In Spring of 2011, a resident of Wainfleet began to notice something was "off" along her morning jogging route. Each day she passed the home of her spirited senior citizen neighbour, and always found the woman outside tending to flowers or simply sitting on her porch watching the world go by. When you have one of those “same-time-same-place” scenarios, with a daily wave or greeting thrown in for good measure, it is easy to notice when something is amiss. Knowing that the woman had been single all her life, and not knowing any family to contact, the jogger’s concern deepened enough to alert authorities. Police arrived at the home after almost a week of missed morning greetings and saw enough through her front window to justify gaining entry.
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There's nothing sensitive in the way of personal possessions at the location to worry about, and I do feel that identifying her is part of importance of memory. But I do hate to think it might be easy for family to accidentally find this thread via a casual web search and be upset. Let me instead introduce her by name using her obituary link, found here: http://yourlifemom...ary.asp?oid=485118)
C.L. was born in 1939 into a hard-working Ontario farm family. During WWII, her father operated one of the lift bridges over the Welland Canal and then went on to manage Long Point Provincial Park, overseeing the maintenance and rental of the 50 cottage units originally there. Very early on, Both C.L. and one of her two brothers got into education. It was a time when teachers were so in demand that the career started right out of high school. Her brother, for instance, had a single class of 52 students, grades 1 through 8 together, when he was only 18-years old. He married his high-school sweetheart in 1963 at Morgan’s Point and eventually became one of northern Ontario’s most sought after fishing guides.
C.L. began teaching at White Elephant School in Wainfleet. This began a long and fruitful career where she would become one of the most respected and celebrated music and art teachers in the Niagara region. Her students fondly remember that she always started each class with her famous pitch pipe. Several of them were even inspired to go on to future careers as music educators.
Perhaps the most tragic event of her career took place during her years of teaching at Winger School. She had become friends with one of her former high school teachers, Rosselyn E. As it turned out, Ross was also good friends with the parents of Ann, a 9-year old girl in C.L.’s class. When Ross went off on maternity leave, she would often visit C.L. after school and drive young Ann home to Wainfleet. On one terrible and fateful day, the car veered across the highway for some unknown reason and struck a tree. The only survivor of the crash was Ross’ baby, who had just celebrated his 1st birthday only days before.
C.L. went on to absolutely dedicate herself, unmarried and with no children of her own, to teaching and to music. She retired in 1993 to a simple life of needlecraft, correspondence with friends, and was remembered for almost twenty more years as a dedicated community volunteer, devout church-goer and front woman for the Robert Woods Singers.
Even in her death, her legacy lives on at the last two school where she taught: C.L. contributed money throughout her career into endowment funds. Through her bequest, the earnings on the funds annually will continue to provide every student at both schools the opportunity to experience a live music or theatre performance. Each year one student from both schools also receives a bursary to the instrumental music program of the District School Board of Niagara. Any remaining funds are to be used to maintain or replace musical instruments at the two schools.
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On Tuesday, April 5th, 2011, C.L. was discovered inside of her home sitting face-down at the kitchen table. She was 72-years old.
Her surviving brother was left to deal with her estate. He was indeed able to sell or pass on most of her personal belongings.
Elderly and in poor health, her brother has still been unable to deal with her home. It sits abandoned and decaying on a little-travelled rural side-road in Wainfleet, with an unknown future.
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