SIDNEY, B.C. — It usually begins as a musical mystery because you’ll likely hear him before you see him. “I’m looking around going, ‘Where is that coming from?’” Robyn says after hearing the unexpected sounds. “I almost feel like I’m in Switzerland on a mountaintop,” says a man who was sitting in a park when he first heard the yodelling. If you track down the source of the song, you may be surprised. “I thought, ‘Oh my God!,’” Robyn says. “That’s so cool!” It’s 83-year-old Denis Turgeon yodelling from his walker, who’ll tell you he first heard the complicated song on the radio when he was ten. “It was shock at first. I had never heard anything like that,” Denis recalls. “And then immediately thought, ‘I wonder how they do that?’” So, he started spending countless hours teaching himself how. Denis kept his yodelling private for decades, until that night he got stuck in a snowstorm, summoned up the courage to entertain the friends and strangers he was stranded with, and proved to be a hit. “There were people who had known me 15, 20 years who said, ‘Where in the name of good did you learn that?’” Denis laughs. “So, that really kicked it into gear that this is something I can do.” It wasn’t until after he retired from being a schoolteacher and then a mental health worker that Denis decided to start to yodel when he was out and about. “It’s usually when I’m someplace that needs an uplift,” Denis says. “I suddenly break out (yodelling) and you get these stunned looks and then, all of a sudden, big smiles. And I go, ‘Yes!’” There seem to be smiles here, there, and everywhere Denis randomly yodels. People praise his singing as “fabulous,” “beautiful,” and a “treat.” Whether you’re a kid requesting an encore, or a kid-at-heart feeling inspired to join him, Denis hopes that no matter your age, you’ll find the courage to share your talent too. “Don’t afraid to take a chance. Sometimes those chances open up and brighten other people’s lives,” Denis smiles. “Bring joy into your life and see how it works.”
