CANADA CALLING

The first time I came to Canada was in 1943, when several of my British friends and I went to Ontario to finish our education. Having lived in Peru most of our young lives, this was hugely exciting for all of us. Learning to ski, skate and manage a toboggan were challenges, but our new Canadian friends were most supportive. During the summer months, some of us were employed to pick fruit at a local farm. Once my school work was completed, I went back to Peru, where I found work as a bilingual secretary.

In late 1947, I returned home to the U.K, where my mother and brother were living at the time. With severe rationing and a shortage of nearly everything, life was difficult there, but we made the best of it—and I really enjoyed my work as a medical secretary with the new National Health Service. Things gradually improved and the lively arts and entertainment scene held my interest for a while, but somehow life still seemed dreary. And so my friend Joan and I decided to immigrate to Canada.

We landed in Halifax on May 13, 1949, and took a train to Toronto, sitting day and night to save money. And thus began my “second coming to Canada,” this time to stay. Joan returned to the U.K. a few years later, but not before she was a bridesmaid at my wedding in 1952 to a fine Canadian man, the love of my life. David and I (pictured above) initially lived in the west end of Toronto. We have a son and two daughters, who with their respective partners, brought seven grandchildren into our lives. We retired in British Columbia 30 years ago, and, little by little, they all came west, too — we are so very grateful at the way everything has turned out!

Sheila Beale, Brentwood Bay, B. C.