‘So very proud’
Whitney Pier woman to become member of Order of Nova Scotia
As a member of the Order of Canada, and soon to be member of the Order of Nova Scotia, Clotilda Douglas-Yakimchuk has been duly honoured for her lifetime of dedicated and ground-breaking service to others.
And, while she’s grateful for the recognition, it’s when she talks about her children and grandchildren that the 86-year-old’s pleasantly voiced, thoughtful and articulate words burst with pride.
“I realize how lucky I am to have had five children who are all productive people in their communities — I’m very proud of them and of my grandchildren,” Douglas-Yakimchuk said in a Monday afternoon telephone interview with the Cape Breton Post from her temporary home in Mississauga, Ont.
“The doctors say I can’t live alone anymore, so I’m staying with my family here, but I will be moving to Halifax — I must say that I miss my home, I miss my community, I miss Whitney Pier.”
Douglas-Yakimchuk is one of six people who will be inducted into the Order of Nova Scotia next month in Halifax. The longtime nurse and social pioneer joins Olympic gymnast Ellie Black, Oxford businessman and philanthropist John Bragg, historian and academic Janet Kitz, Halifax public health-focused nurse Patti Melanson, and the late Wade Smith, an educator and proponent of preserving African-Nova Scotian culture as the latest members of the prestigious order.
For her part, Douglas-Yakimchuk, whose hyphenated name comes from her marriage to second husband and former Sydney alderman Dan Yakimchuk, remains true to her nature and is most humble about the honour.
“I’ve had the most fascinating and interesting life that a young woman coming from Tupper Street in Whitney Pier could have had, and still continues to have,” said the wellspoken octogenarian, who was the first, and only, black president of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Nova Scotia.
“To think that I’ve come from the little community of Whitney Pier and received two of the highest honours, along with an honorary doctorate of laws from Cape Breton University, for the work that I’ve done over the years — I think
that’s amazing and I am so very proud and so very humble that some people appreciate the contributions that I’ve tried to make.”
Although she grew up in one of Atlantic Canada’s most ethnically diverse communities, Douglas-Yakimchuk, whose maiden name was Coward, remembers more than a few incidents of racism over the years. She regards those experiences as influential factors in her battle to overcome racism and make a difference in her community.
“I found that racism was overt in some cases, I’ve experienced it in going to school and I also experienced it in my career over the years — it hurt, but also I think it made me double down, my goal was to become a nurse and to contribute to the nursing profession, and to speak out whenever these overt experiences of racism happened,” she said.
“There were not many people of my persuasion in nursing, so it was a lonely road, but I must say that some of my colleagues were extremely good to me, extremely good.”
Douglas-Yakimchuk spent more than a dozen years living in the Caribbean before moving back to Sydney after the death of her first husband. When she returned, she had five children, no job and no place to live. Her plight led to the establishment of the Black Community Development Organization.
She would also expend great effort in addressing the problem of local black youths falling out of the school system. In fact, she maintains that a lack of education is the biggest obstacle facing young people, evidenced by her work on promoting education.
“Many of our youths are now continuing in school and graduating from high school, whereas that was unusual in my day, at least it wasn’t very common,” said the life-long activist, who credits her time in Grenada with helping her see what could be accomplished at home.
“When I lived there, I saw that many black people in positions of power, and they were speaking out, so when I came back to Cape Breton and I saw the dilapidated condition of the homes in Whitney Pier, on Tupper Street, Laurier Street and Hankard Street, well, it had to change, and it did.”
Clotilda Adessa Coward Douglas Yakimchuk will be invested into the Order of Nova Scotia on Nov. 6 at Province House in Halifax.