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Article detail: first published on 12 January 2008; last modified on 12 January 2008; written by Joan Woo, Robert Funnell & Richard Funnell
Our mother, L. Grace Searle, was born in a small town in England on Feb 13, 1922. She emigrated to Canada with her two younger siblings and parents when she was about 5 years old. Her father had had a long career in the British Navy but had been invalided out. He started over in Canada in a small town:
Woodstock, Ontario. He worked shovelling coal into the furnaces of a foundry.
After some time, this became too difficult & he became a letter carrier. The family kept a cow and chickens & grew their own vegetables. By all accounts they were very frugal, and they managed to survive the depression despite the addition of another child.
Being the oldest in such a situation may have strengthened my mother's basic leanings towards being very responsible & thrifty. She had a full load of chores to do, including dealing with the animals. She was always a top student and was also inclined towards music (piano & violin) & painting. She badly wanted to continue her education but her mother insisted she go out to work after high school. Her mother also strongly discouraged her artistic leanings. Perhaps this was not unusual for their class & straitened circumstances.
Our mother started working in a factory sewing men's underwear & found she was exceptionally quick &, being paid by the piece, she did very well. Of course, it was expected most of her income would be turned over to her mother. Her relationship with her mother & the home life in general seem to have been tense at the best of times, although she adored her father.
When the handsome young John Funnell came back into her life after a year away, she happily accepted his proposal. She had plans to enlist & go overseas with him but she found herself pregnant with Joan. She was therefore relegated to 3 long years alone except for a colicky baby & some emotional support from her parents and her husband's parents.
When her husband returned from the war, she used her talents as a seamtress to make most of the family's clothes, including my father's suits. He was exceptionally well dressed for his station in life.
She made a conscious decision to put her wishes second in order to support my father's endeavours in any way she could. She was left alone with 3 young children when he went to Korea. Later she learned to keep company books & argue with taxmen in aid of my father's many business endeavours.
She, like her mother & sister, had a passion for gardening that showed at every opportunity, usually with the most impressive gardens in the area. They became more extensive & ambitious as circumstances allowed. She knew the Latin names for hundreds of plants & liked to push the boundaries of what would grow in the area. She was also a great knitter & played the piano all her life. The violin had been dropped long ago.
She is well remembered for the wonderful family dinners in later years, and for her fruit pies for dessert. She was also an avid reader & devoured books of all sorts, mostly non-fiction. Even when confined to a wheelchair for the last 7 years of her life, she grew an interesting variety of house plants, some ordered from far away, and she continued to play the piano, read widely, & continue hosting Christmas dinners for her family.
Article detail: first published on 12 January 2008; last modified on 12 January 2008; written by Joan Woo, Robert Funnell & Richard Funnell
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