Cheryle Coapstick

Cheryle Coapstick, Firy Oskolkoff’s daughter, is a descendant of Yupik natives and Russian fur traders. She was born in Sitka, Alaska, but now resides in the Pacific Northwest. She will always consider herself an Alaska girl as she writes about her heritage and God’s goodness in America’s last frontier.

Home births were common in the Territory of Alaska, and I was no exception. Alaska gave me a carefree childhood, spent mostly outdoors. The stories I heard around the dinner table while growing up in the Territory sparked my imagination.

From my great-great-great-great-grandfather, a silk merchant in Kaluga, Russia, who became a lay preacher in the Russian Orthodox Church and joined the Russian Fur Trading Company to his son and Native Alaskan daughter-in-law whose oomiak (seal-skin boat) capsized while on a whale hunt, to my great-uncle Jack who delivered the US mail on the Kenai Peninsula, by horse in summer and dog-sled in winter. As a child, I was unaware of how these stories shaped my identity, although I didn’t think about them much. When I think of the stories I’ve forgotten and those I missed hearing, I could cry.

Once I retired, the Lord prompted me to write my Alaska stories to show how He works in many lives in various and unexpected ways.
The Lord has been with me through good times and bad. My husband and I raised two biological children, then adopted two special needs children who are now adults and reside with us.