Her Family

In 1942, Hermia and Wallace's son, Nick, joined the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and left for training on the prairies. Hermia began to find her art as a means of stress relief and she continued to work on her writing and served as a volunteer in the community.

In January of 1945, Nick returned to Victoria and was stationed at the Pat Bay base on Brentwood Bay, near today's Victoria airport. He was commissioned as a pilot officer and was training on Canso Flying Boats (the USA call them PBY's) and expected to be sent to the Far East. Nick was engaged to be married and all was well with the entire family. However, it was war time, food and gasoline were rationed and everyone was becoming exhausted with the war effort. On February 12th, Nick's plane crashed into Brentwood Bay. Three crew died, Nick included, and five were badly injured.

The 1945 plane crash became a pivotal moment for Hermia and the family, and she would never really recover. In fact, she no longer wanted to live in our Topaz Avenue house and yearned to leave Victoria. Over the next several years, Hermia turned to her art as relief from the tragedy of 1945, while she struggled to be productive and useful. Our family moved to Vancouver in 1946 as my dad took early retirement and we purchased a home on Capitol Hill in Burnaby. 

We also took two trips to the interior of British Columbia where my mother sought relief from hay fever. Numerous sketches were done as we drove: In 1946, through the Fraser Canyon, Hope, Yale, Boston Bar, Lytton, Spences Bridge, Cache Creek, Clinton, 70 Mile, Bridge Lake, 100 Mile, Williams Lake and Quesnel. In 1947, east to Kamloops, Big Bend Highway, Banff, Lake Louise, and the USA - Spokane, Grand Coulee Dam, Bellingham, and Vancouver.

The trips were an excellent tonic for Hermia who thrived on the chances to sketch and meander through the landscape. I also loved our trips for the numerous opportunities for new experiences and my chance to enjoy the fascination for life in the Cariboo.

In the early fall of 1947, I was entering Grade four and my father was finishing renovation of a house beside our home in Burnaby. On the morning of my first day at school, my dad fell out of a tree where he was trimming limbs interfering with power lines. He suffered a major stroke which left him paralyzed and in a coma for 18 months. Contributing factors in his illness may have been his life style, knowing what we now know about PTSD -- the overall stress from the World War, being exposed to huge numbers of casualties --  years of night shifts with the B.C. Electric, his son's death as well as his family responsibilities. All of the above were major issues. Wallace and Hermia never lived together again, but Wallace always attended special family events and Sunday dinners. He often walked rain or shine to my Harris aunts' home.  He lived another 32 years but was severely paralyzed on the right side, his speech was impaired and he had to learn to do everything with his left arm and hand.

My mother found time and money to ensure I received music lessons (violin and viola). We also attended major theatrical events and the early Theatre Under the Stars productions. She continued to sketch and paint prolifically and was an "art activist" with her efforts at an art cooperative in Vancouver. We moved to West Point Grey where Hermia found accommodation in basements or attic suites near my aunts and grandmother. We moved a lot during my Grade 6 through Grade 12 years.

During the 1950's Hermia chaperoned a young singer from the 10th Avenue neighbourhood and some of her art illustrates her impressions of their trip to Southern California and Hollywood. It was at this time that Hermia decided we would move to Portland, Oregon for a year while she completed her research on a historical novel and took a course at the Northwest Broadcasting School. Her art reflected an interest in Biblical Old Testament themes and she joined an evangelical church that was centered in Portland.

Throughout my teenage years and early years at the University of B.C., Hermia continued to paint and this became a major source of income. One needs to remember that during these years, BC and Canada did not have public health care and no one received welfare. Soldiers from WW1 received very poor pensions and they were not expected to have children in my age group.