I was just posting this gallery on a local exploring page and thought I'd repeat them here. Pics are from a few years ago and I hate my shitty color enhancements back then, but I thought the backstory details might be appreciated.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
In Spring of 2011, a resident near my home in Ontario 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 sitting on her porch watching the world go by. Knowing that the woman had been single all her life, and not knowing any family to contact, the jogger was concerned enough to call the police. Amazingly, it took them a full week to go out and check the house. But what they saw through her front window justified gaining immediate entry.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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 canal that joins Lake Erie to Lake Ontario 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 and eventually became one of northern Ontario’s most sought after fishing guides.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
C.L. began teaching at a little turn-of-the-century school called White Elephant. 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 Falls 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.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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. 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.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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 a band called the Robert Woods Singers.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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 theater performance. Each year one student from both schools also receives a bursary to the instrumental music program of the local school board. Any remaining funds are to be used to maintain or replace musical instruments at the two schools.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
In April of 2011, police discovered C.L. inside of her home sitting face-down at the kitchen table. She was 72-years old.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
Her surviving brother was left to deal with her estate. He was indeed able to sell or pass on most of her personal belongings. But 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 Ontario, with an unknown future.
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr
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Ground State Photos, on Flickr