Yesterday, June 18, Jean Hubbard’s family and friends gathered in West Vancouver to celebrate her life and to welcome her into her 91st year.
One week earlier, on June 12, far away across the ocean, another woman celebrated her 90 years. She too was surrounded by family and friends, gathered from far and wide to wish her well.
These were the official, public birthday celebrations of Jean Hubbard and Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen’s actual birthday is April 21, and
Jean’s is May 10, one born in London, England, and the other in Canora, Sask., both in 1926.
“The Queen and I grew up together,” says Jean. “The little princesses were the thing among us girls, growing up. Of course, Elizabeth was my favourite as she was my age and I could relate.”
The connection with royalty continued, as Jean describes in this excerpt from her memoir, D.J.B. and Me:
“When the King and Queen came to Canada in 1939, we went to Brandon on a school trip to greet them at the train station.
“My father, D.J. Brims, was one of two RCMP honour guards assigned to the train’s observation platform where the King and Queen would stand.
“The Queen stopped to speak to my dad and then we could see her laugh. She turned to the King and said something, and he laughed as they mounted the train steps.
“Next morning we asked dad what the Queen had said to him. He replied that the Queen had noticed his Scottish accent (no doubt a little heavier than usual) and asked where he was from. When he replied, ‘Your own backdoor, Your Majesty – Broughty Ferry, Scotland,’ she had turned to the King and repeated what dad had said, and they both laughed. Dad said that he wasn’t ever going to wash the hand that the Queen had shaken. We almost believed him.”
Jean’s elder sisters, Mary and Gladys, were nurses and Jean was working for the Hudson’s Bay Company when the Second World War broke out. Gladys joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and in 1944, her little sister enlisted in the CWAC too.
Jean’s first day in the Canadian Army was May 10, 1944, her 18th birthday. Elizabeth Windsor joined the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service of the British Army in February 1945.
Excited to be a soldier, Jean remembers, she was also apprehensive about what might lay ahead. In fact, the army led Jean into a new life.
On the train to Kitchener for basic training, a coach full of soldiers lay between the CWAC recruits and the dining car. A soldier brought out a harmonica, another a guitar, a newly fledged CWAC produced an accordion. During the ensuing merriment over the three-day journey, Private Brims met Private Tom Hubbard, who was en route to Camp Borden for tank training.
Jean and Tom reunited in 1946 and moved to Vancouver. Tom lived at Fort Camp, UBC, while he studied forestry and Jean was downtown at the YWCA, working in the office at Birks. Married in 1947, they set up house at the old Hotel Vancouver, converted into a hostel for service personnel.
The family lived in Chilliwack and Nelson until 1969 when they settled permanently in West Vancouver where, sadly, Tom died the following year. Jean began working for the government, where she met John Cooper who became her life companion until he too passed away, in 2005.
Making memories of the love and laughter, tears and loss we experience is a lifelong process. For those who live each day as though it is a gift, like Jean Brims Hubbard, and, we imagine, Queen Elizabeth II, the rewards that memory brings are great.
Queen Elizabeth’s story, and that of her family, past and present, is well documented. Jean has recorded her own story as a legacy for her family. The self-published history, written when Jean was 84, follows from the life story her father D.J. Brims wrote, at her request, before she married. “This family story has been a labour of love and an adventure in living my life over as I retraced my steps. It is the greatest gift I can give my family.”
Laura Anderson works with and for seniors on the North Shore. 778-279-2275 [email protected]
