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The farewell for Jean and George Spear was in the same in spirit as the night the two met, 76 years ago in a dance hall during The Blitz in London.
There was dancing, starting with As Time Goes By, the song from Casablanca and ending We’ll Meet Again, the song Vera Lynn made famous in 1939.
Jean Tubbs and George Spear, a sergeant major of the 1st Corps Field Survey Co., Royal Canadian Engineer, met in London in August 1941. They married in August 1942. George secured passage for Jean on a ship to Canada through the Red Cross two years later. She arrived in Canada on Dec. 23, 1944, one of an influx of women who would become known as “war brides.”
The Spears celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in August. They died in the Queensway Carleton Hospital within hours of each other on Sept. 15. Jean was 94, George was 97.
Jean had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia on Sept. 12, while George remained at home. On Sept. 13, they had their last telephone conversation. “I’m not sure what my mom said, but Dad said, ‘Don’t make me cry, Jean, don’t make me cry,’ ” said their daughter, Heather. “I’m sure what she said was, ‘I love you, I love you.’ ”
The next day, George fell into a deep sleep and was also admitted to Queensway Carleton. Soon after, Jean also fell into a peaceful sleep. Jean died at died at 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 15, followed by George at 9:45 a.m.
George and Jean Spear cut the cake at their 72nd anniversary with George’s wartime bayonet.
No one in their circle of family and friends could imagine Jean without George or George without Jean.
“Even when his health was failing, my father was there to look after my mom until he knew it was OK to go,” said their son, Ian.
On Friday, friends and family packed the Britannia Yacht Club for a farewell for the couple, complete with momentos of their lives: the uniform George wore when he met Jean; his military beret with the photo of Jean he always kept tucked inside; a wedding photo taken outside a church in Kingston-on-Thames, Jean’s hometown.
Jean and George danced all night when they first met. And the next 75 years were filled with large and merry gatherings and plenty of dancing, including parties at their hobby farm near Smiths Falls, Wimbledon strawberry socials at the yacht club, New Year’s Eve celebrations that ended with revelers whisking down a slide they made out of snow and ice in their backyard every winter. For their 60th anniversary, the couple re-enacted their dance hall encounter, complete with a replica of the red dress Jean wore that night.
“They brought everyone together,” said Sandy Cavanagh, a friend of the couple.
Their farewell was no different.
“They always knew how to have fun. A traditional funeral wasn’t appropriate,” Heather said.
Family members including grandson James Fitzsimmons with Holly Howitt, dance in honour of Jean and George Spear.
Almost everyone in the crowd wore something red, the colour of Jean’s dress. Red was also the colour of the front door of their white brick house on Aylen Avenue, a former cottage with a big yard near the Ottawa River that George renovated and expanded after the war. The couple lived in the house until their deaths with the help of a “village” of caregivers.
The relationship was a pairing of tenacity on the part of Jean and tenderness on the part of George. Jean was known as a consummate networker and organizer with a diplomatic touch for getting things done. George was an avid do-it-yourselfer and outdoorsman known for his birthday serenades.
In 1945, about a year after her arrival in Ottawa, Jean founded the ESWIC Club (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada) for war brides and became known as their champion. In 2006, she was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) “for services to Anglo-Canadian relations.” Jean insisted that the honour was on behalf of all of Canada’s 50,000 war brides.
For their 50th wedding anniversary, the family screened an old film of Jean and George’s wedding. No one had seen it before, not even the bride and groom.
“And there were my parents, 19-year-old Jean and 22-year-old George,” Heather said.
Jean was a meticulous archivist of her life with George. One artifacts Heather discovered was her mother’s 1941 dairy, a tiny book no bigger than a matchbox. In miniscule handwriting, Jean had recorded her first meeting with George. The last entry is dated December 1941. Jean noted that they had gone to see a Red Skelton film.
Ian Spear and his sister Heather with their favourite photo of their parents.
“I enjoyed myself so much. It must be love,” Jean wrote.
Heather recalls her mother saying how enchanted she was when she stepped off the train at the old Union Station in downtown Ottawa for the first time during a snowstorm.
“I had never been in a snowstorm before, and all of a sudden I found myself up to my knees in snow,” Jean would later tell a reporter. “I saw a soldier running toward me and he wrapped his raincoat around me.”
It was George, waiting to greet her. The Château Laurier was all lit up for Christmas. It did not escape Jean’s notice.
“In wartime England, there were no lights,” Heather said. ” She fell in love with Canada.”
查看原文...
There was dancing, starting with As Time Goes By, the song from Casablanca and ending We’ll Meet Again, the song Vera Lynn made famous in 1939.
Jean Tubbs and George Spear, a sergeant major of the 1st Corps Field Survey Co., Royal Canadian Engineer, met in London in August 1941. They married in August 1942. George secured passage for Jean on a ship to Canada through the Red Cross two years later. She arrived in Canada on Dec. 23, 1944, one of an influx of women who would become known as “war brides.”
The Spears celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary in August. They died in the Queensway Carleton Hospital within hours of each other on Sept. 15. Jean was 94, George was 97.
Jean had been admitted to hospital with pneumonia on Sept. 12, while George remained at home. On Sept. 13, they had their last telephone conversation. “I’m not sure what my mom said, but Dad said, ‘Don’t make me cry, Jean, don’t make me cry,’ ” said their daughter, Heather. “I’m sure what she said was, ‘I love you, I love you.’ ”
The next day, George fell into a deep sleep and was also admitted to Queensway Carleton. Soon after, Jean also fell into a peaceful sleep. Jean died at died at 4:30 a.m. on Sept. 15, followed by George at 9:45 a.m.
George and Jean Spear cut the cake at their 72nd anniversary with George’s wartime bayonet.
No one in their circle of family and friends could imagine Jean without George or George without Jean.
“Even when his health was failing, my father was there to look after my mom until he knew it was OK to go,” said their son, Ian.
On Friday, friends and family packed the Britannia Yacht Club for a farewell for the couple, complete with momentos of their lives: the uniform George wore when he met Jean; his military beret with the photo of Jean he always kept tucked inside; a wedding photo taken outside a church in Kingston-on-Thames, Jean’s hometown.
Jean and George danced all night when they first met. And the next 75 years were filled with large and merry gatherings and plenty of dancing, including parties at their hobby farm near Smiths Falls, Wimbledon strawberry socials at the yacht club, New Year’s Eve celebrations that ended with revelers whisking down a slide they made out of snow and ice in their backyard every winter. For their 60th anniversary, the couple re-enacted their dance hall encounter, complete with a replica of the red dress Jean wore that night.
“They brought everyone together,” said Sandy Cavanagh, a friend of the couple.
Their farewell was no different.
“They always knew how to have fun. A traditional funeral wasn’t appropriate,” Heather said.
Family members including grandson James Fitzsimmons with Holly Howitt, dance in honour of Jean and George Spear.
Almost everyone in the crowd wore something red, the colour of Jean’s dress. Red was also the colour of the front door of their white brick house on Aylen Avenue, a former cottage with a big yard near the Ottawa River that George renovated and expanded after the war. The couple lived in the house until their deaths with the help of a “village” of caregivers.
The relationship was a pairing of tenacity on the part of Jean and tenderness on the part of George. Jean was known as a consummate networker and organizer with a diplomatic touch for getting things done. George was an avid do-it-yourselfer and outdoorsman known for his birthday serenades.
In 1945, about a year after her arrival in Ottawa, Jean founded the ESWIC Club (England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Canada) for war brides and became known as their champion. In 2006, she was made a member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) “for services to Anglo-Canadian relations.” Jean insisted that the honour was on behalf of all of Canada’s 50,000 war brides.
For their 50th wedding anniversary, the family screened an old film of Jean and George’s wedding. No one had seen it before, not even the bride and groom.
“And there were my parents, 19-year-old Jean and 22-year-old George,” Heather said.
Jean was a meticulous archivist of her life with George. One artifacts Heather discovered was her mother’s 1941 dairy, a tiny book no bigger than a matchbox. In miniscule handwriting, Jean had recorded her first meeting with George. The last entry is dated December 1941. Jean noted that they had gone to see a Red Skelton film.
Ian Spear and his sister Heather with their favourite photo of their parents.
“I enjoyed myself so much. It must be love,” Jean wrote.
Heather recalls her mother saying how enchanted she was when she stepped off the train at the old Union Station in downtown Ottawa for the first time during a snowstorm.
“I had never been in a snowstorm before, and all of a sudden I found myself up to my knees in snow,” Jean would later tell a reporter. “I saw a soldier running toward me and he wrapped his raincoat around me.”
It was George, waiting to greet her. The Château Laurier was all lit up for Christmas. It did not escape Jean’s notice.
“In wartime England, there were no lights,” Heather said. ” She fell in love with Canada.”
查看原文...
