Feb
29
By David Reycraft
Long-time James Bay resident Catherine Smart passed away last June, but this is not an obituary. Rather it is a brief story of a very long life, one that shows what can be done even after living over a century. Catherine lived on her own on Simcoe Street with only occasional help from a volunteer from the James Bay Community Project. Even at her advanced age, she still had a zest for life, her sense of humour, and could give a pretty good bear hug. Here is her story, as written by her nephew, David.
As you know, we lost Cathie Smart on June 18, 2011, at the age of 103. Her life was as generously long as her final illness was mercifully short. As few of her friends and family live in Victoria, most of us didn't have a chance to gather and celebrate her life. These few paragraphs and photos are just a reminder of what a remarkable woman Cathie was.
Cathie Smart was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on March 14, 1908. Her father William Middlemas Smart was born in Earlston, Scotland in 1875. Her mother, Mary Robinson, was born ten years later in Edinburgh.
William Smart MM was a professional soldier and served in the Royal Engineers (Imp) in South Africa during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) and in France during the First World War. In 1918 he received the Military Medal (MM) for conspicuous bravery in the field. (This was, and is still today, one of the top British decorations awarded during wartime). Meanwhile, his wife Mary was living in Scotland raising their two daughters, Catherine and Nancy, (my mother) who was born in 1911.
In 1925 the Smart family decided to emigrate to a city in Canada which they had never heard of - Winnipeg, Manitoba. William's brother Tom had settled there a few years earlier. Using his military experience, William secured a position as a telegrapher with the Wheat Pool and the family sailed from Glasgow to Montreal in July 1925 on the SS Mettogama. From there they took the three or four day train trip to Winnipeg. Cathie told me that when they arrived in Winnipeg, it was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit. They were surprised at this, but even more surprised at the 30 below zero that came that winter!
Cathie told me how heart wrenching and sad it was to say goodbye to her paternal grandparents, with whom she was very close. As Cathie said "Granny and Grandpa were very elderly. We knew they would never come to Canada and we certainly would not be able to make the long journey by train and steamship back to Scotland for a very long time." They were never to see one another again. It would be many years before Cathie would return to the picturesque village of Gattenside-Melrose on the Tweed River where her grandfather had been born in 1846. In 1958, Cathie, my mother, my sister Heather and I visited Gattenside and stayed in the Smart family cottage, which by this time was owned by Nell, a younger sister of William Smart.
In Canada the Smarts began their new life with William at the Wheat Pool, Cathie at an accounting firm, my mother Nancy at Eaton's department store and Mary at home. Cathie was to spend 47 years at the accounting firm and then collect a pension for another 38 years! During this time, she lived with her mother, Mary, my grandmother, until Mary died in 1983 at 98. Cathie never expressed any regret about being single, and said her life with her mom was wonderful. "Mary was a good cook. I went out to work and we made a terrific team." Cathie walked to and from her office, which was never less than two miles away, even in the coldest weather. Since she came home for lunch every day, over 47 years she walked approximately 48,000 miles to and from work. It's hard to believe but we did the math. Cathie knit socks and big sweaters for family and friends - even for my friends! She asked for little, seldom complained, enjoyed a wee drink at 5:00 o'clock (well perhaps two or three) and took great interest in the progress through life of those she loved.
Although the Wright brothers had made their first flight only a little more than four years before Cathie was born, by the early 1960s overseas commercial airline travel was becoming more common and Cathie took full advantage of this. She went to the UK and the continent at least eight times, and in her seventies and eighties travelled to China, New Zealand, Hawaii, Kenya, Egypt and Israel. She toured across Canada and visited Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, New York, Florida and many states in between. Her last trip was to visit dear friends, the Morgans, in Lodi, California, in 2010. Cathie was 102.
I visited Cathie in the hospital the day before she died. Only then, in her hospital bed, did she agree with me that it might be time to consider giving up her apartment and moving into an assisted living care home. She was so very tired. I believe sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her. We all miss her very much.