Princess Kathleen

I saw this name at the Vancouver Maritime Museum a few months ago and it's been on the desk ever since - I really couldn't resist it.

Even though I've never been called Kathleen, even though I'm not really a princess, this piece of a ship takes me back to my childhood when I wanted, more than anything, to be a princess.

Oh, I'm pretty sure that even back then I didn't want to be a real princess, not the kind that has to work for charities, always be perfectly dressed, and coiffed, and mannered.

That last part would have been especially tough for me.

No, I wanted to be a very particular kind of princess - the kind that got to do whatever she wanted, that got presents every day, that ate only what and when she wanted, the got to ride the best horse, lived in the most beautiful room in the turret of the castle...

Well, you get the picture. I wanted to be the princess that almost every little girl dreamed of being.

So I want to thank the Maritime Museum and the shipping company that named their ship the Princess Kathleen and the people - whoever they are - who saved this piece of the old ship and donated it to the museum.

For it's because of those people that I got a chance to go back to those days of my childhood and got to remember what it felt like to be that princess. The princess that I made up.

Kate