John grew up and graduated from high school in London, Ontario. Moving to Detroit where he lived with an aunt, he went to university and worked nights at Sherwin Williams Paint Factory. When war broke out, he returned home to join the Army (Infantry) and went overseas early in 1940. After six years, he returned home as a captain.
John entered medical school at university of Western Ontario, graduated in 1951, and was accepted as a junior intern at Ottawa Civic Hospital. During that year, he rejoined the Army, but two years later bought his way out and went to Dawson City, Yukon.
At this point, I should insert my story. I grew up in Shawville, Quebec, and took my nurse’s training at the Montreal General Hospital. Upon graduation, I returned home for the summer as the war was over and many of my childhood friends were returning home. In the fall, I went to work in the local hospital. A year and a half later, I took a vacation with a friend, travelling by train to Vancouver, and by ship to Alert Bay at the north end of Vancouver Island. Upon my return home, I did private duty nursing until spring, before going to Orillia, Ontario, where I was junior assistant superintendent for a couple of years. From there I went to Jersey City Medical Centre for a course in Operating Room Management and Technique, and then took a position at Ottawa Civic Hospital. During my year there, I met John. Nevertheless, I went back to Orillia and ran the maternity wing for six months before becoming supervisor of the operating room. Orillia, at that time, was a teaching hospital.
In December, 1954, I resigned, picked up a station wagon and my parents, and drove to Dawson City to spent Christmas with John. On February 18, 1955, John and I were married in St. Paul’s Anglican Church there. A year and a half later, with my parents, I drove back to Ottawa while John flew out. He had applied for a senior internship, but instead was Resident in Orthopedics, Pediatrics and Neuro-surgery and Assistant Resident in General Surgery, working thirty-six hours on duty and twelve hours off! In the summer of 1957, we returned to Dawson City where our daughter, Janeth, was born in August, and our daughter, Elizabeth, was born in February, 1960. So they are both “sourdoughs”.
We left the north in 1961 to spend a year in England and two years in Scotland where John did post-graduate work. Returning to Canada, we were so broke we owed my dad money, so John decided we should work for the Canadian Government, Department of Northern Affairs. That took us to Inuvik, N.W.T., for three years. There, he was in charge of a 120-bed hospital, eight nursing stations spread over 50,000 square miles, with three other doctors to assist him.
John always said, “For three years of undetected crime, they (Canadian Government) sent us to Rome,” where we lived for three years. From four doctors covering 50,000 square miles, we went to five doctors in one office in the Department of Emigration. In his work, John travelled to various parts of southern Europe, and as a family, we travelled all over Europe by camper van. At the end of our tenure there, we were offered postings at Colombia or Malaysia, but we decided to return to Canada.
That is when we came to Canmore. Initially, Marj Lewis, matron at the hospital, said John could use her office, but after a couple of weeks, he realized he should have his own office. Then he decided he could not handle the practice by himself so I went back to work, and the girls went to boarding school. We built a home and settled in quite happily, making friends in the community, some of whom I still see.
In June 1977, I became ill, and not to be left out, John became ill in September. In ten months, he spent twenty-two weeks in hospital and I was in eighteen weeks. In the spring of 1978, we moved to Langley, B.C. and then to Chilliwack. There John went to work at Kent, the maximum security prison for B.C. Two years later, he became ill again, and passed away in 1984. Shortly before, he had been able to return to Canmore for the official opening of the new Canmore Municipal Hospital.
During the war, John was married in England and had two children, Blake and Jessica. Before he died, he had one grandson. I now have six. Janeth and Morgan live in Edmonton with their two, Blake and Niki in Saskatoon with their four. Elizabeth is in Ottawa, and Jessica lives in London, England, where her husband, Peter, is a doctor with his practice in Lewes.
I will celebrate the 55th anniversary of my graduation from nurse’s training on May 5, 2000.
In Canmore Seniors at the Summit, ed. Canmore Seniors Association, 2000, p. 250-251.
