PATRICIA Southwood has always loved flowers.
As a child in Wales, she watched her mom and her aunt arrange flowers for their church. When she was about five years old, her mother asked her how she liked a particular arrangement and she answered, "I don't."
Her mom and aunt then asked if she thought she could do a better job with the flowers.
"I said, 'Yes, I could.' So they let me and then I had a job," recalls Southwood with a laugh. "I was a bit precocious, I think, cheeky anyway."
Cardiff has clay soil, which roses love, she notes, adding, "I have a cousin in Wales who has quite a small garden, But, oh the flowers. They're just beautiful."
Now a longtime North Shore resident, Southwood has been volunteering with her husband at the West Vancouver Seniors Activity Centre for almost seven years. Not surprisingly, her volunteer duties at the centre include arranging the various flowers that decorate the interior. Southwood was born in Cardiff, but at the beginning of the war, her father, who was a weights and measures inspector, said he thought they might get bombed because Cardiff is a very busy port, so they moved.
"I loved Cardiff. Wales is a very beautiful part of the U.K. I call it God's country," says Southwood. At the age of 22, she came to the North Shore to get married. She travelled on the passenger ship Queen Mary at a time when everything, including food and clothes, was still rationed.
"To go onto this ship, which was absolutely beautiful, and see all the food and the ice sculptures etcetera, gosh that was just fabulous."
Southwood recalls how "a very nice American couple," who knew she was going to Canada to get married, was relieved to find out she was 22 because she looked so young they thought she was only 14.
Southwood and her husband had four children. Three of her children live on the North Shore, one has passed away. She also has three grandchildren, and says, "They're absolutely bright and healthy and that's the main thing."
Southwood recalls how her husband lived on a farm in Hungary during the Second World War, and decided to head west to Austria when Russian troops arrived. He got on a train that was supposed to be heading west but soon realized it was being diverted north, so he had to jump off and ended up walking all the way to Austria.
"A dear man he was," says Southwood of her first husband, who has passed away.
His story of walking to Austria is one she uses to illustrate how everyone has an interesting story to tell. It's something she continues to encounter as she volunteers at the seniors centre and takes drawing classes there.
"I talk to everyone that I meet and it's amazing the stories you hear," she says. When Southwood was first introduced to her second husband, she found out he was Welsh too, and she really liked the sound of his name: Kenneth Richard Southwood.
"Little knowing then that one day it would be mine," she recalls with a laugh. Years later, they met again after both their spouses had died, and were a great support to each other. Ken also volunteers at the centre and takes exercise classes there as well.
"He's very good. He's an absolutely splendid man," says Southwood. Reflecting on her family and friends, she adds: "I've been very happy and very lucky."
