My Mom-in-Law, Mary Cameron, passed away this week, and everyone is devastated, even though we had been preparing for a while.

As a member of Probus, Mary was tasked in 2001 with telling her life story to the group. The following is the text from her speech she made in April of that year. It opens with her expressing her horror of the prospect and how she would just quit and “join another Probus club if asked.” But she was kind of hoodwinked into it, and in typical Mary fashion, she bit the bullet went ahead and did it.

April, 2001 – Here I am, doing my profile! Many of us have said it was something we would never do! We’d just join another Probus Club if asked! However, when push comes to shove, who wants to leave all the friends here? Not me! So – when Betty Schneider French approached me at a Christmas Party and said, “Oh Mary, you’re just the person I wanted to see. I was hoping you could do me a favour.” I’m not thinking it was my Probus Profile, so I said, “Sure.” Betty then says, “I really need someone to do their “Who Am I” in April – you will say ‘Yes’ won’t you?”

How can I say no to her – so here goes…

My story begins in Toronto. I am the first of three children born to Aubrey and Lorene Crich. My Dad was a veteran of World War I. He was a pilot with the Royal Navy Air Service. Post war, he graduated from the University of Toronto as a dentist, and then specialized at the Mayo Clinic in Oral Surgery. My Mom was a UofT grad also in Library Science.

When I was four we moved to Grimsby Beach on the shores of Lake Ontario. My Dad had decided to give up dentistry due to the stress of a city practice and became a fruit farmer. Quite the career change! After several years he found that a 15-acre fruit farm did not provide enough remuneration for our family of five so he returned to dentistry part time. Mornings were for farming – afternoons for dentistry. The office was in our house, and my Mom assisted him chairside.

Growing up in Grimsby and environs was pretty easy. Elementary school was a four-room school 1 ½ miles from our home. Summer holidays consisted of helping to pick fruit in the a.m., and then off to Grimsby proper on my bike in the p.m. to take Red Cross swimming lessons. Secondary school was in the town of Grimsby three minutes away. Summers were now fulltime at Grimsby Beach from the first of July to Labour day teaching swimming and life guarding.

Toronto General Hospital was the next step in my learning and maturing process. There are a number of other “TGH Nursing Grads” or grads of other nursing schools in our Probus, and each one of us has our special memories of that time. For me, the three years spent “In Training” to be a nurse were amazing times. I can appreciate how young and naïve I was but we all learned to live away from home in the residence with all the signing in and out, curfews and shifts, roommates, shenanigans and parties.

Friendships made then are still very good and strong. I learned to follow orders, make decisions and work hard. The experiences of seeing birth and caring for people during illness or death, prepared me for the rest of my life. Little did I realize how much knowledge, strength and courage I was gaining in those three years. After graduation, I worked in the neurosurgery operating room.

I married shortly after graduation and I worked at TGH in the OR until my first child, Janet was born. Subsequently I had two more, Leslie and Michael and we adopted a fourth, Richard. We moved to Oakville, the area that was to be my home for the next period of my life. I feel I was very fortunate to be a “stay at home” mom during my kid’s “growing up years.” Those were challenging but still fun years. School and hospital volunteering became the norm for me when they were of school age, with summers finding me “lifeguarding” once again around our pool for our and the neighbourhood kids. My winter sport was then curling – however, the children had some friends who “skied” and they wanted to try it too. So… we did and ultimately joined Alpine Ski Club – my first introduction to the C/W area.

In the late 70’s my husband and I separated and later divorced – a case of two lives going in opposite directions. Previous to the separation I had started a part-time job at the Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital as a clerk typist in the Admitting Department. I can see now, that through the years I could have kept myself in nursing, at least part-time, so my qualifications would be current in order for me to step back into the field; however, if I had my life might not have turned out so wonderfully well in the long run!

After the separation, I needed a fulltime job so I applied for and was successful in obtaining a position as receptionist in the Rehab Medicine Department. All days, no weekends – dealing with clients and staff – perfect for me and my family.

Skiing at Alpine was still a big plus in the children’s and my life so winter weekends found us up here.

New Year’s Day in 1982 we were skiing at Alpine. Lift lineups were more of a norm then, and singles in line were encouraged to call out “Single” so that the chairs went up full. Guess who called “single”? Keith Cameron. Leslie, one of my daughters, turned to me and said, “Go for it Mom!” So I did! That ride up the mountain changed my life again. Keith’s wife had died of cancer three years earlier so he was single “single,” and so was I. We got to know each other over several years, and we decided we were both ready to consider a new relationship. Marriage to Keith came in May of 1995 – his three and my four children all happy with our union. We were very fortunate as they all like each other and get along very well. Keith’s son David was still in high school so was the only one to live with us full time.

Home for me now became Etobicoke. Commuting daily to do my job which was now in the Outpatient Department. Keith, a teacher and head of the Physics and Chemistry Departments at Humber Collegiate commuted to North Etobicoke. When David went off to university, we decided to move to a smaller home in Georgetown, thinking it would remain as our main home, and the cottage that we had purchased up here would be our weekend and holiday spot.

When we retired in June of ’92 we found we were spending the majority of our time here. We were going back to Georgetown to collect mail and mow the grass in summer, and collect mail and shovel snow in winter, so we decided to sell the house and renovate our cottage to a fulltime house. It was and still is one of our best decisions. We have a great, basically “new” home with Georgian Bay lapping at our back door and the hills beckoning us at the front door.

Life anywhere, as you know, is what you put into it. This area provided so many opportunities – new friendships – the people are so open to be friendly – community involvement – volunteering in many different areas, sports activities, clubs, such as this one and many others. There are multitudes of courses to take in the arts, bridge, computing, lectures and of course, churches. To become involved in any of these enrich our lives.

Personally, my life is full and happy. I have many good friends, I have volunteered for the past six years with Hospice Golden Triangle and for the past three years with the Cardiac Rehab Program at the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital. Keith and I ski, play golf (I’m not good at that!) play duplicate bridge (I’m getting better at that!), travel and of course enjoy many fun times with our children and grand children.

We look forward too many more years of good times and may you all also.

Thanks for listening.