Family helps create joyful life

J

eannine Walker was born in Edmonton in 1936 during the Great Depression. She was the eighth child of the ten of Ralph and Eugenie LaRiviere. With the help of her uncle, the family moved to Richmond when she was six months old.

Jeannine said, “Here is what my parents told me. It was during the depression years and times were really tough for our big family. There were no jobs and my uncle urged my father to move to B.C. and look for work.

“My father said OK but that he needed a big house for the eight children, his wife and his mother. My grandmother lived with us until she passed away at the age of 96. She actually supported our entire family during the depression because she was the only one with an income; she had a war widow’s pension.

“He found us a house in Richmond and told us that it would be big enough, that it was in horrible shape and that it was rumoured that the house was haunted. My father accepted and said that he was not concerned at all about the house being haunted.

“When we arrived at our new home it was in bad shape all right. The windows were all broken and huge blackberry vines were growing through every window.

“My dad, my uncle and my two oldest brothers who were 10 and 12 years old went to work and fixed it all up and made it livable. My mom whitewashed every wall because we could not afford paint. We had running water but no bathroom and we had no power but we managed.

“My mom was an angel. She was always so good to all of us. She always reminded us that we all had each other. In fact I don’t know how she managed to raise all ten of us.”

Jeannine grew up in Richmond and attended St. Anthony’s Catholic School in Marpole; she has fond memories of her school days.

The Marpole area, named after Richard Marpole in 1916, is located on the southern edge of Vancouver and is one of Vancouver’s oldest communities.

Once out of school she worked as a waitress and later she worked at Woolworth’s in downtown Vancouver where she met Harry (Bud) Walker. Bud was shopping for toys for his nephew when they first met; they married a year later in 1955.

Bud worked for the Oakalla Prison system in Burnaby as a guard until he was transferred to the Prince George Regional Correction Centre in 1963.

The Oakalla prison has some interesting history; during the 1950s and 60s more than 600 Oakalla prisoners received free plastic surgery at the provincial facility in Burnaby in attempts to rehabilitate offenders by improving their physical appearance. According to a story online, this was Canada’s largest experiment with the use of plastic surgery as a crime deterrent in an effort to better prepare inmates for life outside the walls of a prison.

The vast majority of surgeries involved deformed or broken noses; physical defects believed to often be the root cause of criminal behaviour.

In a study published in the February 1965 edition of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the conclusion was that the 10-year-old plastic surgery program produced a marked decrease in the rate at which former inmates returned to crime.

The Oakalla prison closed its doors in 1991 and the site is now home to a swanky housing development.

Soon after marriage the babies started to arrive for Jeannine and Bud and Jeannine was happy to become a stay-at-home mom.

Jeannine said, “We moved to Prince George in 1963, a month after President Kennedy was assassinated and by this time we had three children.

“When we arrived in Prince George we lived in a little house on Cuddie Crescent and soon we needed a bigger house. We moved to Harper Street where we raised five children and took in five boarders. I cooked, cleaned and looked after all of them and I loved it.

“Bud was a drum major for the Legion pipe band for many years and worked for Ben Ginter as a stationary engineer for his brewery.

“We had five children; Sheree (Eric) Hunter, Suzanne (Dennis) Van Diepen, Michael, Brian (Sheila) and Charlene (John) Waterman and they all live in Prince George. I now have eight grandchildren and eight great grandchildren and I am just waiting for more great grandchildren.

“Bud and I were married for nearly 30 years when we separated in 1980. Sadly he passed away this past September after a long battle with cancer.”

Jeannine worked as a bookkeeper for Dwaine Harvey at Harvey’s Plumbing & Heating for 12 years and described it as a wonderful job.

She said, “I worked as the secretary for St. Mary’s Parish for over 20 years until I retired because of a bad back. It was a great job and an interesting job. I got to know so many people. First I processed many marriage certificates for the parish and then a few years later I was processing baptism certificates for those same couples. I am always amazed when these people are able to recognize me because back then I had black hair and I dressed up complete with make up and high heels whereas now I have grey hair, I am a whole lot older and now I dress casual.

“I sang in the St Mary’s church choir for nearly 20 years; I loved the group and the harmonizing music.”

Jeannine moved to Alward Place in 2012 and said, “I enjoy every single day and even the boring days are great. For the past three years I have volunteered as the treasurer for the Alward Place Tenants Association and I enjoy that immensely. This is a great place to live and I am glad to be living here.

“I used to always cook the big turkey dinners for my family but now they all take turns doing it. I was raised in a big family and I always wanted lots of children. I had five of the most wonderful kids in the world and I can’t say enough about them. They are always there for me when I need them and a person doesn’t need any thing more than that.” *** If you don’t already have a copy of my book, People of Prince George – the Foundation of our Community, you can still pick up an autographed copy tomorrow.

I will be at a book signing event in front of the Auxiliary to University Hospital of Northern BC gift shop between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m.

If you already have a copy of my book, please bring it along and I will be happy to autograph it for you.

The proceeds from the sale of the book will be shared with the UHNBC Auxiliary gift shop and the Prince George Community Foundation.