Humanitarian – Educator

By Reed Kirkpatrick

Jacquie tickles the ivories and leads an exuberant sing-along as Maoris, Kiwis, Australians, and Canadians socialize at the Maple Leaf Club in Tokyo. It is December 1953, four months after the end of the Korean War.

A great distance from her home in Québec City, Jacquie was one of 50 young women recruited by the Canadian Red Cross earlier that year to provide support to our forces stationed in Korea and Japan. Equipped with a degree in social work from Laval University and the ability to read, but not converse in English, she faced significant challenges. But Jacquie quickly learned to communicate in English—an impressive confirmation of linguistic aptitude that would serve her well in the future. “When I look back on my life with the Red Cross, I consider myself very lucky. It changed my life forever.”

After completing her tour of duty, Jacquie travelled to Australia, New Zealand, Dutch New Guinea, Borneo, Thailand, Singapore, Burma, and India. An eclectic assortment of jobs supported her travel, working variously as an English teacher, playground director, waitress, librarian, social worker, and secretary to a professor of geography in Durban, South Africa.

Intermingled with her remarkable adventures in exotic places, Jacquie witnessed numerous poignant examples of injustice and suffering. “Very often at the entrance to temples in Japan I saw handicapped men dressed in white. These were former soldiers who had been injured in the war and were begging for a living.” And in Durban, signs prominently displayed on benches and bus stops declared, “For Europeans only.” Exposure to these realities and others reinforced Jacquie’s unshakable values of social justice, and helped fuel a lifelong commitment to helping those less fortunate.

After she returned home in 1958, Jacquie accepted employment with the YWCA in Vancouver as a group worker. It was in Vancouver that she met Arnie, her future husband, who was also working as a social worker at the time. They married in 1960 and raised a family of three sons in the hamlet of Whonnock, in the Fraser Valley.

While raising a family, Jacquie worked as a teaching assistant and pursued graduate studies at Simon Fraser University, receiving a Master’s degree in linguistics in 1970. After working intermittently as a sessional lecturer at Douglas College and the University of Victoria, Jacquie secured a position teaching French at Royal Roads Military College, where she spent the next 14 years. In 1985, Jacquie published Gens de chez nous, an anthology of the works of more than 40 major French-Canadian authors.

Continuing to help those less fortunate, Jacquie has worked tirelessly as a volunteer at Mount St. Mary Hospital, the Global Village Store, and St. Andrew’s Cathedral soup kitchen for the past 17 years.

In recognition of her service overseas, Jacquie has received both the UN medal for distinguished service and the Canadian Volunteer Medal.

She now travels extensively with her husband, and has recently authored Medals on My Kitchen Wall, a chronicle of her adventures between September 1953 and October 1958. It is available from Trafford Publishing and the Greater Victoria Public Library.