A lifetime of learning
Crystal Bay resident takes a new course every year to meet people, learn skills
This summer, Shirley Lawrence has been playing pickleball three times a week, twice indoors and once outside at Richcraft Recreation Complex in Kanata.
She just started playing the game last February, the same way she chooses something new to learn each year. “It’s a good thing for people who get lonely when they stop work,” said Lawrence, 79, who lives beside the water in Crystal Bay.
Lawrence is one of 10 children, the third from youngest. Her deaf grandmother lived with her family as well. She was born in London, England, and moved to a village in Essex when she was two. “We were awfully poor, and put into a condemned house for the 13 of us, with no hydro or running water. We had to collect wood because we were too poor to collect coal very often. The six girls slept three at the top of the bed, and three at the bottom.
“There was no oven or hotplate,” she said. Every day, her mother was out with her scrub brush and washed clothes and put them on the line. “My mom had a very hard life; my father stayed in London all week, and was home only on the weekend.
“On Christmas Eve we were allowed to light that little fire in our bedroom. My second oldest sister took us up to bed with one candle, and read one chapter of a book,” she recalled. “My favourite was by Enid Blyton; it was a story about mice that lived on a farm.”
Five years after their wedding, she and her husband, Peter, came to Canada in 1958. They’ve been married for 58 years. She was working in Germany at that time because she could earn more money. She got a call from him that there was a job offer for him as an engineer, and they wanted to interview “the wife” too. “We only had three days’ notice. I was pregnant and if I wanted to be covered, I had to be living in Canada for three months before the birth.”
In Canada, Lawrence had four children close together, and had some problems with the deliveries. “My doctor said to me, ‘when’s the last time you did something for yourself?’ My father-in-law had said something similar. He brought over a book about ‘learning how to be selfish’ which said, if you feel you’re being put upon, you have to begin your sentence with ‘no.’ ”
She thought “the cheapest thing I could think of was badminton” to do something for herself. She took up the sport to be with others, and a neighbour said she’d pick her up. She volunteered to help the badminton association with a junior program, and they provided a babysitter for her four children, who had yet to start school.
Then she added tennis to her activities, using her husband’s too-large tennis racket, but still improving her game. One day when she was swimming with her children at the Nepean Sportsplex, she filled out a form to be a badminton instructor, and then she became a tennis instructor as well, followed by squash – on the men’s team. “That brought my game up like nobody’s business.”
During her tennis training, she met tennis player Arthur Ashe, and was so impressed. “What a wonderful man!”
Over the past years, she has taught tennis, badminton and squash all over Ottawa. “I have two artificial hips now, so I don’t play tennis any more. I do play pickleball, and I walk for a couple of hours every day.”
She and her husband hike a great deal, and have taken a hiking trip in Alberta.
At the same time, she was helping with the Children’s Wish Foundation, the Heart Institute, the Food Bank and many other charities. For years, she gave Christmas dinners at home for people who live alone, and helped some people during the week as well. “It’s just something I felt was worthwhile.”
The couple has four children, eight grandchildren, and one greatgrandson. They all plan to gather in October as Peter celebrates his 80th birthday.
Lawrence continues to keep busy after deciding decades ago to cut back on the sports and take art courses instead. She does her own sculptures, and is delighted with the experience of starting with clay, and also stone and melting wax for bronzing. “I really like to do feet and hands, and faces with character.”
When she retired, she decided to do a new course every year to meet new people and to learn a new skill. “It brings you into new friendships and makes you feel good about yourself.”