Wednesday, July 27, 2022
My Big Sister Judy
Judith Agnes Hisey was born December 16, 1946, me, David Arnot Samuel Hisey, I was born March 05, 1949. Judy was my big sister, older by just over 2 years. We were the baby boomer generation, repopulating the world following the devastation of WWII. We were the hippy generation, the Elvis generation, and other musical genres; as we retire and die off, we are a part of the reason for recent worker shortages. Lots of things as a generation, we were responsible for.
We were both born on a farm just north of Creemore Ontario on the 5th concession of Nottawasaga Township. The concession and the side road which connected us to our one room schoolhouse were never plowed in the winter, when Judy and I were born.
Russell Meek, the youngest son of our only neighbours, was in grade 7 when Judy began grade one. Russell had always skied across the fields to get to school, so he trained Judy to climb on the back of his skis and for 2 years, they went to school that way in the winter months. For other trips we had Charlie, our old horse for the cutter or a team for the sleigh. That was how Mom and Dad brought both Judy and I home from Creemore Hospital after we were born.
Our roads were built up and made winter accessible the year I began school, so Judy and I walked together the 1 ½ miles (2.5kms) to and from school each day, rain, shine or snowstorm.
As soon as Judy could speak, her dream was to be a nurse. She won more than one public speaking contest with her speech “Florence Nightingale - The Lady with the Lamp” . In her early years Florence Nightingale was Judy’s model – she was going to be a nurse just like Ms. Nightingale – and that is what she did.
We moved from the farm in Creemore to a small home at Wasaga Beach, Christmas 1958. By this time there were five of us. Elizabeth was born February 1953 while we wintered at Grandma and Grandpa Hisey’s so Dad and Uncle Don Adamson (Mom’s youngest brother) could work in the bush Dad had purchased at New Lowell, Ontario, cutting power poles to sell to the utility industry. They plowed the 4th concession of Nottawasaga township, where Grandma and Grandpa lived, so we stayed there more than one winter in a small apartment.
Grace was born April 03, 1956, and Lois came along October 06, 1957, so by Christmas 1958, it was a tight fit for all of us in that small cottage with one tiny bathroom which was one of Grandma and Grandpa Adamson’s rental units at Wasaga Beach.
Judy wanted to earn her keep, so it was not long before she acquired a paper route, delivering the Toronto Telegram along highway 92, east of the bridge. I, David, soon followed suit and before long Judy and I had a total of 5 paper routes delivering both Toronto Telegram and Toronto Star papers, the younger ones helped in the summers as Judy, and I took other jobs. When our family gave up the last of those paper routes, drivers in cars were hired to replace us.
Catherine (Cathy) came along in 1960 and now there were 6 of us kids. Cathy, not expected to live due to being born without a centre partition in her heart, became Mom’s sole mission in life - to save her. Having lost a son due to miscarriage much earlier, Mom was not about to let another child die. Cathy lived in the Sick Children’s Hospital in Toronto while doctors experimented on her, and Mom lived with her sister Dorothy and family nearby. Mom won, Cathy lived, and has had a very positive recent follow-up exam to close out experimental work done back in the 1960’s.
Judy became the homemaker and me her helper. Looking back, it wasn’t exactly fair to the younger ones, but Judy was 13 and I was 11 when that portion of our lives began, so we did what we needed to and could do. I took over the paper routes and Judy took over the housework. Grandma Adamson living next door looked after the little ones while we were at school. Judy cooked our meals and I helped wherever she wanted me. Dad worked in the Collingwood shipyards as an electrician.
Despite all this Judy, made honour role, and earned her Athletic letter before any of the boys in her class at Elmvale District High School. She completed grade 13 and then went directly into nursing school in Orillia, Ontario.
By taking the 4-year Technical route through Collingwood District Collegiate, at this time I had caught up to my big sister and was working as an apprentice electrician. The year was 1966, I was working construction in Midland Ontario and Judy was taking her nurses training at Orillia hospital a few miles further away from home. Their dormitory was the house next door. Friday evenings, I drove to Orillia to pick Judy up after her work/training session ended. Sunday evenings, we made the return trip.
Nurses wore uniforms then, and trainees wore very distinctive ones. Judy’s uniform was a starched white cap and blue dress type gown, with a very white frock – she resembled the lady on the Old Dutch Cleanser cans, only very cute. I would wait for her to change and then Judy and on occasion, another young nursing student would join us for the ride home in my 1965 Chevrolet convertible. Judy was achieving her dream of becoming a nurse – becoming her own version of Florence Nightingale.
Life went on, Judy got married began raising her family, and continued nursing. Somewhere, along the road early on she became upset with certain things she saw happening in hospitals. Judy, like some other nursing friends, wanted to be in a position where she could make decisions to correct wrongs.
Judy stayed in Ontario, Rosemary and I moved our family to Fort McMurray, Alberta in 1977. Judy stayed near where we had been born and she had grown up. Except for a few years when she, Doug, and family, lived in the Minden, Ontario region where she also nursed in a small local hospital, she never lived too far from Collingwood, Ontario. As adults, we did lose the closeness we once had, now I have lost the opportunity to renew that; death has finalities for those left in this world. I have these memories to console me.
Judy began to work in senior care, taking care of the people she had grown up with, fulfilling her dream to have influence in other’s lives, just as Florence Nightingale before her had done in the Crimean War. Judy made a difference in people’s lives, she is greatly missed!
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