DORIS MCCOOEYE
Doris McCooeye was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1924. At
an early age her parents moved to South River, Ontario. While
in bed with her father when one year old, lightening struck
and killed her father instantly. "God had his hand on my
life. How else do you explain my father being electrocuted
in the bed beside me?"
Doris grew up in South River and attended public and high
school there along with half brothers and sisters.
The Dionne Quintuplets were born 39 miles north of South
River. Doris says, "I saw them twice. Once at their house.
It was just like a compound with an electric fence and guards
all around it. The 'poor' little kids were on display certain
hours every day. Just like freaks in a zoo. They had no
privacy at all. There were already seven children in the family
when they were born. The government built this huge house for
them. Dr. Allan Dafoe delivered the babies at horne in
Collander with the help of a mid-wife. They were the first five
babies born at one time - quintuplets - to survive. It made
Dr. Dafoe and Collander famous. They were beautiful little
girls. Very small at birth and it was a miracle they lived.
They were born in this small farmhouse with no electricity or
running water. At the time, it was felt the reason they did
survive was because they weren't handled as much as they would
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have been in a hospital. They bathed them in Ol~( wrapped them
up and fed them with an eye dropper. Whether they would have
survived in a hospital, I don't know. Who knows?
It certainly made a tourist attraction in Collander.
Businesses used to gather stones from the lane way and farm and
sell them to the visiting tourists as fertility stones!
The other time I saw the Quints was when they were passing
through our town on the train. They were going to be on display
at the Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. All the school
children were let off school to go watch these five little girls
stand and wave from the train.
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They weren't a happy family because of all the publicity.
The government took over the raising of them which gave them
little real family life because they did not see their parents

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much. When they became old enough to make their own decisions,
they went different ways. They resented their parents. A
couple of them went into a convent and one died there of an
epileptic seisure. Another died of a stroke quite young. All
four had sad and broken marriages. One is a nurse in Montreal.
For years they didn't even visit home because of all the
resentment that had built up. None of them had multiple births
that I ever heard although three of them do have children."
Doris went to school in a one-room school up to Grade 5.
Having all eight grades was fun and a challenge because "you
could finish your own work in Grade 1 and listen to Grade 2.
For me it was a good thing but not for some. You were always
striving to get ahead of the next grade. We had to walk two
miles to school. We would have our lunch in an empty jam or
shortening pail and by the time we got to school our lunch was
frozen - so were we! We'd put our lunch pail under the wood
stove to thaw out by lunch time. It was a stove called a
Quebec heater and we'd crowd around it to get warmed up."
Maple syrup was a treat while growing up. "Quebec and
Ontario are famous for their maple syrup. We still have a
couple of gallons sent to us here every year. No syrup can
compare to maple syrup.
"We had a sugar bush. Two or three sugar bush farmers
would band together and have big vats in the bushy. They'd
have a shed built over the vats so the snow couldn't fall in.
They would put the maple sap in these vats, or boilers, and boil
it until it became syrup. It would take 40 gallons of sap to
make one gallon of syrup.
"To get the sap from the trees, they would put spigots in
the side of the tree in early spring~ cold nights and warm days

while the snow is still on the ground a bit is maple time.
They have sugaring -off parties. School kids go in bus loads
to see maple syrup being made. They go in school buses to the
maple bush like they go to the 'Ksan here. When the boiling
sap reaches a certain stage, you can pour it on the clean snow
and it forms into toffee.
~ I suppose you can drink the sap but who would want to when
you can have the maple syrup later. Making maple syrup is big

DORIS McCooeye

3

business in the East. It's also a tourist attraction and some
sugar camps still have horse drawn sleighs and big

barrels

and vats just for tourists. I think electricity is a big help,
but horses and outside sugar camps draw tourists. Maple sugar
is sold like fudge in the stores as weU as maple butter.
Maple syrup is about $40.00 a gallon right now. Of course,
a little goes a long way because it's so rich.
"We have tried to transplant sugar maples in our yard here
in Hazel~n, but they don't thrive. My one little tree has
a few leaves. Maybe it isn't cold enough - but I'll try again.
When we were moving out here, I brought a maple. Each day I'd
water and baby it, but it died. I do have one crimson maple
doing quite well here, but it isn't a sugar maple.
For years Doris and her family lived in Ottawa.
"Ottawa is a government city - 80 percent of the population
work in government offices. It's also a city of parks. The
Rideau Canal runs through the heart of the city. It has parks
all along it. In winter it's turned in~a skating rink where
thousands skate at a time.
~Because there are so many government workers, pay days ar~
staggered in Ottawa. Three days every two weeks the different
departments are paid. The banks couldn't handle it if they all
got paid on one day. I worked in one branch of the Department of
Manpow~r and Immigration. It had eleven floors and 1,500 people
so you can imagine how difficult it would be for one bank to
handle even that many people in a day.
~ The Parliament Buildings and the Peace )rower are big
tourist attractions, of course. There's the Centre Block where
the Prime Ministers office is. There's East and West Blocks.
I think it's just that - East houses members from the East and
West from the West.
"The Prime Minister doesn't live there, of course. He
lives at Rideau Hall, 24 Sussex Drive. It's along Sussex Street
from Rideau and Wellington, where the Parliament buildings are .
It's a beautiful drive. Government House, the home of the
Governor General is on Sussex Drive just beyond Rideau Hall.
It's a permanent home for the Govenor General as is Rideau
Hall for the Prime Minister.

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"I met Mr. Trudeau once at a Professional and Business
Women's Luncheon. We, as a group, presented a brief to him
asking for concessions for working mothers and wives. He was
very charming. You can see why he's considered charismatic.
He's quite small, though, much to my surprise. His wife is
beautiful.
~The Parliamentary Library is something to see. It has a
golden ceiling. The library was not destroyed in the fire that
damaged the other parliament building. The ceiling was
saved along with some books. There are solid walls of books .millions, I suppose. Records and books are kept there and at
the Archives.
"We lived in Ottawa for 20 years. The Parliament buildings,
Peace Tower, Library and Archives are all there, but we
didn't even bother going to see them except maybe every 20 years.
As soon as we knew we were moving, I frantically visited all
these things. We take too many things for granted. We have
the 'Ksan dancers here and local people take them for granted.
When they go on tour back East, everyone goes to see them .
. ~ Everyday during the summer months they have the changing
of the guard ceremony. These guards are the Governor General's
Footguards. They imitate the changing of the guard ceremony
that takes place at Buckingham Palace in England. It's a
colourful ceremony. They have bright red jackets, black
trousers and these huge fur "busbies" on. Busbies are fur hats
about a foot tall and one wonders how they can see out of them
because they seem to cover their eyes. They must be sweltering
in that summer heat. They aren't allowed to smile. Kids and
young girls try their best to make them talk or smile. It's
something to see and there are tourists four deep watching every
morning .
. Ottawa is the place to see Royalty. Doris recalls, "I
saw the Queen three times. She's petite. Prince Phillip is a
handsome fellow and tanned like a Greek God. You'd have to
see him to believe it. I also saw Princess Margaret and the
Queen Mother Elizabeth and King George the VI, Queen Elizabeth's
parents. Eric was a cadet in the Princess Louise Dragon Guards.
1

I

Princess Louise was King George's sister. She came to Canada

DORIS McCOOEYE

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to present the colours to the Dragon Guards. All the cadets
were invited to Government House to a garden party. There was
a march past and it was very exciting. Of course, Eric took
as many of his family as wanted to go.
It was quite an experience. She was a gracious lady about
70 years old and shook hands with us all. At a garden party at
Government House we saw Mr. Diefenbacher and Mr. Pe~rSG1' Every
government was represented and came in ~ative dress. There
were Japanese, Chinese, East Indian, African, etc. Mr. Vanier
was Governor General at the time. It was a colourful, perfect
day - beautiful gardens. I guess I'm really a Royalist at
heart and enjoy all the pomp and ceremony.
I also saw Queen Juliana of the Netherlands. When the
second world war was on and Holland was being bombed and
occupied by the Germans, Queen Juliana came to Canada with her
children. She was pregnant while here and Princess Beatrix was
born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. In return for Canada keeping
the Queen in safety for all those months, she presented millions
of tulip bulbs to the people of Canada. Every year she sends
more to replenish the ones we have. There are millions of tulips
everywhere - along the parkways and canals. Each May they hold
a tulip festival. This is a week long festival with parades,
ceremonies and bands and everyone grows tulips to compete for
prizes. They choose a "Miss Tulip Festival" and she reigns for
a week. Everyone who can drives along the Driveway, Parkway
and Sussex Drive to take in the sight of millions of brilliant
Dutch tulips at their best.
"The Ottawa Parliament Buildin~s are not lit up like the
victoria ones. You can go on tours to see them. During Expo
1967, officials from other countries were greeted with great
pomp and ceremony, then flown to Montreal to visit Expo. I
went to see Heli Selasee from Ethiopia. He was a colourful
personality. You couldn't see him or any other high official
because of security. They usually rode from Government House
to the Parliament buildings along the Parkway and Sussex Drive.
The Governor General rides along here, too, to open Parliament

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each session. It's a great place to see the different
personalities as they pass along. I enjoy pomp and ceremony
as I said, and always get a lump in my throat when I see
Royalty and know I have all this tradition behind me.
\1

I've never seen the opening of parliament but have toyed

with the idea of asking Mrs. Campagnolo to let me visit for an
hour or so.
~An English double decker bus adds to the tourist attraction.
It takes tours around the city - like in Victoria. I mentioned
the Rideau Canal goes right through Ottawa. A centennial
project was the Rideau Canal rink. They have change houses all
along the canal. There's one place on the Chaudiere Bridge over
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the Reltsua River where you can stand with one foot in Ontario
and one in Quebec. Hall is on one side and Ottawa on the other.
Anyway, the Canal has lights all along it. There are as many
spectators as there are skaters. As many as 1,000 skaters in
a day go to the Canal to skate. It's free skating for everyone.
Kathy and Randy have skated here but I never did.
"Eric came out here in 1969. He felt this was where the
Lord wanted him to be in helping the church. I didn't like the
idea too well, but he said, 'It would be a lot worse if I was
called to Africa!'. So he came out here. I came for a visit
and it rained every day for the three weeks I was here. I was
not impressed. Alex came out for a visit. Then lerr9came.
Then Randy. They loved it so here we are! I love it now, too.
~We came out in August 1973. It took us nine days by car.
It took three days for us to get out of Ontario. Ontario is a
huge province. You don't realize how big it is until you've
travelled across it by car. You've n0 idea how big Canada is
until you travel it by car.
Doris and Alex live in Two-Mile. They have six children:
Gail and Faye live in Ottawa, Eric in Two Mile, Terry in Telkwa,
Kathy in Victoria and Randy in Denman Island. They also have
WQS

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11 grandchildren. Both are involved in volunteer work. Alex~on
K

the
TV association at one time and~still with the Lion's Club.
Doris with community Resource Board, Northwest Community College
Advisory Board, Upper Skeena Mental Health Association, Two
Mile Advisory Committee, Two Mile Community Association, o~er the
years and still with Hazelton Home Support Services and Hospital
Auxililary.