One day in April 10 years ago, June Binns was in her yard, leaning on her garden rake and contemplating the roof of her house, which needed work. It was decision time.
The decision June was facing – stay in her home or move closer to family – was not an easy one.
Lac Echo, in Quebec’s Laurentian mountains, had been June’s home since 1957, the year she married Ken Binns.
The Laurentians are a popular vacation destination for Montrealers. June and her fellow city dwellers would travel by train to the Laurentians for cross-country ski weekends.
Ken, whose family had lived in the area for more than a century, came home after the Second World War and opened a ski tow company. On one of those ski weekends, June Richardson and Ken Binns became acquainted. They married and built a life in their home on the shore of Lac Echo. During their years together, June worked for the Bank of Montreal in the villages of Sainte-Adèle and Lachute, rising to the post of assistant manager yet finding time to teach her fellow workers the art of knitting. Sadly, this part of June’s life came to a close when Ken passed away in 2006.
Later that year, June began an extended visit with family in West Vancouver. From December to April, she explored and experienced the community. The first step in June’s experiment in living here was a visit to West Vancouver seniors centre, where she obtained wool and needles and started knitting.
Two factors tipped the scales for June on that spring day in her garden: the condition of her roof, and the parting words from the knitters and quilters at the seniors centre, “You’ll be back.”
They were right. June sold the house on Lac Echo, packed up her life and drove west across Canada, arriving at her new home on her birthday, June 8.
“We knew you’d come back,” said the stitchers at the seniors centre when she took her place among them.
June’s mother and grandmother began teaching her to knit when she was five years old. The blue scarf she made for her dolls launched a lifetime of knitting, sewing and quilting. In those days, everyone knitted, or did needlework, or both. June remembers an ex-merchant navy sailor and his stacks of half-knit socks. A neighbour would take the socks, turn the heels and return them to the sailor to complete.
The stitchers June joined at the seniors centre are accomplished in a variety of needle arts, including knitting, crochet, sewing, cross-stitch and quilting. Working at their own pace, helping one another with the tricky bits, they create quilts and coverlets, baby clothes, toys and dolls, all on display for sale.
Production has slowed for the moment, as both groups prepare for the centre’s annual flea market. They look after the crafts section, where wool, fabric, patterns and needles will be on offer. When the flea market is in the rearview for another year, the needle artists will pick up the pace, turning out all things knitted, quilted and sewn.
The knitters meet at the centre on Wednesday mornings and quilters on Friday mornings. Tuesday mornings are open for those interested in learning to knit. If the needle workers at the seniors centre simply produced quilts and baby clothes, that would be sufficient.
Knitted hats, gloves and scarves are donated every winter, but most of the work, all made by hand, is sold, with the proceeds supporting programs for seniors. Perhaps the greatest value and benefit of programs like these, in addition to a sense of purpose and an opportunity to help others, is the connection and camaraderie they provide. When June Binns was welcomed into the community of needle workers, the scales tipped in favour of a new life on the western side of Canada.
June keeps up her membership in the local historical society back in the Laurentians but she hasn’t given that roof another thought.
Organized by senior centre volunteers, the West Vancouver Seniors’ Centre Annual Flea Market returns Sunday, April 23, at the West Vancouver ice arena, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or e-mail her at [email protected].
