Written by Grace Geals
I was born in Albury, N.S.W., Australia, in 1933 and had two older sisters. Our grandfather Cameron’s family were pioneers of Quan, South Australia. My mother died when I was only eighteen- months-old, and my father, who had served in World War I, died in 1939 at age 48. I was brought up in an orphanage until age sixteen when my sisters and I were sent to a Legacy Hostel (for children of ex-servicemen). It was a homier atmosphere and I was there until I was eighteen. I then joined the peace time Women’s Royal Australian Army Corps for five years. In 1956, a girlfriend and I travelled to New Zealand where we worked and hitch-hiked around both islands. We then returned to Australia for the 1956 Olympics where we both operated teletypes for the Australian Associated Press (Reuters), covering the games.
In 1957, I came to Canada with the intention of staying for only a two-year working holiday and here I am – still here!
I was rooming with a girl in Calgary who turned out to be my future husband’s sister. Allan’s family came from Inverurie, Scotland, in 1948. When I met them all, I found out that they came from the same place in Scotland as the husband of one of my sisters.
Allan and I were married in 1959 and for the first few years of married life, Allan worked on a farm at Arrowwood, southeast of Calgary. Then we moved to Canmore in 1966. We had three wonderful daughters – Sharon, born in High River in 1960, Linda, born in Vulcan in 1963, and Michele, also born in Vulcan, in 1966. We lived in a little shack over by the railway tracks where Aspen Park is now. We then lived in several other places in town, finally moving to our present home in Larch in 1979. Our girls all went to the only school in Canmore, where Lawrence Grassi School is now situated, each graduating in grade twelve.
Sharon went on to N.A.I.T. to study respiratory technology and has worked in Edmonton at the Grey Nuns and Royal Alexandra Hospitals, and also spent a few years at Foothills Hospital in Calgary. She married in 1986 and has two wonderful daughters, Rebecca, nine, and Megan, eight.
Linda works at the Bow Valley Seniors Lodge and is very involved in sports such as baseball, darts and pool. She is secretary of the Royal Canadian Legion #3, here in Canmore. She has lived at home with me since Allan passed away in 1990.
Michele also moved to Edmonton to become a hairdresser but ended up at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, where, at one time, all three girls worked. Michele married in 1990, six weeks before Allan’s death, and has two wonderful children, Carissa, eight, and Brandon, five.
Allan wasn’t lucky enough to live to enjoy his Grandchildren but did see and hold Rebecca twice before passing on.
Allan moved to Canada with his mom and dad, two brothers and two sisters when he was twelve years old. Later another brother and his twin sister were born in Canada.
Allan hauled cement from Canada Cement (now Lafarge Canada) for Crone Brothers trucking company in Calgary. He travelled to British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Alaska for many years until his heart attack in 1986. After he recovered from that, he worked for Bremner Engineering until his death in 1990.
Allan, Linda, Michele, Sharon, Grace Geals
Allan and Grace Geals wedding, 1959
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p. 95-96
