 At eighty-five, Wendy Hooke has no intention of spending any of her time in front of a TV screen; there is still too much living to be done. Today she spent the morning reading with elementary children in a literacy program and she will be off to a choir practice in the evening. Friends call her to the phone more than once as we sit in front of the surprising reds of last year's geraniums in the sunroom. In the yard beyond are deep-beds, waiting for their time, and at the door are a few bluebird boxes, cleaned and ready to be returned to their sites.
"It's better than sitting around doing nothing," she said about her active days. She is slowed down a little these days by an annoying "flutter in her ticker" and by the bursitis that makes playing her cello more difficult, but she has no intention of giving up her lifestyle, which has always included lots of time outdoors.
Nature has been one of the ongoing themes of Hooke's life. "I just like to see what's around," she said. She has belonged to a naturalist group since moving to Vernon in 1985 and spent much time learning about plants from self-taught biologist Ernie McNaughton. "One day above Bella Vista we spent one and a half hours going 100 yards! There wasn't a green thing within 60 miles he couldn't put English and Latin names to and tell you all about," she said, pointing to an article in BC Nature that followed his recent death.
She is proud to have been part of the birth of the Allan Brooks Nature Center, where she still volunteers. "It is one of the few places for kids to have a connection with nature," she said, "and it changes every year. I think we'll have our own pond this year." She also maintains a line of bluebird boxes below the Commonage.
Bluebirds nested above the chicken house where Hooke grew up in the Bulkley Valley. Her family had a quarter section in sight of Hudson Bay Mountain in Telkwa, from which her father traveled by train as far as Vanderhoof in one direction and the Queen Charlottes in the other for the Soldier Settlement Board. They had cattle, goats and rabbits, split their own wood and had a trap line. "We were very privileged to have lived in this era," she said. "I can go to Davisons or the museum and tell you what all the machines are." She remembers fondly riding horses to school and going out on the range with a halter and a little grain to catch them to ride.
Always up for an adventure, Hooke joined the navy during the war. "It was a wonderful time. I went to places I would otherwise never have gone to. People who were maimed or never came back were the price we paid for that - there were so many widows," she said. "I remember the unbelievable crowds at the victory parade on VJ Day in London. It rained when we got to Buckingham Palace."
Back home she attended UBC for two years before marrying Englishman John Hooke and moving to his ranch in Clinton. He had been a major in the army and knew many languages, but in Canada they chose to live in a log house by a creek with no electricity, where there was always fencing and ditching to do. "I could easily go back to that," said Hooke fondly, "You're your own person. Many times we went on a five or six day ride in which we never even saw a fence."
After their four boys grew up they continued to go on guided trail rides in new parts of the province. John loved to fish at Stewart Lake. They also traveled further afield. Turkey was a favourite. There they traveled by bus with tents and cooked their own meals. "We met the people. Shoeshine was big there. Canada made them think of Canada Dry. We enjoyed the Kurds. We went to Gallipoli and saw the huge allied cemetery and the trenches and memorials. I'd like to go back."
Hooke also has fond memories of Russia, where they took a tour entitled "Waterways of the Czar" in 1997, after "the colour and the music were coming back" to that country." There are many more places she is curious about, but she intends to satisfy her wanderlust by visiting friends across Canada over the next few years when other commitments permit.
May 07-Lynn Dewing |
