On Sunday night as the fog horns boom softly in Burrard Inlet, Oprah Winfrey is on television talking about what she knows for sure.
She speaks about women with children to feed, bills to pay and dreams deferred. We know the stories of their challenges and the courage it takes to overcome them, but we will rarely know their names.
One such woman is named Valerie McPolin. She lives in the house she came to in 1958, a bride of 22 with a new baby, and where, after 13 years of marriage, she was left to raise her four daughters on her own. Valerie and her elder sister Gwyneth grew up at 2177 Bellevue Ave. in West Vancouver. The house was purchased by her parents, Cliff and Daisy Jones in 1940 with a loan of $1,000 from Aunt Rose, one of Daisy’s seven sisters.
Valerie and her friends from that block – Pam and Jocelyn Searle, Pat and Diane Longmuir, Sandra McGillvray – would gather at “the Rock” at the foot of 22nd Street to swim. The Rock is still in its place. Look for it when the tide is out.
In 1957, when Valerie married Harry McPolin, their new home was purchased with a down payment of $1,000, a loan from Valerie’s parents. It took 10 years to pay down the $14,000 mortgage.
So, the straits in which Valerie and her four daughters found themselves that day in 1971 were not dire. There was a roof over their heads. Daisy and the aunties rallied round.
“All those aunties took the place of the grandparents we never knew. My youngest daughter was in Grade 1, so I could go back to teaching. Daisy played bridge with her friends in the afternoons, while keeping an eye on the girls.”
Family, faith and Valerie’s innate energy and resilience helped her and the family re-establish their lives. “It was a shock. I thought I had married a good man and we would be together forever. When I look back, I see there would not have been a good future for us, so I have no regrets. But it was a shock when it happened.”
Time passed, life went on. Valerie and the girls continued to attend St. Stephen’s church, which she had joined in 1940 along with her parents and sister. Faith and music are always close to Valerie’s heart. She sang in the church’s junior choir and conducted the choir from 1961 to 1986. Today, with the girls grown and making their own lives with children and grandchildren, Valerie teaches piano at home.
During the past 60 years, that home has evolved into a local historian’s treasure trove. The basement holds boxes of Daisy’s belongings. Upstairs, each piece of furniture, each painting, photograph, and every one of the myriad ornaments, has a story. Here is a painting from Wales, Valerie’s father’s birthplace and another from Yorkshire, where Daisy was born. There is an early photograph of the Lions and over there a china sailor boy, whose cap reads HMS Queen Mary, a memento of the family’s voyage back to the old country in 1936. One cherished photograph is of Daisy and her seven sisters on the original wooden bridge across the Capilano River at Keith Road, taken in 1913.
Valerie’s home has its own story. The living area was expanded to accommodate the growing family and a bedroom was added for each daughter as she arrived. During one renovation, a sheaf of newspapers, used as insulation in those days, was discovered with a publication date of February 1935. “I was born in April 1935,” says Valerie, “so the house and I are the same age.”
Valerie is blessed with an excellent memory and the ability to tell stories. A bonus: her recollections of life in West Vancouver are matched with stories told by her mother Daisy who was born in 1899 and lived until the age of 101, a span of three centuries.
A longtime member of West Vancouver Historical Society, Valerie has agreed to share these stories with the society’s oral history project, which collects and preserves the stories and memories of the people who created the community. Energy, resilience and optimism defined them too, as they built homes and businesses, and raised families while living through the Great Depression and the Second World War.
Look for Valerie at Ambleside Beach in the summer. She’s there every day, frequently with her friend Melinda Slater. “Valerie loves to talk me into going to the beach for a swim: ‘You’ll be glad you did,’” her friend explains. “That’s Valerie, always positive. She will never allow the negative to bring her down.” Maybe it’s something in the water.
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. Contact her at 778-279-2275 or email her at [email protected].
