, Canada with her partner. She enjoys Toronto's rich cultural diversity, temperate weather, and moderate political views. She stays busy working on her writing, and at her job as a Registered Nurse in a busy intensive care unit in downtown Toronto. In her spare time, she treasures spending time with her partner; singing off-key to karaoke, dining, dancing, and watching true crime documentaries. She also continues to enjoy yearly visits to Grand Cayman Island to see her family, friends, and former co-workers.
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