FROM THE COOPER SISTERS- LYNDA, TERESA, JUDY, WANDA    

 

On Saturday, September 21st 2013, there was a dedication for the James Cooper Trail at Beech Lake’s “Cooper Mountain”.  It was given by Hiking Haliburton and Algonquin Highlands township, for the property Dad had donated to the public, which was the impetus for the development of 20 kilometres  of hiking trails northward.   The dedication was championed by Peter Brogden, a retired Ryerson University engineering professor, with plaque and commemorative bench funded by the Reeve of Algonquin Highlands, Carol Moffatt.  Family, friends, hikers, the Reeve and staff were present.  Greg Brown, long-time friend of the family, gave a moving speech.

Mom insisted on attending, although we thought she should have stayed home.  She waited at the bottom of the hill while we hiked above.   It occurred to us in listening to Greg’s wonderful speech of Dad’s many accomplishments that Mom, too, had given countless hours and numerous dollars to the community, to society, and to families of more than just her own.  The next day after the dedication, Wanda and Judy set to interviewing Mom on her involvement in Dad’s endeavors.  We had lots of laughs as we heard the stories, a theme we heard from Greg, that Jimmy & Doris are quite comical. Thus became this tale that we present here.

 

GET INTO THE WATER

Mom likes to skinny-dip!  Who would have thought it. We sure didn’t know that. Elsie and Don, friends from their Florida church, were visiting.  The men had gone to bed and Mom and Elsie were chatting.  Somehow the conversation came around to swimming and Elsie confessed she had never been skinny-dipping but had always wanted to.  Well of course Mom was going to fix that for this 75 year old visitor.  With housecoats on, down they went in the dark, to the lake, for a skinny dip.

We admonished Mom for swimming after dark to which she said, “Mary would come home from Nurse’s College on a Friday night with a bunch of nursing friends.  They all wanted to go swimming so in they would all go to Pine Lake. Alma Morrison said she could hear their squeals.  Every once in a while I would turn the flashlight on and count the bobbing heads!”

                Mom’s love of the water put many of us into the lakes of Haliburton.  Meredith Brown said it was “Nana” that taught her to swim. Mom said, “I would line up the Brown’s kids on shore, wade out in the water, then let them come in one at a time, telling them to swim underwater with their eyes open, all the way to Nana’s legs, then pop up!”

It was just a given with Mom that you learn to swim. Judy got her Bronze level battling white caps.  Her kids, Kirsty & Travis, swam alongside Nana in Beech Lake and went on to become swim instructors, lifeguards, and scuba divers.  Such a perfect fit with their cousins and cousin-in-laws: Shelley and Lisa and Kristina had all been lifeguards, Jamie and Troy were scuba divers, John and Shelley were scuba instructors.

Mom swam every morning at Beech Lake, even after Dad died.  Her last time in the water was when she was 91.  We are aiming to update that record!

 

COMMUNITY GIVE-BACK

                Many of Dad’s involvements commandeered Mom’s time, too.  When he was the President of the Red Cross, he brought home material which Mom sewed into hospital gowns.  Back they went with Dad, to be turned in to the Red Cross Society.

Dad was honoured with the Presidency of the Garage Operators Association, in recognition of his successful operation of Cooper Motors.  But guess who did the books for that business?  Mom!  Every night the men from the garage would bring over the till to Mom and she would count the money and record the transactions.  She said, “Sometimes I was short so I would go back over to ask the men if they knew why.”  One of them would remember they had paid so-and-so for such-and-such, and Mom would prepare a document for the missing receipt.

It makes us laugh to know that Mom’s favorite subject in school was “Math”, but that is probably why she was so adept at balancing Dad’s books.  Through the years he gave her money to run the household and somehow she always had more money than him, so it wasn’t uncommon to be out with them at a restaurant or shopping and Dad would say, “Doris, can you lend me some money?”

Mom and Dad established a Scholarship Fund at Haliburton Highlands Secondary School, given annually for highest marks in a specific subject.  How did they choose the subject?  You can guess!  The award is called The Jim & Doris Cooper Scholarship for Mathematics! 

                While in Florida, Dad volunteered at the local Hospital, in the emergency room, of all places.  Who would greet you at the front desk of the same hospital?  Mom!

Dad made over 100 clocks and countless signs.  It was Mom who sanded and varnished every one of them!  Think about that when you are looking at one of his clocks hanging on your wall.  Mom said, “I used to have to get after him every once in a while to clean up his workshop.”  Dad would say, “Would you help me?”  And down they would go to get it organized for the next handiwork of his.

                Mom and Dad worked tirelessly for Camp Medeba.  It would take a separate document to list the volunteer work done but a few stories can be related.  When we remind Mom of all she did there, she agrees, but is quick to include others, saying how much the people of West Guilford also helped.  The campers would head back from a winter weekend and the local ladies would go in to clean up.  After a summer of campers, the cabins weren’t up to Mom and Aunt Lorna’s standards, so in they would go for a re-clean, wiping out drawers, cleaning corners, scrubbing floors.

Mom remembers resurfacing Camp Medeba canoes, with Ray Sisson as her helper.  He thought this was quite a daunting task. She said, “Ray, just think of it as wallpapering.  Start in the middle and work towards the sides, squeezing out the bubbles as you go!”

 

FEED THEM

Dad was honoured by Texaco for being a dealer for 15 years.  In that time, many truckers stopped for gas and repairs at Cooper Motors.  If they had to wait, Dad made sure they didn’t leave hungry.  He would let mom know he was bringing over a driver to be fed.  She said, “Sometimes I would quickly run to Helms Store, just to buy something to feed them!”

Mom and Dad’s service to the transportation world lives on.  Currently there are son-in-laws, grandsons, grandsons-in-law employed and benefiting from the transportation industry:  Jack, Garry, Neil, Rick, Michael, Travis and Craig.

Dad (and therefore Mom!) donated two lots for the West Guilford Gospel Chapel to be built. Never did a guest speaker leave the chapel without being fed lunch or dinner by Mom.  That went on in their homes at West Guildford, on Grass Lake, on Beech Lake, and in Zephyr Hills, Florida.  There were real estate clients, Gideons, Extendicare visitors, missionaries, family and friends from across North America and around the world.  Mom has so many famous treats and recipes that her oldest grandchild, Shelley, gathered and published “Doris Cooper’s Family Cookbook”.  And yet Mom would say she really didn’t like to cook.  What fortitude to cook when you would rather be swimming!

 

IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD

                One day Mom looked out to see acquaintances filling up at Cooper Motors.  She called over, “ ___, why don’t you come in for a cup of tea?”  ____ said, “Oh, Doris, it’s just like a picnic for me to watch all those kids in your yard, playing and having such a good time!”

                If a kid misbehaved, Mom would send them home.  They would go out behind the hedge, then sneak back in after a while!  The gang of kids weren’t allowed to play in the garden, but she promised if they cooperated, they would get a reward.  When the garden grew, Mom said she would pull carrots and pick pea pods, wash them, then let the kids eat them. 

                It sounds like Mom could have been a teacher!  Well she definitely kept it going because Gina is a teacher/librarian for the Simcoe County District School Board, Tara has her PCW (Personal Support Worker), and Wanda is a Human Resources Specialist with the Kawartha Peterborough Region District School Board.

                One more “village” store:  A West Guilford neighbour asked Mom what-in-the-world had ruined the grass alongside our fireplace.  Mom said, “That’s home for all the kids when they play “Hide-and-Seek!”  Mom never minded noise or commotion.  Even at Beech Lake, when we were teens and 20-something, it was not uncommon to run through the house with a pail of water, as long as we didn’t spill it, to participate with sisters and brothers-in-law and children in massive family water fights.

 

SLIGHTLY MISCHIEVOUS

Mom always liked a good laugh.  She was very much a part of the night raid “shivarees” for a young couple just married.  (Shivaree = a discordant mock serenade to newlyweds, made with pans, kettles, etc.)  When Mom & Dad shivareed Basle, Dad’s younger brother, Basle and his wife were so scared by the night ruckus, not realizing they were being shivareed, they called the cops!

Mom likes to play games, be it Crokinole, Sorry, Monopoly, Skip bo, Racko, you name it.  And somehow she usually beats us.  We don’t know how she does it.  Maybe it’s that math brain of hers. Well Dean and Steven must have inherited it because they are our uber IT experts.

There’s another story about Mom, which involved Medeba campers.  The campers were on a canoe trip which was ending early but shouldn’t be.  No one wanted to arrive back at Medeba too soon because Stuart Wilson, the Camp Director, could be stern, understandably with all those campers in his domain! What was this canoe trip leader to do?  (We will call her Hanna, to protect her reputation.  Let’s also say she wasn’t a Cooper girl!)  Hanna pulled her troop up to Beech Lake, Mom and Hanna talked, Mom suggested they pitch their tents in her backyard, and so they did.  The next morning this led to that, and instead of cooking breakfast over an open fire, the troop prepared their breakfast in Mom’s comfortable kitchen.  Afterwards they washed their dishes in warm water instead of cold, packed up and were on their way, undiscovered.  Or so they thought. 

Back at Medeba the campers realized their silverware was missing.  Oh no!  Hanna quickly phoned Mom, Mom located the silverware amongst hers, and made a nonchalant visit to Medeba to slip the culprits to Hanna!

 

ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A NURSE

                Mom always wanted to be a nurse. That consummate desire was exemplified by the many that she nursed to health, and those she had to help transition into death.  It started when her own mother took sick, and continued when Mom’s father lived with us, until the doctor said Mom was too thin and worn out, so Grandpa Cowen needed to go into the old folks home. Somehow Mom looked after her own husband day and night for ten months, as cancer slowly took his life.  She was fiercely determined that he be able to die in the comfort of his own home.

Mom never got to become a nurse but you can see her influence from the pictures on her wall.  Their hangs the graduation pictures for Mary, Lynda, and Teresa, all nurses!  Today she has two granddaughters serving society in the nursing profession.  Lisa is an Operating Room nurse, and Shelley is an Emergency Room nurse.

 

EXACTLY HOW MANY CHILDREN DID YOU RAISE?

                While Dad was away at his many Board meetings, Mom raised us.  After a long day of cooking, cleaning and book-keeping, Mom would send her five girls to bed, then head to the basement to start laundry, after which she would begin to sew.  Mom made all our clothes!  When the older girls were married, she sewed their Bridesmaids dresses and her own Mother-of-the Bride dresses.  Judy and Wanda always had matching dresses as little girls.  And since Church was very much a part of our lives, Mom also made beautiful matching coats to wear to Sunday School.

                When we asked Mom how many other kids she helped to raise, she said, “Well, I raised my brother Max when my mom took sick.  And I worked for Ray Cruikshank’s family because they had too many children. I remember we had to carry all the water from the lake up the hill for cooking, washing and laundry.  For the last two kids, I even made all their clothes.” One of their children, now an adult, said “I can remember how much you did for us when we were kids!”

Besides Mom’s own 5 girls, 9 grandchildren, 7 great grandchildren, Mom was the person you left your children with if a new baby was on the way.  When Uncle Roy died, Aunt Lorna had to go to work, so she dropped Norma off to Mom every day. Greg Brown said that he didn’t think his American wife would have made it in Canada, raising 5 children, if it wasn’t for Mom.  And Mom remembers as soon as she turned on the riding mower to cut the grass at Beech Lake, two little heads would pop up from the Griffin’s place, as the kids liked to ride around on the mower on Mom’s lap.

Then there were all the boarders.  Carrie Cowen lived with them in Oshawa, Uncle Russell lived with us in West Guildford, Uncle Bill lived with us at Beech Lake. 

Perhaps Michael saw in his wife, Ruthie, what he saw in his Nana.  Ruthie raised her younger siblings while her Mom worked, after her Dad died at a young age.  Mary volunteered for the Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Society, touched by her concern for Ken’s nephew with CF.   Wanda became a Big Sister. Teresa shared her home with her mother-in-law for  x years.  Mom’s kindness has left an indelible mark on each of us.

 

FEARLESS

We never see Mom cry and we don’t know if there’s anything she is afraid of.  Judy’s first memory of Mom is of her bringing a broom down hard on a mouse at the cottage.  When squeals would come from the West Guilford yard, because another snake was slithering through, Mom would come out, say “That snake won’t hurt you!”, and proceed to pick it up by its tail and fling it across the road.

                Someone once said to Mom that she has had an easy life.  I guess they didn’t know that Mom has been in the hospital for 5 operations, has had a stick driven through her foot, broke her ankle at 70 years old, and buried both her daughter and her husband within three months of each other.

Mom & Dad’s married life didn’t start out very well either.  Their firstborn, Mary, was admitted to Country Branch hospital, part of the Hospital for Sick Children, with acute nephritis.  Over the nine months she was there, it was touch and go. Mom & Dad would visit her together, then separately, when Dad joined the Army.  They were apart, they had a deathly sick baby, and Pearl Harbour had just been bombed.

There was a silver lining. Mary recovered with a do-or-die treatment. When she was finally released, the nurse said to Mom, “I’m sorry to say but we have definitely spoiled your daughter!”  Mom said she thought they would have been too busy for that.  The nurse said, “With those big brown eyes, how could we resist?!”

                On New Year’s Eve, December 31st 1999, we wanted to scare away Y2K and welcome the new century, so we went tobogganing by the moon’s glow down over our hill and onto a frozen Beech Lake.  Mom went with us!  She was 80 years old !

 

WRAP IT UP

                At Dad’s 80th birthday party, there were 220 guests.  But they wouldn’t have all come if it wasn’t for Mom, too.  She continues to be in demand with visits and phone calls and letters.  We are so happy to say, although her hearing is failing, her brain is not.  So stop in to see her or call or write.  She would love to hear from you!