An Okotoks family has kept its ties strong through work and play.
Whether it’s attending a play, a film festival, or even designing a house, there is a fair chance of encountering one of the brothers Rose.
In order from oldest, Stephen, Brendan, Daniel and Ian, have worked, lived and played together most of their lives, often lending their varied and interlocking technical skills to each other's pursuits.
“We’re all fortunate we get along with each other,” Brendan says. “It’s nice to be able to be close to family and then also working on projects together, rather than just visiting.”
Ultimately, Brendan may help with technical support on a play Daniel is acting in, or Ian may help create graphics for an event Brendan is working on, and, more likely than not, either will end up with Daniel in a wizard costume.
From an early age, their parents Shawn and Marijane took an active role with their sons’ education and extra-curriculars.
The family that plays together stays (working) together.
Their sons each took different educational paths with years of homeschooling mixed in, and when the boys enrolled in scouts, mom and dad stepped up as scout leaders.
This dynamic would set the tone for their professional interactions in the future.
“One of the principles we had in scouting was there are no dads or moms here,” Shawn says. “So we sort of had an arms-length relationship inside of scouting, so we got used to working as a team, not in the normal family context, but in the team context.
“That carried over into everything we do, because Brendan eventually became a leader as well.”
Working in architectural and building technologies designing structures, Shawn brought Stephen on board to work with him at his company, Deiseil Design and Planning and Cornerstone Graphic Systems Inc.
As the eldest moved away from the family business, Daniel stepped up, learning on the job.
The family that (acts in) plays together stays together.
Brothers one and three share another common thread, as Stephen has been involved in various backstage capacities with community theatre groups with his spouse Chris.
“We were with Dewdney Players and with Windmill Theatre in High River,” Stephen says. “Mostly Chris was involved and then I was dragged along to help out behind the scenes, but I enjoyed it.”
It was then they roped Daniel into acting, where he now commonly plays a role in one or more plays each year.
In the most recent Dewdney production Bullshot Crummond, he played several characters, from Bullshot’s sidekick to a waiter to various villains and henchmen, thriving on the absurdity.
Stephen also kindled another activity most of the family partakes in, Extra Life, the international fundraiser where gamers team up to play for 24 hours straight to raise money for children's hospitals around the world.
“I think this is my 13th year, and it started out with just me and one or the other brothers,” Stephen says. “I was never good at the actual fundraising or recruiting part, but I managed to get these guys (motioning to his family) involved, and they’re a lot better at that part than I am.
“So then I kind of just focus on the game, master of ceremonies, keeping things flowing and taking care of people, and they take care of recruiting and bring all of their friends, and it’s awesome.”
In early November, Shawn and all four sons participated: Stephen and his partner remotely from Turner Valley, Brendan and his wife from their home down the street, and the rest from the family home, groups of friends and family floating between them.
The family that plays (Dungeons and Dragons) together stays together.
While less involved with their father’s business, brothers Brendan and Ian have professionally paired up for 13 years on various projects, such as operating an IT company, before changing gears to a more creative pursuit in 2020. They started their business, Fantasy by Numbers, where they design and craft wands, dragon eggs and tabletop gaming accessories.
While not tied to their father’s company, they still draw on his business sense with their own endeavours.
With everyone knowing their strengths and weaknesses so well, their working chemistry has interlocked with great synchronicity. This has its ups and downs, Ian says.
“For me, it’s this interesting dynamic: it’s family and sometimes family drives you crazy and is difficult,” he says. “But then at the same time it’s the same things that drive you crazy is the reason they are effective at what they are trying to do.
“Like it maybe doesn’t compute with me, but it’s still necessary for the work that we’re trying to do sometimes that I just have to accept the way it has to be, because that’s the way it works.”
That give and take works for them, with Ian mostly handling design and visuals, and Brendan focusing on back-end programming and other technical aspects.
Brendan also often works with his wife, Katie Fournell, whether in a support role with the Okotoks Film Festival or running events such as Enchanted Okotoks with the Okotoks Adventurers Guild, and is always eager to sink his teeth into new projects or develop new skills.
"She’s in the same boat, where the projects we’re working on we love, so we never feel like we’re working, we just have to remember to sleep now and again,” Brendan says. “It's just a lot of fun to have have our hands in so many different things and learning new skills and trying out new stuff.”
Naturally, one Rose's project often pulls the rest into their orbit.
“Any time I run into something where I need a 3D model, I can talk to Ian, if I need help with anything else I know the people,” Brendan says.
“Someone to dress as a wizard,” Daniel chimes in.
That was something he volunteered to do for the recent Enchanted Okotoks – not that he minds.
“I like being around my family, doing things with them and the acting stuff is fun,” says Daniel. “It was Stephen and Chris who got me into that, because I was absolutely not at all interested 10 years ago, and now here I am.”
The family that plays (outside) together stays together.
The family kept their outdoor roots growing up, and in 2011 they took to the West Coast Trail, a punishing, multi-day hike that galvanized their bonds, with three other subsequent trips.
“It’s easy for us to do that stuff together, it’s when we bring in outsiders that it can get tricky,” muses Brendan. “You don’t have the same dynamic.”
While their mom sits more decidedly on the client side of the family’s technical prowess, she still feels lucky to have the tight-knit family life.
“We like to hang out, do stuff, play games and all that,” Marijane says, adding that took putting in the work when they were younger. “Sometimes they would come home and they were fighting, so I would kick them back out until they could get along.
“They always liked computers and games and teasing each other, and they always had pets – they love their pets.”
The family’s various proclivities for technology is the likely catalyst for their bonds, says mom.
“They were all just interested in computers, I think it just had to do with the computers,” Marijane says. “Brendan’s stuff is computerized, Shawn’s stuff is computerized, even the games we play, even when we’re not together, they’re always online.
“They’re always helping each other; when somebody can’t figure something out, the other probably knows it.”
Their dad took a role in helping the kids build their own computers too, Marijane says.
“When they wanted their first computers, they had to build their own, they had to know what they wanted, what parts, and then they were always sharing,” she says, joking she tends to sit more in the realm of needing their technical support.
“I don’t fit into the computer part at all, they’ve all learned to keep me away from their computers and they’ve all taken turns figuring out what I’ve done wrong, so they look after me.”
While Stephen now lives in Turner Valley, and Brendan just down the street, the family home on Elma Street is still a hub.
Their father feels rewarded by the close bonds of his sons.
“It’s important to me. I have three brothers and a sister, and while we get along, we’re not as close,” Shawn says.
“So that’s why I’ve tried to cultivate this 'live, work, play' thing, and it works with us."
They are also in the process of moving Shawn’s dad in, bringing three generations under one roof.
Living in a small community such as Okotoks and the Foothills has only helped, he says.
“In a town like this, you can participate in a play, you can sit on a volunteer committee and actually feel like you're making a difference,” Shawn says. “Because it’s a bigger fish in a smaller bowl, which is not a bad thing."
