We were told where the Gospel Chapel was and Harry went there on the Wednesday evening. The people there were very helpful. One couple, Alex and Emma Grant, invited us to dinner. They told us of a real estate man and helped us rent a house in Ancaster. It was all very scary. We had no furniture. We had to buy beds and a kitchen table and chairs. We had two steamer trunks and five other suitcases, and that was it. People from the Hall turned up with a sideboard and lots of pots and pans, an ironing board and iron. Then Alex took Harry out to buy a car, and to us it looked huge. It was a Ford Galaxy. We had to buy the children winter clothes straight away because it was so very cold. We went to the Grants quite a few times for dinner. They were fantastic to us, so loving and kind. They bought us a lamp for our living room.
Peter, Julia and Deborah in snowy Canada
We started going to church and had a wonderful welcome. We were invited to lots of people’s homes for dinner. If we hadn’t had the church to go to we would have been so lonely. We had sold our house in England but had not received all the money yet so we were getting very short of cash. We knew Christmas was coming. We also thought Harry would be paid once a month but to our surprise he got paid after two weeks, so that saved us.
Emma and Alex invited us to Christmas dinner. I really missed my Mum. They didn’t have a phone, so I couldn’t talk to her. The girls started school… poor little things, it was hard on them. I didn’t drive then, so we had a long, cold walk. We stayed in Ancaster for nine months. It was quite a ride into town. We then moved to a new apartment with two bedrooms in Dundas. Some other friends, an older couple, both originally from Scotland who lived in Dundas invited us to their cozy little house quite often.
Olive outside the Spouse apartment in Dundas
Olive, Julia, Peter and Deborah at a fruit stand in Canada
We lived in Canada for three years. In 1964 we decided to go back to England. We sold everything and got another ship called the Arcadia to go back. It was August, so the crossing was very smooth. The kids had great fun on this ship. It had a Greek crew, with German stewards. We had good food.
We landed in Liverpool and took a train to London and then on to Charlton and then a long walk to my mother’s flat. Harry tried to get work but it was very difficult. Eventually, Tom Mann gave him some freelance work. My Mum was happy to see us home. We changed her living room into a bedroom. Harry got very despondent about how things were going. In Canada, everyone tries to help, but it seemed that back in our own country, everyone made it harder. After eight weeks, Harry decided to go back to Canada and Westinghouse. He left us at my mothers. It was really sad as Christ-mas was coming up. The children were all in school, so I got a part time job in a hairdressers. My Mum would cook and look after the children. Harry stayed at the YMCA, and was invited to the Cox’s quite a lot.
Julia, Olive, Peter, Harry and Deborah at the Cox residence
Eventually, he sent me enough money to sail back to Canada. So, in February, 1965, we were off again; this time I was alone with three children. We sailed on the same ship, the Carinthia. The trip was very bad as we hit the tail end of a hurricane and the waves were seventy feet in height. Every¬one was seasick, and then they closed the top of the ship. It was very difficult walking and trying to go to the restaurant for food. One night I thought I heard the signal for “abandon ship” – the ship’s whistle seven times. I got the kids out of their bunks and put all the clothes on them I could, plus their life jackets. We found out from the steward, it was two ships passing – ours did four toots, the other three. What a relief!
We were two days late in landing. I decided to get off in Halifax. I had 21 pieces of luggage. The man said to me “What, you got half of England here!” I said “Well, I tried.” We then got a train. It was all day, all night, and all day again. They had sleepers. A man would come in and unlock the top part which turned into bunk beds. The girls had to go three bunks down from Peter and I. Peter was six, Julia ten, and Deborah twelve. I could hear the girls fighting all night. Also, they lost two pieces of my luggage, which eventually turned up two days later. We had taken eleven days in all. We were so tired, and Peter wasn’t too well. We stayed with the Coxes one night. Harry had managed to rent a two-bedroom, ground floor apartment in Burlington. We went to McNab Street church in Hamilton, but found it a long way to go so we went to one in Burlington.