Another memoir by Aspen, Trusting the River (Epicenter Press, 2016), takes her story further. Born to explorer parents, Connie and Bud Helmericks, Jeanie began life in arctic wilds. They live in Alaska and continue to spend much of each year afoot in nature. Born to explorer parents Connie and Bud Helmericks, Jean Aspen began life in arctic wilds. Lucas Irons died unexpectedly at age 25 in 2012. . My mother, of course, was the real forest creature. My grandfather Clarence was only nineteen when Bud was born; his wife Abby was twenty-one. Within an hour, they caught the train to Seattle and then boarded a steamer for Alaska. For the past few summers theyve been taking Kernwood apart, pulling nails, ripping out flashing, and burning or setting adrift in the river logs. (iStock) FAIRBANKS Jean Aspen and her husband, Tom Irons, who divide their time between Homer and the Brooks Range, created a documentary about a solitary life in the wilds of Alaska that. For more than forty years, this wild valley has cradled my dreams. Aspen credits Irons, her partner for 36 years and husband for 34 years, with much of the work. Its not an easy gig.. It had gotten so I couldnt walk across the street without him, she told me. Twenty-five years younger, she had a childlike openness and a variety of piercings. In the spring of 1944, my father constructed a second canoe, the Little Willow, fourteen and a half feet long and very beamy. Her translucent skin was lightly freckled, and her generous mouth flashed in a bright and hopeful smile. The plumbing was dank, the rooms cramped and dingy, and the electrical wiring dangerous. In the early morning, she held our hands on a walk to the neighborhood park. Bud soon flew the final Arctic Tern, a Cessna 170, back to Alaska with the seeds of his new family: Martha and her eight-year-old son, Jim. His face, as familiar as my own, was lined. Irons logged all the video and scanned thousands of slides and negatives. Jean is survived by her niece, nephew and two step daughters. Again they were featured in LIFE Magazineidyllic color pages of me nestled between my charismatic parents at our snug wilderness cabin on beautiful Takahula Lake. These grueling, life-defining moments mount atop one another: locate, shoot and butcher enough moose to last them through a rapidly descending winter; without the benefit of shelter, work in temps hovering beneath 30 below to complete construction of their cabin; make do with clothing and shoes ravaged by the elements, barely protecting them from hypothermia; survive in a hostile environment. Aspen depicts one noxious ordeal after another, guaranteed to unsettle any queasy tummy. Jean is married to Tom Aspen as they started dating in 1981 and finally got married in 1983 and since then have been together for almost 37 years. I was still toying with the idea of changedipping my toes into possibilitieswhen he launched us into midstream. Headlights flared momentarily in the trees, disturbing the quail. Bud was probably the major photographer and his work is impeccableespecially under the conditions. She had just completed her junior year. He voiced concern that the baby not spoil their adventures. How often I have tucked my fears beneath my arm and leapt. In her exhilarating memoir, Jean Aspen meticulously chronicles the obstacles she and her "youthful sweetheart," Phil Beisel surmount during their four-year sojourn in the southern reaches of the Brooks Range, just north of the Arctic Circle. In early June 1942, the Japanese bombed the U.S. naval base at Alaskas Dutch Harbor and invaded the islands of Attu and Kiska: Americans were fighting on home soil. Over the years we had sometimes glanced up from routine and, like aging children, set out for adventure, but convention seemed to dictate caution at this stage. What is this tension between stillness and movement, security and enthusiasm? When we showed the ugly little house to Lucashe now preferred that name to Luke, though a lifetime of habit wasnt easy to shift, and we would continue to use both nameshe looked ready to cry. Jean Smart's husband, Richard Gilliland, died unexpectedly on March 18, 2021, of a heart condition at 71. I have not been an easy partner. Name Jean Aspen Birthday 1950 Age 70 Gender Female Nationality American Occupation Author Parents Constance Helmericks Siblings 1 Net Worth $1 . Only $9.99/month after trial. Distributor of Ideas. Lucy, our old Corgi-mongrel, muttered. Tom is humble and modest, she said. We had slept on the roof, wrapped in starry mystery or lit by a waxing moon. Im interested to see how it evolves. The 69-year-old actor was in the middle of filming "Hacks" for HBO Max when tragedy. Those had been good years, with little money and much beauty, but while our land evolved into an oasis, Tucson was swallowing the thirsty valley below. Aspens and Irons began filming in 1992 with Hi8 video cassette film equipment, and switched to a high definition or HD digital camera in 2012. She held out for half-interest in that five-acre homestead on Takahula Lake, which Bud had registered under his name. Now there were two properties to support on one income and our family lived divided. Although she spent only a dozen years in Alaskan wilderness, they measured the rest of her life and in some ways imprisoned her. Words and imagination were her gift and escape was her main device. Facebook gives people the power to share and makes the world more open and connected. The trial of getting from the river to the forest to the clearing they would eventually call home was filled with hours, days of drudgery, highlighted by cold, wet, bone-drenched, energy-sapping exhaustion. I have always belonged to wilderness. The rapid buildup of military forces dramatically shifted demographics. Its just not fun anymore. I picked the first winter lettuce and spinach. Now at sixty-six, I close the circleonly to discover familiar footprints in the snow. Arctic Daughter: A Lifetime of Wilderness: Directed by Jean Aspen, Thomas Irons. Wilderness is the matrix of my life, for which I am grateful to my parents. Jean Aspen was inspired by her father choice of exploring into the wild so she picked up the same hobby as of her father and began exploring from an early age. She was working as a student editor on our documentary and pleaded to be included. I want less. The house squatted on a large barren lot that was enclosed in back by an unfinished block wall. phil beisel and jean aspen. Know This Before Buy! In her books, Connie states that they were the same age, though she told me she thought he was a year older. When people think of Alaska, he wrote, they think of Helmericks. Total Jean Aspen Net Worth in 2021 - $1 Million - $5 Million (Approx.) We were twenty-three, Connie wrote in her first book, We Live in Alaska. His compact hands, nails always clean, were powerful. Time and again Aspen reminds us that she and Phil chose a journey not meant for everyone. Hed been a light these short years and I wasnt ready to let go. Against my growing disquiet, plans for another year in the wilderness had crept into the mix and the clock was ticking down. Within a few years, my grandparents gave up farming and moved to Colorado, where Clarence opened a gun shop. Join Facebook to connect with Jean Aspen and others you may know. The remote Territory was vulnerable and strategically located. How are John and Kevin? Book Overview. Jean has continued to live in the remote Arctic tundra throughout her life, learning from her experiences and working to teach others through her books and films. Just living in silence and respect it opens layers and layers and depth in the landscape.. When I joined a womens sewing circle during the war, knitting socks and mittens for the soldiers, he accompanied me so that I wouldnt get close to anyone. I sip my coffee and watch the sun blaze suddenly from behind a peak, turning the horizon to molten gold. At some point, the rift in their basic values began to widen. I remember her carrying a box suitcase up the walk of our little back-alley rental. 134 If lifes purpose (as I believe) is to evolve and express at ever-higher levels, a safe and uneventful course may not serve. Arctic Daughter: A Lifetime of Wilderness is the second documentary by Jean Aspen and Tom Irons. Life has become too frenetic, I continued. Mama looked scared when we returned for breakfast. Ultimately, we would spend close to four years walking that great and unpeopled wilderness. One has only to read my fathers letters to know the truth: Connies writing is complex and engaging, while his is as stolid as a grocery list. The funeral service will be held on Tuesday, June 10, 2014, at 2 p.m. at St. Peter's Episcopal Church, 70 Maple Ave., Morristown. Epicenter Press also will be republishing five of her parents books. I could hear the twitter of quail bedding down in the vines along the wall and a sudden scuffle of javelina near the fishpond. It's also patently clear that Aspen's mother factored into this pilgrimage in a very meaningful way. She and her husband, Tom Irons, live in Alaska and spend much of each year in Alaskan wilds. Aspen credits Irons and Smith as major collaborators and others as contributors. Later that month, my father obtained materials and built a nineteen-foot canoe from two layers of thin canvas and hand-cut planks. We will remember him forever. Our mother awoke to a quiet house and the sudden fear that Buds mother might have taken us back to Colorado. Phil Gordon and Laurie Schacht accompanied Tom on his journey into darkness. These new houses are so remote and sterile, he waved vaguely towards lights speckling the nearby hills. They all envy my freedom. The chronicle of a family's first year alone in Alaskan wilderness, here is a poetic exploration into what we value in life. library holdings. Throughout six decades, the natural world has remained central to her. I wonder if there still is an America where people sit on porches and talk. The dance between boldness and retreat is subtle and it is the wise adventurer who lives to plan another trip. Seeing him shadowy there by the wall, I recalled a vision that had surprised me several times during my pregnancya dark-haired youth passing just beyond the window. My colorful mother, dead sixteen years, would be lurking in the shadows, thrilled at the prospect of adventure but edgy as a racehorse. With growing excitement, he started to look for roommates. My questing carried us at last into a quiet backwater, our travels reduced to seasonal migration. Tom and I were suddenly alone in the vacant studio sharing his old four-cylinder Toyota pickup, bought when Luke was born. I couldnt do what I do without Tom and neither one of us could create this movie without Brian, Aspen said. Maybe someday but right now Im tired. After our campfire discussion, Tom shifted gears. What couldnt rot theyve hauled back to civilization. Whose name means Light, Keeper of the Forest. Often have I set my canoe upon the shoulders of some great waterwaythose living arteries of our planet. He was only a couple of inches taller than my sturdy five-foot-six, and we could trade shoes. Jean Aspen, Connie and Bud's daughter, born in 1950, spent the first three years of her life with them in a cabin on the Alatna River some might say as a prop to their photogenic life,. Get the latest on Jean Aspen on Fandango. Daughter of arctic explorer Constance Helmericks, Jean Aspen began life in the wilderness. Jean is the author of Arctic Daughter and Arctic Son. While Jean had faced Alaska's wilderness before -- in a life-altering experience she chronicled in Arctic . Even though Aspen had spent time with her mother in the wilderness she'd never had to shoulder such enormous responsibilities, display such pluck. Like Laurie, she had little outdoor experience or money, but was excited and willing to commit. So technically its challenging, our equipment is heavy and were old, Aspen said. "We have come to fish for the herring fish. It was after freeze-up, five months later, when they caught a flight back from the Bering Sea. Lucas was a resident of Homer, Alaska. Although Bud later accused Connie of marrying him to get to Alaska, I dont believe that was the whole story. The world we work so hard to craft will not be good for us. What in their brief lives had prepared them for this travail? The chronicle of a family's first year alone in Alaskan wilderness, here is a poetic exploration into what we value in life. Connie had never driven before, but Winnie soon persuaded her to return to Colorado for their car. Life is a journey into mystery. It brings in Arctic Son to some degree, building Kernwood, Lukes death. Copyright 2004- Discussing her family Jean is the creator and little girl of Arctic Constance Helmericks and she, at the end of the day, has been voyaging all over Alaska for over 28 years. Luke glanced from one to the other. "She was a wild spirit, and she fretted being shackled, as she saw it, to the demands of two small children and poverty in the city heat, away from her beloved wilderness. Aspen said she sees the film as not only a memoir. Once we could have named the people who built within a mile of us. Rosy dawn brushes the glacier across the bay and I imagine myself walking that far ridge, crystals shimmering into the sky with each step. 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