Sitting at her kitchen table, Dana Chatwell smiles and laughs a little as she talks about moving out of her house and taking a vacation.
Though she says she won't sleep well until she moves into her new home, there is a marked difference in her attitude from her family's trial appearance last month.
A year ago she was trapped in a home neighbouring a Six Nations blockade and fearing for her family's health and sanity.
Her home was ransacked and when she looked out towards her back yard there were native protesters shining lights into her house. Soon she will see a sprawling back yard with a Canadian flag strung on a pole. It was the back yard that sold Chatwell on her new family home.
Chatwell and her husband Dave Brown launched a lawsuit against the OPP and the Ontario government after they claimed they were abandoned by authorities during the Six Nations occupation of the former Douglas Creek Estates.
The province settled with Chatwell and Brown out of court on Tuesday. They were seeking $7 million in damages, but cannot disclose the amount they settled for. Chatwell said she is not even allowed to tell her 18-year-old son, Dax, who lives in the house and was part of the trial.
Settlement conditions also forbid her from saying anything negative about the government or OPP related to this matter, she said.
When asked whether the settlement amount was adequate, Chatwell responded: "We're supposed to say that we're happy."
But she does seem happy, especially compared with how distraught she was during the trial.
"Every day I wake up and I still fear for my life," she testified in December.
Recounting what she described as the native protesters' aggressive infringement on her property and lack of response by the OPP, Chatwell told the court how the ordeal degraded her marriage, business, sobriety and property value.
"It was like the Twilight Zone, I live in the Twilight Zone," she said.
Thinking back now, Chatwell said that before the trial she thought she was the one keeping the family together. She didn't realize how angry and bitter she was towards everyone, including fellow Caledonia residents, until she took the stand.
"I don't think I could have lived more than six months through this," she said of continuing the legal proceedings rather than taking the settlement.
Chatwell said her husband and son were more interested in continuing, but she thought it would have killed her.
"We were doing well in that trial, but they were going to appeal it and then it would take another two years for a trial to get going, then from there it would go to the Supreme Court, that's another seven years," she said.
But the trial was also cathartic in a way.
"I'm kind of getting over it now," Chatwell said. "I think once I had my outburst and realized how angry I was ... "
After signing the paperwork for the settlement at her lawyer's office, the family wasted no time and purchased a new home that night.
The new home is also in Caledonia. Though overwhelmingly relieved, Chatwell said she is still scared in her current house and wants to move as quickly as possible. She planned to start packing New Year's Eve. Alone in the house on Wednesday, she was scared of retaliation from Six Nations neighbours.
"Last night I was sitting here freaking out over every little noise I heard," she said, adding that she was ready to get in her car.
"Every time I hear a siren going off, I'm thinking, 'Is my house on fire?'"
When the family first put the house up for sale, before the lawsuit, Chatwell said she had no intention of staying in Caledonia. But she was slowly swayed.
Words of encouragement from friends and family have solidified her decision to remain in her hometown.
"I've lived in town all my life, I'm still going to work in town ... my son, his friends are all here," she said.
Chatwell was forced to close her home hair salon business during the occupation, but says she will not re-open at her new home. She now works in town and says it is time for Brown, who has been out of work for three years, to go back to work.
He lost his job after missing too much work over the occupation issue.
Chatwell showed up for work on Wednesday, much to the surprise of her colleagues, she said. She joked that they expected her to be en route to a tropical island.
"Oh don't worry, I still have to work, people," she told them, laughing.
Her family's hope is that the information from the trial and news of the settlement will help other residents in their lawsuits.
"I just want to get out of here, I don't know what they're going to do with the house," Chatwell said.
Now is also the time to repair relationships and the family's health. Chatwell says she now recognizes how messed up she and her family really were.
Humour has been the only way to get through, she said.
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SEVERAL RESIDENTS' LAWSUITS PENDING
The lawyer representing several Caledonia residents in a potential class-action lawsuit says the Brown/ Chatwell settlement may help his clients' case.
Because the family settled out of court it does not set a legal precedent for residents disputing the Ontario government and OPP for their handling of the Six Nations occupation at the former Douglas Creek Estates, said John Findlay.
However, the volume of information disclosed during the trial late last year, will be "very helpful," he said.
Findlay pointed in particular to the testimony of both the former and current OPP police commissioners as helpful.
He said he was happy, but not surprised to learn of the out-of-court settlement Tuesday night.
"It was smart of (the government) to settle this, they clearly had a liability," Findlay said.
The only shame is that this was not settled earlier, he added.
Findlay is aware of at least four other Caledonia lawsuits being considered, including that of 52-year-old Sam Gualtieri who was attacked and beaten by intruders inside a house he was building for his daughter.
Findlay said he is still waiting to hear whether the class-action lawsuit he represents, comprised of Caledonia business and property owners, will be certified.
He had hoped to hear before Christmas.