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They met in August 1941 in a suburb of wartime London, a bubbly English girl in a red dress and a tall Canadian soldier. George Spear would later recall that when he walked though the dance hall door and saw Jean sitting there, “That was it for me. I never let her out of my sight.”
He wore army boots, but he could dance, Jean said. “And his rhythm was perfect. So we didn’t dance with anyone else the whole evening,”
Three years ago, at a 72nd anniversary party in the backyard of their white brick bungalow on Aylen Avenue, George cut the cake with his wartime bayonet and played You Are My Sunshine on the harmonica. And they shared a long kiss.
The pair celebrated their 75th anniversary on Aug. 22. On Friday, they died in hospital within an hours of each other.
Jean, 94, had developed pneumonia and was admitted to the Queensway Carleton Hospital on Tuesday. George, 97, spoke to Jean by phone on Wednesday. The next day, he fell into a deep sleep and was also admitted to the hospital, where administrators tried to reunite the couple on the same floor. Before that could be arranged, Jean fell into a peaceful sleep and died at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, followed by George at 9:45 a.m.
“We tell stories to make ourselves feel better. But this defies any sort of logic. We were overwhelmed by the suddenness of it,” says their daughter, Heather Spear.
Jean and George Spear, shortly after their marriage in 1942.
The Spears’ lives together were like a movie script. George was 21 and Canada’s youngest sergeant major with the 1st Corps Field Survey Co., Royal Canadian Engineers when they met and was later an intelligence officer. Jean was 18 when they met. She was a firefighter, an air raid warden and a corporal in the home Guard whose dreams of a career in journalism were dashed when the magazine she worked at as a secretary was bombed.
They were married in 1942 in Jean’s hometown of Kingston Upon Thames, Jean in a dress borrowed from the butcher’s daughter. One layer of the wedding cake made it from Canada. The other layer ended up in the north Atlantic.
“When you met a boy, you made the most of every moment because you just didn’t know when or if you’d meet again. There was a stimulation about it, a wonderful, wonderful excitement that is hard to describe and hard to understand if you weren’t there. The worry sharpened your senses,” Jean said in 2006.
George, who served in Italy and North Africa, headed back to Canada to work as a trainer and made arrangements with the Red Cross to have Jean brought to Canada in a naval convoy in 1944. It was an operation cloaked in the greatest secrecy. Jean got a call to be packed in an hour and meet a woman who would get her on a ship to Canada. She couldn’t even wave goodbye to her family.
Jean arrived in Ottawa in a snowstorm and was greeted by George. Almost immediately, she arranged a parcel-to-Londoners program, enlisting Canadian families to send food parcels to 100 East End Londoners. In 1945, she helped found the ESWIC (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Canada) club for war brides. After the war, George worked as a surveyor and Jean for Simpsons-Sears as a staff trainer, eventually moving to Statistics Canada.
Daughter Heather was born in 1947, son Ian in 1950.
One of the biggest thrills of Jean’s life was being named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2006. She insisted that the honour was on behalf of all of Canada’s almost 50,000 war brides.
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, chats with Jean and George Spear in 2011.
In 2011, the couple was invited to a private reception in honour of Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. George showed Kate the 1942 photograph of Jean taken on their first date he had tucked inside the beret he wore as a soldier. Kate asked if he always kept the photo. “All through the war and ever since,” George replied.
The two complemented each other, say their children. Jean loved talk and parties. George, who called himself a “war groom,” was quiet and outdoorsy. Jean bought the hobby farm near Smiths Falls that the family called The Manor for George, but came to love it as much as he did.
“There was a respect for each other’s interests. Each recognized that the other needed those interests to make them happy,” says Ian Spear.
“We laugh a little about it because she was the stronger of the two about what she wanted to do or not do,” says Heather. “She was a force to be reckoned with.”
That included purchasing a plot at Beechwood Cemetery and a headstone. On Jean’s side: Beloved wife and war bride. On George’s side: Royal Canadian engineer.
Jean herself once explained their recipe for happiness in an interview. “I realized when we met that we were on to a good thing. When we got married, we thought we were in heaven. Throughout our lives, the ups and downs, we know that together we are a good thing. We recognize it and have never failed to acknowledge it.”
The family is still organizing a party to celebrate their lives. “I think we’ll have one more Spear party,” says Heather.
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He wore army boots, but he could dance, Jean said. “And his rhythm was perfect. So we didn’t dance with anyone else the whole evening,”
Three years ago, at a 72nd anniversary party in the backyard of their white brick bungalow on Aylen Avenue, George cut the cake with his wartime bayonet and played You Are My Sunshine on the harmonica. And they shared a long kiss.
The pair celebrated their 75th anniversary on Aug. 22. On Friday, they died in hospital within an hours of each other.
Jean, 94, had developed pneumonia and was admitted to the Queensway Carleton Hospital on Tuesday. George, 97, spoke to Jean by phone on Wednesday. The next day, he fell into a deep sleep and was also admitted to the hospital, where administrators tried to reunite the couple on the same floor. Before that could be arranged, Jean fell into a peaceful sleep and died at 4:30 a.m. on Friday, followed by George at 9:45 a.m.
“We tell stories to make ourselves feel better. But this defies any sort of logic. We were overwhelmed by the suddenness of it,” says their daughter, Heather Spear.
Jean and George Spear, shortly after their marriage in 1942.
The Spears’ lives together were like a movie script. George was 21 and Canada’s youngest sergeant major with the 1st Corps Field Survey Co., Royal Canadian Engineers when they met and was later an intelligence officer. Jean was 18 when they met. She was a firefighter, an air raid warden and a corporal in the home Guard whose dreams of a career in journalism were dashed when the magazine she worked at as a secretary was bombed.
They were married in 1942 in Jean’s hometown of Kingston Upon Thames, Jean in a dress borrowed from the butcher’s daughter. One layer of the wedding cake made it from Canada. The other layer ended up in the north Atlantic.
“When you met a boy, you made the most of every moment because you just didn’t know when or if you’d meet again. There was a stimulation about it, a wonderful, wonderful excitement that is hard to describe and hard to understand if you weren’t there. The worry sharpened your senses,” Jean said in 2006.
George, who served in Italy and North Africa, headed back to Canada to work as a trainer and made arrangements with the Red Cross to have Jean brought to Canada in a naval convoy in 1944. It was an operation cloaked in the greatest secrecy. Jean got a call to be packed in an hour and meet a woman who would get her on a ship to Canada. She couldn’t even wave goodbye to her family.
Jean arrived in Ottawa in a snowstorm and was greeted by George. Almost immediately, she arranged a parcel-to-Londoners program, enlisting Canadian families to send food parcels to 100 East End Londoners. In 1945, she helped found the ESWIC (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Canada) club for war brides. After the war, George worked as a surveyor and Jean for Simpsons-Sears as a staff trainer, eventually moving to Statistics Canada.
Daughter Heather was born in 1947, son Ian in 1950.
One of the biggest thrills of Jean’s life was being named a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2006. She insisted that the honour was on behalf of all of Canada’s almost 50,000 war brides.
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, chats with Jean and George Spear in 2011.
In 2011, the couple was invited to a private reception in honour of Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge. George showed Kate the 1942 photograph of Jean taken on their first date he had tucked inside the beret he wore as a soldier. Kate asked if he always kept the photo. “All through the war and ever since,” George replied.
The two complemented each other, say their children. Jean loved talk and parties. George, who called himself a “war groom,” was quiet and outdoorsy. Jean bought the hobby farm near Smiths Falls that the family called The Manor for George, but came to love it as much as he did.
“There was a respect for each other’s interests. Each recognized that the other needed those interests to make them happy,” says Ian Spear.
“We laugh a little about it because she was the stronger of the two about what she wanted to do or not do,” says Heather. “She was a force to be reckoned with.”
That included purchasing a plot at Beechwood Cemetery and a headstone. On Jean’s side: Beloved wife and war bride. On George’s side: Royal Canadian engineer.
Jean herself once explained their recipe for happiness in an interview. “I realized when we met that we were on to a good thing. When we got married, we thought we were in heaven. Throughout our lives, the ups and downs, we know that together we are a good thing. We recognize it and have never failed to acknowledge it.”
The family is still organizing a party to celebrate their lives. “I think we’ll have one more Spear party,” says Heather.
查看原文...
