I wrote the following story in this column approximately one year ago. I have known Kay Bond and Iris West for many years. The stories that I heard from them about their lives continue to be very special to me. The following is just a small snap shot of their lives over these past nine decades. Even though the stairs have become a bit steeper for each of them over this past year they continue to be close friends. Here is their story in case you missed it a year ago.
Kay (Catherine Crowe) Bond was born in Ireland in the year of 1921. At the young age of 17 Kay moved to England where at that time she said, "The pastures were greener in England. It was war time and there were good jobs and lots of work."
As the years went by Kay met Jack Bond and came to Canada in 1946 as a war bride. Together they raised four children; Bill (Shirley), Cathy Dofka, Pat (Bernadette) and Julia (Bert) Roberge all of whom live here in Prince George. Kay has 8 grand children and 3 great grand children.
Kay worked for years at Woodwards. She loved to do volunteer work before she took up carpet bowling. She put in many volunteer hours at the Brunswick Street senior center both at the front desk and working in the kitchen with close friend Jean Nelson. She served as hostess at the Tenth Avenue senior centre for many years.
Kay is still very active in her favorite sport of carpet bowling. Friends who know Kay say that she would rather miss lunch than to miss a carpet bowling match! She now resides at the Prince George Chateau and says that she loves it there.
At just about this same point in time young Iris (Haines) Milne-West, born in 1919, was living in England and driving an ambulance during the war.
"We all had to wear tin hats to protect ourselves against flying shrapnel," Iris recalls. "I always carried a gas mask just in case they decided to use gas as a weapon like they did in the First World War. We never had to use our gas mask and we were always thankful for that."
Iris met husband-to-be, Harvey Milne, at a wedding reception in England. She said, "This man asked if I would sit beside him at the reception and of course I did not! I just moved away and I went and sat with my other friends. It wasn't to long and he showed up at the ambulance station where I worked and the rest is history."
Iris also came to Canada in 1946 as a war bride and the couple raised two children.
Harvey Milne passed away with a heart attack and years later Iris married long time friend Wally West who passed away in 2008.
Throughout the years Iris taught and received a coveted gold medal in Elocution: An English term used to describe the skill of clear and expressive speech.
The years went by and nearly 50 years ago Kay and Iris met one another here in Prince George at a War Brides luncheon. They have been good friends ever since and in fact they are currently long time Red Hat sisters in the Scarlet O'Hatters Red Hat Club and in the Order of the Eastern Star.
Iris, now 95 years old and Kay, now 93 years old both arrived in Canada at totally different times at Pier 51 in Halifax, Nova Scotia as War Brides. They boarded trains and headed out west to meet up with their respective husbands and their families.
As I listened and noted their life long stories I saw that several bonds were formed that could never be broken both between the husbands and wives and the two friends.
Sometimes you really can find that one person who will stand by you no matter what.
