By Gretchen Wing

Like many Lopezians, Mireille Paulson gardens avidly, but the concept of roots stuck in earth means more to her than to most. After a childhood of accidental exile from her family, and a working life of astounding travel mileage, Mireille has made Lopez a place to sink her own roots and grow.

Mireille’s French-English family in London was upended by World War II. Her parents, who ran a small café, regularly sent young Mireille to stay with her grandparents in France. When the Germans invaded in 1939, four year-old Mireille found herself stranded on the continent.

She loved her six-year exile. On her grandparents’ farm there was no shortage of food or love. Still, she witnessed the dark side of German occupation. She remembers her grandfather coming home one night and saying, ‘They’re in the forest’”—meaning the Germans. To this day, dark woods make her fearful. One night several Germans attacked the house.

“They ripped off the shutters and shattered the glass above my bed with their bayonets. Of course I screamed my silly head off,” Mireille says.

But a German guard across the street came and wrapped her in his coat, comforting her in French.

“He had a little girl in Germany about my age, and he hoped she would survive,” she says. “I remember him saying, ‘La guerre est terrible, ma petite.’ It was a lesson I’ve never forgotten.”

At the war’s end, ten year-old Mireille finally traveled home, alone. Despite the joy of family reunion, readjustment was difficult. After six years, Mireille had to re-learn English.

Matured by experience, Mireille left school at 15-years-old for the world of work. Starting with an office job in London, Mireille later learned accounting and management, and these skills became her ticket to jobs all over North America.

The pull across the Atlantic came from her boyfriend, Clive, whom she met ballroom dancing. Bitten by the travel bug, Clive moved to Toronto and Mireille visited, travelling by ship. When Clive proposed — over trans-Atlantic telephone — she joined him. In what became a pattern, the couple soon pulled up stakes and drove across the continent to Vancouver in a ’52 Chevy.

“We both enjoyed the coast,” and learned to love sailing.

But a job in Juneau beckoned Clive.

“I visualized snowy mountains and dogsleds, not realizing that in Juneau it rains nine months out of the year,” Mireille says.

They stayed three years, enjoying the beauty but not the isolation, before the next move…to New York City.

This time, after enduring the unpaved Al-Can Highway back to Vancouver, they flew. Mireille loved the city, “walking the avenues, the flower stalls…the atmosphere.” New York got two years.

Next on the itinerary: New Orleans, which became Mireille’s “favorite city in the U.S.” But taking an accountant job at Touro Hospital, where they asked how long she planned to stay, Mireille had to lie, knowing they would probably move again.

Her husband “was always searching for happiness,” she says now — although she has no regrets about discovering so many varied places.

Sure enough, a year and a half later — off to Denver, where they added skiing to their skill set. Another eighteen months: San Francisco. There the couple finally parted ways. Clive stayed in the Bay Area — where he did, in fact, find happiness — and Mireille took a chance on 1970 Seattle, in a recession. With luck, she landed a job immediately, and not long after, a new husband.

“Bob delights in saying he met me on a street corner,” Mireille chuckles, clarifying that she and a girlfriend were heading to a ballroom dancing class when they met a friend of hers in company with Robert Paulson. Bob, a native Seattleite and contractor/carpenter, had no travel urges, and the couple stayed put.

Discovering Lopez through friends, the Paulsons bought property in 1987. Their move to full-time was hastened by her firm’s merger; Mireille was asked to retire at 55.

“It was devastating,” she says, “but it was definitely for the best.”

As a full-time Lopezian, Mireille found work in Friday Harbor as Administrative Assistant for the County Planning Department, while Bob continued to commute to Seattle. Although she loved the public aspect of her job, by 1998 she was ready to retire for good.

With her accounting and management skills, Mireille became a sought-after volunteer. Her proudest achievement came as President of the Board of the Catherine Washburn Memorial Association, shepherding it through its $900,000 remodel.

No longer on the CWMA board, Mireille finds joy in the community of Center Lutheran, which she describes as “a warm, loving church family.”

She maintains an extensive garden; she does yoga; she sings. But since traveling to Europe with her a capella group a few years ago, Mireille is content to stay put. “The people, the community, keep us here,” she says. “This is it.”