Looking back on a life well lived
A dedicated advocate approaches 100 with grace and humility
The memory is sharp, the humour colourful and the thoughts on the state of the world clear as Ann Smith looks back on a life well lived and dedicated to advocacy.
Moving easily around her apartment at the Chartwell New Edinburgh Square Retirement Residence, she jokes about being part of the community of “doddery oldies” when asked about the prospect of hitting 100 on May 13.
“I try to say, it's not an achievement,” she said, her native British accent still prominent.
“It's a chronological fact. I was born in 1924. It's now 2024. It has been an interesting period, I suppose, in the 20th century. There was world war, which kind of puts a stamp on everyone's history.”
Along the way, she has penned an autobiography, It's Odd The Things One Remembers.
“It's just a short book, based on my diaries,” she said. “I kept pretty extensive diaries.”
Before coming to Canada and making her mark improving the lives of the developmentally disabled and pushing the envelope for assisted suicide and euthanasia, Smith — née Bentley — was part of the women's air force in Britain.
“I was a radar operator for three years,” said Smith, who was on duty when she received an incoming message about total surrender in 1945. “We had these little radar stations that they planted all around the coast of England. It was called the radar chain.”
She married Vernon Smith, a Royal Air Force officer and electrical engineer, and the young family moved to Quebec City in 1953 for three years.
They spent two years in Hamilton before Vernon, who worked for Canadian Defence Research, was brought to Ottawa. Vernon died in 1998.
The couple had four children: Johnny, Mary, James and David.
James and David have lived full lives — David was part of the Toronto-based rock band Roman Grey in the 1970s and 1980s — but it was the struggles of Johnny and Mary that gave rise to her passion.
Johnny was born with water on the brain and died when he was two yeas old. Mary was born mentally handicapped and also suffered from ALS.
As an almost full-time volunteer, Smith became instrumental in promoting the Ottawa Carleton Association for Persons with Developmental Disabilities. Mary passed away in 2018.
“Mary, poor darling,” she said. “She set the course of my life, which is why I have been so deeply involved with the local association. I was in Ottawa when we founded it in the 1950's.”
Society's attitudes toward the developmentally disabled have changed for the better over the years.
“There is so much more acceptance and we now have better services than there were 30-40 years ago,” Smith said. “Our clients, as we call them, live in the community. There is a whole web of residences across the city now.”
Smith was honoured two years ago when the OCAPDD named a building in her honour at their Colonnade Road headquarters. Her son, Jim, drove her to the office, presenting her with the surprise.
“To my absolute astonishment, they called it the Ann Smith Centre, which is in big letters,” she said. “I just wish I had a more interesting surname.”
Her work with the developmentally disabled also dovetailed into her never-ending campaign to support assisted dying efforts for those suffering deeply.
It has been a long and winding road for 40 years, with significant Supreme Court decisions and appeals along the way.
In 2016, Parliament passed legislation allowing eligible adults to request MAID — medical assistance in dying — and the regulations continue to evolve.
“Well, it's not something that you just get up and do it,” she said. “It has to be very, very carefully monitored and people are carefully shielded, let's put it that way. But the fact the legislation exists, is, I think, excellent.”
As for offering advice on longevity and staying healthy, Smith says there is no secret. She has never ascribed to a special diet.
“Maybe it's just a general optimism that life's OK, and that has kept me going,” she said.
She does have some concrete thoughts on the world in general, so full of conflict and toxic behaviour.
“If somebody feels strongly enough about a cause that they've got to get up and kill somebody else for it, then there's something wrong with the cause, they are on the wrong track,”
Smith said. “There are lots of ways you can help that cause without getting up and killing somebody or involving your country in killing a lot of people.”
At the same time, she believes, there is too much focus on the negatives, at the expense of the positives.
“I think the world will survive,” she said.
“There will always be wars. There will always be human hardship, but there will always be human hope… not to sound too flowery.”
Where is the hope?
“In the young, in the bright minds that one meets in the compassion people show for each other.
“Obviously, some people have to work harder than others and some people are very much worse off than others. It's up to those of us who are OK to do our very best to keep on helping. Don't just sit back and say, `oh, I am lucky', but get up and do something.”
Smith isn't a fan of social media, which has given rise to “the stuff that makes the world look like a mess, instead of the stuff that shows you how great it can be.”
In that regard, when she hits the century mark next month, the party will include meeting her oneyear old-great grandchild, Colin, for the first time.