I met Ken after he sailed his sailboat, SV Advena, to Sitka and tied it to the dock with a broken down engine. I lived in Sitka where I commercially fished and taught special education in the public schools. I became an Olson when I had the good fortune to marry Ken.
After we moved to Wrangell Alaska, we had, as Ken used to say, “9 GRAND AND GLORIOUS” years together living in our little cottage but spending most of the time traveling the waters of SE Alaska aboard the MV Christian, a Lutheran Church owned and operated 65 ‘ steel boat that slept 30 people.
Our work was ministering to people in the small villages, living isolated, with many living off the grid lives. We simply shared life with them. 
Often times, as they lived lives where there was no protection services we offered community services and a chance to have someone to talk to…and air their concerns. Summers we would pick up all the kids from these villages and take them to
another community and pick up more kids and simply live with them for a week or so time, exploring the beautiful waters of Clarence, Sumner and Chatham straits. I know the kids got so much out of 
this program and our lives were certainly enriched by learning from them.
Ken and I owned a beautiful little cabin in Meyers Chuck prior to his tragic drowning accident. He fell through thin ice while skating on a nearby lake on one of the very coldest winters there for a long time. I was able to continue enjoying Meyers Chuck for several years before moving south to Washington.
Benny was a memorable character in Myers Chuck and he knew how to survive. Benny’s real name was Zbignief Jenkowski. He was orphaned as a child during world War II in Poland and was sent to Sweden to an orphanage where he jumped a ship at a young age of about 12 and came to “America.” He had experiences in the Anaconda Mines in Montana, working in Hollywood on stage sets, riding the rails on trains, and ending up working in the woods on Prince of Wales Island in SE Alaska, then fishing deck handing on boats and ended up living off the land in Meyers Chuck.
Benny was always inventing the perpetual motion machine. Benny had lots of cats and he would call us on the marine 
radio when he heard we were coming on the MV Christian. He would motor out to our boat in his little skiff and we would give him bags of cat food for his herd of cats. Always when I was living in Meyers Chuck he would say it was his birthday and would I fix him a turkey dinner. He had stashed turkeys from Ketchikan in people’s freezers around the Chuck. I told him I would make his “birthday “dinner but he had to take a shower(had an old propane heated shower in our workshop) and he had to leave his old coat outside as it smelled of cat pee.
He said, “It did not smell.”
I said, “Yes it did.”
He asked my friend, Shalline, who also lived there,“Shalline, does this coat smell?”
Shalline said, “Yes, of cat pee.”
He said, “Nancy told you to say that didn’t she?” 
We laughed. He took a shower and left his coat outside and we had a turkey birthday dinner.
Many other characters and stories were part of our rich lives in SE Alaska.
To view a previously published Ken Olson (Salmon Journey) post – click here
so enjoyed reading this Nancy thanks for sharing it
What a treat to read about this time.
A wonderful story of a adventure.
I keep this story perpetually open in a tab on my phone. It is a painting that I can glance at whenever to brighten the day 😎