Tim and Lorraine Riorden
This charming couple lives comfortably in a home Tim built for them. It is well situated, on the brow of a hill providing a panoramic view of the farmland below. The entrance deck harbours assorted items that welcome a visitor, a bench built by Tim announcing in Gaelic that ‘one has come home,’ a wooden rocking chair, a willow chair, lanterns and a multitude of flower containers. Inside, the shelves boast Tim’s carving skills. Many shore birds, geese, ducks, and smaller varieties of local birds, along with the time-honored antiques, add a cozy ambience to the home. Tea and tasty almond bars appeared and were quickly enjoyed followed by the handwritten recipe that was much appreciated.
Lorraine begins her story. “My paternal Grandfather, Colin Charles Philips, occasionally lived with us after Grandmother Ida Maud died. They had lived nearby. Like his father before him, Colin had worked for the Power Department at INCO as a dam regulator. Later, my father managed the 14 dams on four lakes that fed into the Spanish River. We lived next door to our maternal grandparents, Ferdinand Peter and Gertrude (Woodworth) Legace and only two houses from our maternal great-grandparents, Harry and Madeline Woodworth. Harry, born in England, had been a ‘factor’ or manager for the Hudson’s Bay Post in the early 1900s.”
Lorraine was born on March 8, 1952, to Bert Carl and Thelma (Legace) Phillips at the old Sudbury General Hospital. She was the first maternal grandchild. “There were 11 years between me and my youngest sibling, but we were all close in age to each other. Early memories include waking up to dad lighting the wood stove. Aladdin coal oil lamps were lit evenings. I enjoyed swimming, picking blueberries and fishing with dad and my brothers. Sometimes I would join dad on the boat, checking the status of a dam and he would do minor repairs. Reading was always my most favourite pastime and occasionally I would even use a flashlight to read under the covers.”
“Many aunts, uncles and cousins lived nearby, giving us a powerful sense of ‘belonging’ in our community. Grandma Phillips baked on Wednesdays and Grandma Legace usually had soup on her wood stove. Aunt Lottie let us pick flowers from her garden and Aunt Kate made the best pies. Birthdays and major events were always made special by our parents. There was no hydro so Hockey Night in Canada was ‘generator’ driven. At Christmas, dad would harness his huskies to the big sled, head into the bush and pick a huge tree whose branches hung over the back and sides of the big sled. The festive get-together for the big family would include mother’s fruit cakes baked much earlier in the wood stove.”
“I was shy, but I loved going to SS No. 1 Margaret in Biscotasing. I enjoyed English and history and reading was fun. My Grade 1 teacher, Rose Blakie, later married Uncle Gerald Legace and became my aunt. My Grade 6 teacher Esther Calford was one of two teachers who inspired the joy of reading in me and motivated me to continue my education. Mrs. Calford also helped me get my first summer job and she stayed in touch with our family, even after moving to Manitoba.”
“When I turned 12, we moved to Sudbury so no one had to board. We rented at first, and dad would join us on the weekends. When we sold our big home in Biscotasing, we bought a house in Minnow Lake and built a camp on Biscotasi Lake,” Lorraine continues. “I was nervous starting Grade 8 at Adamsdale Public School. It was so big and I was coming from a one-room school. I wasn’t sure if I was at the same level as the other students. At the end of Grade 8 I must have had the right tools for learning because I was awarded with ‘Most Outstanding Girl Student,’ a real confidence booster.”
In 1965, Lorraine started at Nickel District Collegiate and Vocational Institute. She enjoyed French language studies, English, history and creative writing. In June of 1970, after finishing Grade 12, she visited the family summer camp and met the new game warden who had been sent from the Chapleau office a month earlier. “Apparently, Tim had also spotted me and asked for an introduction. It was definitely ‘attraction at first sight’ for both of us. We made a date to go swimming the next day and enjoyed our short two weeks together before I had to leave for Akudlik.”
Lorraine had been hired as a summer Recreation Director in Akudlik, situated between Churchill and Fort Churchill in Manitoba. Miss Calford had recommended her, but Miss Calford had died before Lorraine arrived. “It was also hard to leave Tim and our strong family presence to go so far away, but I really enjoyed the experience. Living alone in a house with only tundra visible for miles seemed like being thrown into the deep end of a pool.” Nevertheless, the people, the rugged beauty, the polar bears right on the streets, beluga whales and northern lights were fascinating to this 18-year-old. “The community was very kind to me, a novice worker, and I left with a deep respect for the Inuit people and their way of life.”
Tim and Lorraine stayed in touch with letters and phone calls until Lorraine returned for Grade 13. “I met Tim’s parents on Boxing Day 1970, in their Belleville home. I felt an immediate bond with Margaret, Tim’s mum.” The following summer, Lorraine returned to Akudlik as recreational director. “It was another enjoyable experience, but I missed Tim a lot. In the fall of 1971, I attended the School of Social Work at Laurentian University but Tim and I wanted to be together and we happily married on December 11, 1971, at the Holy Redeemer Church, our family church, in Minnow Lake.” The priest surprised Lorraine mid-ceremony by asking “if she was a good cook because Tim needed more meat on his bones.” Tim’s family came from Belleville and stayed at the local Holiday Inn, the reception site for 100 guests.
Tim shares his story. “I was born to Derek and Margaret Audrey (Jackson) Riordan in Margate, Kent, England on May 8, 1948. I had an older sister Susanne and would get three more sisters in Canada, Penny, Molly and Sarah. My father had been born in Egypt where my paternal grandfather Edward Riorden had been stationed. Edward Jackson, his maternal grandfather, was a forest keeper in the Royal Epping Forest, where Edward’s house still sits today. I never met my grandfathers but met both my widowed grandmothers when they came to Canada.”
“Jobs in England were scarce or held by women after the war. Dad was in the British Infantry and had been a prisoner of war for 18 months.” For better job opportunities, the family decided to cross the ocean on the Aquitania, on May 8, 1949, Tim’s first birthday. They picked ‘Belleville’ off a map. “Dad was hired as a photographer in Belleville but wound-up authoring reports at the ‘Bug House’ an entomology research center for the Federal Department of Agriculture.”
Early memories include living with the Burroughs, friends they met and stayed with initially when Tim was three. “We later moved three blocks away but would visit them regularly. I was not aware then that Mrs. Burroughs was the sister of author Stephen Leacock,” Tim continues. “I used to go fly-fishing for speckled trout in the streams with dad and we built a sailboat together. I also had lots of fun with other kids, building forts and damming streams in the marsh behind the house, staying out until the streetlights lit up. It was a wonderful place to grow up.”
“Dad, a quiet man, had been raised by his mother and her sisters after his parents split. He had the chance to meet author Farley Mowat at Hasty P’s, the ‘Hastings and Prince Edward County Regiment’ where they were both members and Farley was the Intelligence Officer. Farley would come and write on the board in Tim’s Grade 2 class. We called him ‘Mowat the Poet’.” Farley later authored a book about his own role in the Hasty P’s and called it “The Regiment.” When the ‘Bug House’ closed, most of the scientists moved to British Columbia. Dad stayed for a while, but in 1972 he moved the family, except Lorraine and me, to Summerland in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. Unfortunately, Dad died four years later and mother was widowed at 50. We used to visit our western family and they still visit us. Mother remained active, helped raise a grandchild and volunteered at nursing homes.” Lorraine shares, “Margaret was a warm loving person and we got along very well.”
“After high school, I had no job preferences. One day, Dad took me to the Lands and Forest College where I wrote and passed the entrance exam. I became motivated in this field but decided to attend the Ontario Forest Technical School (OFTS) in Dorset. After a year I got a job in Chapleau. I went back to school for a month to become a scaler so I could measure the timber, since we got paid for the volume of lumber. Soon after, I was given the opportunity to become a Conservation Officer in Sultan. It was a promotion for me. Nevertheless, you worked alone and our radios had only a four-or five-mile range, but I liked it.”
Tim and Lorraine were married when they moved to Sultan, Ontario, where Tim was the Conservation Officer for the winter. “We rented for two years and then bought a small frame house. Lorraine continues, “Rachel Dyan was our first born at the Sudbury General Hospital. Each May to October, we would move to Biscotasing where Tim worked in the warm season, moving live catch walleye from Lake Biscotasi to other lakes. Tim now preferred fisheries work to the enforcement work.
Lorraine’s dad and Tim built a camp for the young family. Rachel accompanied her parents at the new build in her carrycot and had learned to sleep through anything. Jennifer Rae arrived three years later and both girls loved their extended family, anticipating lots of hugs and treats. “In 1977, we moved from Sultan to Chapleau and Rachel started Kindergarten there. We kept our summer home and rented out the Sultan home, later selling it. We bought a home in the Chapleau area which included many MNR people and friends for the girls. Third daughter, Sarah Katherine arrived on New Year’s Eve 1979 at the Chapleau General Hospital.”
In May of 1981, Tim got work at the MacDiarmid MNR base in Beardmore, in the Nipigon area. For seven years Tim worked on a boat, assessing the size of fish populations on commercially fished Lake Nipissing, He also did enforcement but wanted to leave that branch of the MNR and work only in ‘Fisheries and Research.’ The couple bought a house and added two bedrooms. Lorraine took government courses and found part-time work as both a librarian and a home-support worker. “We still visited our parents at Lake Biscotasi where I taught my daughters to swim as my mother had taught us earlier.”
“In 1984, I was visiting my parents in Sudbury when brother Brian working for FedNor, was going to visit Manitoulin. Rachel and I accompanied him on the two-day trip. We would also visit our brother Darren in Providence Bay. I had an immediate affection for the Island. The people were friendly and the Island was so beautiful. I felt a spiritual connection and later shared with Tim that I had ‘found the place where I wanted us to live for the rest of our lives.’”
“In early 1988, Tim got a position at the fisheries research station in South Baymouth starting in May that year. We sold our home in Beardmore and in July moved into an MNR rental home in South Baymouth. In November, our Haweater son Derek Christopher Colin was born at the Mindemoya Hospital. In May 1989 we bought the Bryant farmhouse and 100 acres of land on Hwy 6. We believed this to be our forever home. We raised pheasants, chickens and turkeys. ”
Four years later, Queen’s Park decided to close the research station and relocate the work to Owen Sound by September of 1993. “This was devastating news on many fronts. Tim was recovering from surgery and I was in the midst of chemotherapy. I had also become the first librarian in the newly established Tehkummah Township Public Library. We had built up community support and set up sources for more books. Lastly, we wanted to live on Manitoulin for the rest of our lives.”
“We moved to Owen Sound in August 1993. Our Island land had been broken into three parcels. We sold off the farm portion, 96 acres, to a dear friend and sold the house and yard as one parcel. We retained about two acres of our favourite section for our future use.” A rented home in Annan became their new location. It was soon replaced by a home in Shallow Lake in March of 1994. “By this time, Rachel had graduated from college, Jennifer was starting college, Sarah was starting high school and Derek was entering Kindergarten.”
Lorraine began work as a PSW for Para-Med Health Services, having earned her PSW designation after night courses at Georgian College. She also took courses in special infant care, Alzheimer’s, palliative care and treatment for persons with ABI (acquired brain injury). “I loved the work, bonding with patients and families.” Tim retired in 1999 but he continued to do short term contracts, captaining boats and ensuring fire safety in the north. In 2005, he and Lorraine began to clear their Manitoulin land and build their cottage. “By 2008 we were spending more time there and by the following summer, we knew we wanted to move there permanently. All the children had moved out. We sold the big house in Shallow Lake in a week, and we ramped up the ‘cottage-to-home conversion’ on Manitoulin Island, adding a large living room. We moved in November 2009.”
Were you named after anyone? “Derek was my dad’s name.” “Elizabeth Lorraine was chosen because I was born the year Queen Elizabeth was crowned.”
Fondest memories? “The birth of our children and grandchildren, fishing and coming to Manitoulin.” Favourite pets? “Bunty, a feline and Maggie the rescue cat.”
Favourite season? “Summer for fishing, family visiting and outdoor activities. Fall for hunting and the colours.” Lorraine also enjoys the ‘newness’ of spring.
Favourite television shows? “News, political analysis and British detective shows.”
Awards? “Ontario Scholar in Grade 13 and a French Language studies bursary for Lorraine. Tim won several carving awards from Ducks Unlimited.
First salaries? $2.49 in Chapleau for Tim and Lorraine, 35 cents an hour babysitting and 50 cents after midnight.
Strengths? Tim: carving for 50 years, gardening, fishing and building camps. Lorraine: care giving, baking and communication.
Anyone that inspired you? “Our parents.”
Recipe for happiness? “Sense of optimism to adjust to each other over time, spiced with a dose of humour to help trim off the edges. Love, commitment, and effective communication. Lastly, a sense of gratitude for what you have and the chances you get.”
What are you most afraid of? “Losing our health.”
Anything you still want to do? “Stay healthy for travel to see our kids down south.” Lorraine adds, “keeping the mind agile.” That’s sudoku for Tim and crosswords or the occasional French book for Lorraine.
What did you enjoy most as a family? “Being part of a large family.”
Holiday traditions? “We celebrated a French Christmas on Christmas Eve, opening one gift, and a British Christmas on Christmas Day.”
Other contributions? Tim was vice president of the Legion in Beardmore, on the recreation committee in Tehkummah, where Lorraine, the first librarian, is a current board member.
If you could go back in time, is there anything you would change? “I would spend more time on things that matter, like being with people I love and less time on things that matter less, like housekeeping.”
“Today our daughter Rachel has a camp on Michael’s Bay Road. She is a freelance illustrator, working from home in Hamilton. Husband Paul Riss is a co-owner of an advertising agency there, called Round. Their two children, Shepard and Georgia, are in high school. Jennifer is a trauma nurse in the critical care department at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. Her husband Drew Fowlie, from Little Current, is a firefighter and works in the nuclear medicine department at the Trillium Health Center in Toronto. They live in Pickering. He teaches firefighting at Humber and is an acting fire captain. They have twin girls Hannah and Harlow, both in public school.”
“Sarah is a PSW and she and husband Mike Ward, a stonemason and building contractor, have moved to Sheguiandah. They have three sons, Connor and Maddoc at MSS and Declan at the Little Current Public School. Derek recently graduated from George Brown College in Architectural Design. He is doing freelance work. He and his partner Michelle live in Toronto. All four offspring love the Island, and the southern families visit regularly.”
“We are so grateful every day that we moved to Manitoulin permanently. After 53 years, we still love each other and do so much together. The island is beautiful and there is a keen sense of history. People have always been welcoming, especially if you arrive to stay because you want to live here. It makes a stronger connection. Manitoulin has always felt like my spiritual home,since my first time here. We have been to the west coast often and many places in Canada, but Manitoulin always pulls us back home, where we hope to live forever.”
