From Margaret Marchand Shearing about meeting her husband James Shearing
Dear Children and Grandchildren,
I’ve been thinking that you might be interested in hearing about our early years.
I had met my husband to-be when I was eighteen at a school friend’s birthday party. I wore a coral taffeta dress; the girls in those days used to wear long dresses for special occasions. A mutual friend and her boyfriend called in a taxi to bring me to the party. Then, he and I spent most of the time at the party talking. I guess she found someone else. I’m not sure of the exact date of our first kiss, (I know it wasn’t on our first date!), but I do remember that my hat fell off.
I went out with a few other young men, then Jimmy and I just seemed to drift together again in1939, which was pre-WW2. He belonged to the Royal Highland Regiment and we went to quite a few dances at the armoury, sometimes in formal wear. He looked dashing in his Black Watch kilt.
My husband joined the Royal Canadian Artillery about four days after war was declared in September 1939. Several of his friends did,too, at the same time. We got married on February 22nd 1941. He was already in the Canadian Army, and stationed at Petawawa, Ontario. After a few days honeymoon we came back to Montreal and found a small one and a half -roomed apartment which we rented, downtown. So, when he got weekend leaves, we had a place to call our own. I was still working at the Bank and could walk there from our little apartment.
In the month of July the military were having a recruitment campaign. They had put up their tents in a large park very near to where we had our home, so needless to say he didn’t stay in the camp every night, but with me. I guess that was when we started on our family, not knowing that it would be the first of many to come. So the army had gone to Ontario by late August, and we decided it was best if I would go home to live with my parents in their large house. It was up on Mount Royal mountain!
Labour Day weekend, 1941 was the last I saw of my husband because he went overseas in mid-September. I was only a very few months pregnant. Two of my three sisters were still there too, but it was nice since I had the growing baby to think of. I stopped working and just helped my mother around the house. One of my sisters was getting married in May 1942, so there was a lot of planning for it.
I had thought that I’d have a Valentine baby, but he didn’t arrive until March 29th. David was 3 years and 3 months before he saw his father. Although he was far away, he wrote many wonderful love letters which I was very pleased to get! It kept David and myself close even when he was so far away. It made the reunion easier.
Love,
Mom
20/2/1997
