Retired politician Don Grantham and his wife Joyce are thankful for every new day since her heart transplant 19 years ago. Here is their brief story.
Don Grantham, the oldest of four boys, was born in 1941 in Gladstone, Man. His parents were longtime residents of southern Manitoba dating as far back as 1872.
Don remembers being taken out of school to run the tractor to pull the binder; a machine for cutting grain and binding it into bundles. They mowed the hay with a team of horses and raked it with an old big wheeled rake also pulled by a team of horses. All that hard work on the farm toughen him up and future hard work never bothered him.
After high school he took his electronics training at the Manitoba Technical Institute in Winnipeg and at the age of 19 he got a job on the Mid-Canada Line (MCL) in Dawson Creek and worked as a meteorologist and part time technician from 1961-64.
The (MCL) was a line of radar stations running east to west across the middle of Canada and used to provide early warning of a Soviet bomber attack on North America. The MCL was developed as a secondary line of detection in case enemy aircraft penetrated the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line).
Don met and married Joyce Sexton. Joyce, an only child, was born in Beaver Lodge, Alta. in 1941. Her paternal grandparents were originally from Ontario and eventually settled in the Peace River area while her maternal grandparents emigrated from Poland.
Her father was an oil man and they moved constantly; some years Joyce attended 4-5 different schools until her family finally settled in Dawson Creek. After high school she first worked for a finance company and then a jewelry store.
Don said, "I met Joyce at the curling rink in Dawson Creek. She was the cutest girl on Earth and I skipped over two sheets of ice and started sweeping where she was sweeping just to get her attention. I asked her for her phone number and she wouldn't even answer me. I was happy when I finally got a date with her.
Her version of this was, "I was curling and here comes Don. He showed up while I was curling and I wondered what kind of jerk this guy was to get in my face like that. He asked me out and I told him to get lost. I finally agreed to go out with him and after several dates I told my mom that this was the guy that I was going to marry. We got married in 1962 and it is hard to believe that all this happened 56 years ago.
"We had three children Brian (Debbie), Bonnie (Dean) Toll and Sheri (Ken) Shalansky. Brian and Bonnie were born in the same calendar year and Sheri arrived ten years later. We now have four grandchildren and one great grandchild."
In 1964, Don left MCL to work for CN Telecommunications as their district technician. He finished his training and they transferred him to Hay River, N.W.T.
Joyce followed with their two babies, Bonnie was six months old and Brian was 18 months. They flew from Dawson Creek to Edmonton, then on to Fort Smith, changed planes again and had a rough ride before landing in Hay River.
When they landed she noted that there was nothing in Hay River except the bull flies that instantly attached them when the plane door opened.
She was exhausted from the long two-day trip, the commotion of packing her two babies and all their things plus the stress of having only one bottle of milk left when they landed. She was shocked when she saw the shack, with no running water, that was to be their home; she could only hope that better housing would soon come along.
They battled permafrost, mosquitoes, cold weather, isolation and expensive groceries from 1964-66. Don's work consisted of many unconventional methods as they flew in and out of sites turning up communication systems between Hay River and Inuvik and many sites in between.
Joyce was patient through all of this and said that she could handle it because she had grown up with a lot of inconveniences. She had her precious babies and she had Don so it all worked out in the end.
In 1966 Don hired on with BC Tel and worked as a toll technician for two years in Prince George and then three years in McBride. In 1972 he was transferred to Vanderhoof as the district supervisor.
Don got talked into going into politics and before he knew it he was the mayor of Vanderhoof. The current mayor Bill McLeod was retiring, Don got voted in and served three two-year terms from 1976-1981.
Don said, "Joyce just laughed when I made up my mind to run. The Village of Vanderhoof had a population of 1,825 and served an outlying area of about 5,000 people. They all used our facilities however we only received taxes from the village people. During my time as mayor and as part of my legacy to Vanderhoof I worked together with the regional district to merge the village and the outlying areas and the Vanderhoof District Municipality came into being.
"Once that was done the current council was dissolved and a municipal election was held. I received 85 per cent of the village votes but did not do as well in the outlying areas and Len Fox was elected as Mayor of the new Vanderhoof District Municipality.
"All of this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I got a promotion at BC Tel as the district network manager and we moved to Prince George.
"BC Tel reorganized the company in 1995 and my job was moved to Vancouver. Instead of moving I retired instead from my position as the district network engineering manager.
"This was another blessing in disguise. I was pensioned off at the age of 55. I finished my Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree and worked for Merrill Lynch and CIBC Wood Gundy as a financial advisor and branch manager for the next 10 years.
"I ran for Prince George City Council and served for nine years as a city councilor from 1993-2002. I was proud to serve as the chairman of the new multiplex building committee."
Joyce reflected back and said, "It was during this time that I got sick. I was tired all the time and sick for two years. In 1996 I was diagnosed with a condition called viral cardiomyopathy, a heart muscle disorder in which the ventricles, or the two lower chambers of my heart, were enlarged and not able to pump enough blood for my body which eventually results in heart failure.
"My doctors, Dr Hennessy, Breckon and Leighton agreed that I desperately needed a heart transplant. The assessment for a heart transplant was vigorous and complicated with many trips back and forth to Vancouver. I was put on the heart transplant list and four months later, when I had very little time left to live, I got the call in August of 1999 that they had a heart for me. They explained that I needed to be rushed to Vancouver to have the transplant operation.
"We flew out of Prince George on an air ambulance and to tell you the truth I wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not. I did make it and after five months of constant care, medications, steady doctor appointments and living in Vancouver I was given a second chance at life. I was able to come back to my home in Prince George and watch my grandchildren grow up, go to university and get married.
"At first I had to take about 50 pills a day and Don used to tease me that I needed a tackle box to keep them all sorted out. This all took place 19 years ago and since then I have certainly been blessed. I now have kidney complications, a side effects from all the drugs, but I still feel blessed."
Don is a charter member and past president of the Nechako Rotary Club and Joyce volunteers twice a week with therapy dogs Reggie and Teddy at the hospital cancer ward.
In conclusion Don and Joyce said, "We are enjoying our retirement and spending quality time with family and friends. We spend time at our cabin at the lake and still manage to do some traveling. We have had a good life together and we are thankful for every new day."
