Two years on, Karla Green still an angelic guardian

The holidays are here, a good time to revisit Karla Green, devoted aunt and — in one horrible instant almost two years ago — the sudden, sainted mom to five young orphans.

Doesn’t hurt that speaking to Karla is like speaking to an angel. Even the timbre of her voice is soothing, acoustic, like a well-played cello. She’d scoff at such sentiment, and you probably would too. Unless you know of her incredible back story.

Two years ago, Karla was a single nurse living in Vancouver, Canada, when, just before dawn one winter morning, she got an almost unimaginable phone call. Her sister and brother-in-law had been killed by a drunk driver 10 blocks from their Alberta home, leaving five children behind, ages 4 to 14.

In one awful flash, it all fell on Aunt Karla’s shoulders. Under an earlier arrangement with her sister, Karla — the cool aunt, the pretty one who lived the single life in Vancouver — would become the children’s legal guardian.

Karla quickly packed her bags and left her splashy city life behind, adjusting to her new role as mother to five insanely busy kids.

As if that wasn’t enough of a challenge, what she did a few days later secured her spot in that club of people you never forget: Karla took the five grieving children from their rural outpost to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, 700 miles away, fulfilling a much-anticipated vacation plan their parents had made before they died.

How big was this trip? Till that moment, four of the kids had never been on a plane.

“It was a really scary decision,” Karla said at the time. “My goal for these kids was to gain some security, and that as dark as things were to show them that somehow life would go on.”

Two years later, life does go on for the Olympic orphans of Red Deer, Alberta, a town of 90,000. Snow and Christmas lights are everywhere these days. Winters are chilly, but the western Canadian skies are generally clear as crystal.

This will be their first Christmas at home since mom and dad died. Last year, Grandma and Grandpa took the whole brood to Mexico for a change of scenery and some warm sunshine.

This year, school runs right up to the holiday, with concerts and recitals almost every night. Neighbors help with the carpools, but Karla confesses to being reluctant to ask for help.

“It’s all a bit stressful,” she says, sounding like any young mother at this time of year. “I had a mini-breakdown the other day.

“It’s challenging but everyone is in good spirits, even MacKenzie. She’s a very nice teenager.”

MacKenzie, now 16, is the oldest of the children. She is also the most complicated relationship for Karla, who before the accident had been as much a pal and confidant as an aunt.

“That’s been the hard part, establishing the boundaries,” Karla says. “I wasn’t sure how that would be, but they respond to rules and boundaries. They tend to function better with them.”

Cory, the only boy, now 12, keeps busy with band and drama. Ashley, 11, is into jazz dance. Molly, 8, and Maggie, 6, both dance and play piano.

Yes, life goes on, except when it doesn’t. The two littlest are the most open about their continued sense of loss, bringing up their parents at random times.

“Molly has a real concern with death,” Karla says. “And Maggie says, ‘I know I can’t have [Mom and Dad] back, but I want them.’ That’s really hard.”

Yet, Auntie Karla, as they still call her, won’t let them fret and obsess over the things no one can control.

“I never want them to feel like victims,” she says. “I really want them to focus on what they have. They have a great school and teachers and friends who do so much.”

As for Karla, who left behind her own set of friends back in Vancouver, she is now in a serious relationship with a guy she met in Red Deer.

“Sometimes, they talk about me getting married,” she says of the kids.

So the spirit of the season is in full flower up there in wintry Red Deer, the kind of place where Santa stops for soup.

Grandma and Grandpa are back in town, taking some of the load off of Karla — the homework, the laundry, the groceries, the relentless circle of duties of any young home.

One thing Karla does want to emphasize, this time of year more than ever, is how grateful she is to the strangers who reached out, with money and encouragement in response to her plight two years ago. The generosity stretched from Canada to Southern California, and from small amounts to substantial sums.

Perhaps most touching, she says, were the people who didn’t have much themselves, but managed to send $5 and a note of encouragement, often telling of overcoming their own personal crises.

“I wish I could thank everyone individually for their generosity,” she says.

Her nod — like Christmas itself — to the power of the forces we cannot see.

chris.erskine@latimes.com

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