Newcomers is a regular series featuring the impressions and experiences of residents who are new to Newmarket. To share your story, send an email to [email protected]
Jesse Hanson and Carmen Littlejohn were big-city folks who, like many others, were motivated by the pandemic to relocate to a nearby, slower-paced, suburban community.
Neither Hanson nor Littlejohn knew very much about Newmarket aside from its name but since they couldn't find the right house for themselves and their three-year-old son Beckett in Toronto, they decided to search farther.
"I'd only heard about it but then we found this rental (and) we went to downtown Newmarket and it was an obvious fit for us, so we made that commitment," said Hanson.
According to a Statistics Canada report, inter-provincial migration in the third quarter of 2020 was down by 21.7 per cent compared to the previous year, but a record amount of people relocated within the GTA.
Even though their move from Toronto was only an hour, Hanson and Littlejohn still faced challenges.
Hanson said he didn't expect it to be so difficult to secure a moving company, but with moving companies considered an essential service throughout the pandemic, they were in high demand.
Once they made the move, most of the GTA was in lockdown and that made it difficult for the family to truly experience their new community.
"Driving through Main Street and saying, 'Oh my god, this looks so cute, this looks so fun, but are we really going to be able to enjoy any of it?' Sure enough, the answer was no," said Hanson.
Hanson said that while it was disheartening to walk down Main Street and not be able to experience the lively place he had envisioned his new town to be in normal circumstances, it was Beckett who was most impacted by the pandemic.
Beckett was ready to socialize with other children, Hanson said, and wanted to make new friends but because he wasn't able to enrol in pre-school, making friends was difficult.
Hanson and Littlejohn took their son to the park so he could meet other children, but Hanson said that many parents were hesitant to allow their children to interact with others.
"He'd make a few friends in the parks but then there's no other play dates — you can't come to my house, I can't come to yours," said Hanson.
Winter was especially difficult on the family. Once winter came, going to the park was no longer an option, Littlejohn said, but "we still met cooler people at the playgrounds than we did the whole time living in Toronto."
Hanson and Littlejohn love to go to restaurants and host get-togethers and though the couple socialized with their neighbours "in our respective backyards," said Hanson, it wasn't quite the same.
"We found this place that was really beautiful and perfect for our young family and (were) stuck in our house all the time. Everything was so distant, it was definitely sad." Hanson said.
Regardless of the initial struggles, Littlejohn said not finding a home in Toronto turned out was the best thing that could have happened to them.
"The people in Newmarket are just kind and open and warm; the openness and the friendliness and that feel of just saying hi to your neighbour," she said.
Not long after their move to Newmarket, the family relocated to Costa Rica for a job opportunity but said they wouldn't change their time in Newmarket and wished they had moved earlier.
"Even with COVID reality, we have loved it here and wish we had moved up from the city long ago," said Hanson.
