GEORGE, Beatrice nee McCarter
Beatrice, known as Betty, died at Oakville Trafalgar hospital on Wednesday, June 2nd 2021. She was born in 1923 in St John’s Newfoundland and had what she described as an idyllic childhood there. Her stories about growing up were magical, making listeners feel as if they were there notwithstanding the many decades in between. Newfoundland was a core part of who she was, and remained so despite her leaving at the age of 23 to marry Edgar (Ted) George in 1946 and live in Ontario.
She was the beloved mother of Duncan (JoAnne Amero George) and Jennifer Cairns (Andy) and is fondly missed by grandchildren Carla and Isaac (Sara) Schulthies, Alanna George, Robin (Helena) Cairns, Nicola nee Cairns (Rory) Bigelow and great-grandchildren Shannon Reid, Mason and Lillian Schulthies, Quinn and Owen Bigelow, and Orin Cairns.
Betty was educated at Bishop Spencer College, the Anglican diocesan school for girls in Newfoundland. Following her matriculation she attended for two years Memorial University College in St. John’s, founded in 1925 to commemorate Newfoundland’s loses in The First Great War. Her third and final university years were spent studying at McGill University from which was graduated with an Honours degree in English literature.
Betty and Ted were as devoted to each other as they were to their children. Following marriage they lived for a time in Ted’s hometown of Hamilton, then built their home in Roseland, Burlington in the early 1950s. Although well-educated, she was unable to find substantial employment in the 1950s; returning veterans were given preferential access to jobs. So she devoted herself to raising her two children, while volunteering with the Junior League and rising in its ranks.
One consolation for her was that her children received a Ryerson education, the best a Canadian child could receive, albeit short of the public school one she herself had had in the British self-governing colony, The Dominion of Newfoundland. As a result, she was able to supplement her children’s instruction with additional topics in English, history, culture and art, and help with school homework in these subjects.
Betty’s love of travel began with a stay in Great Britain with her aunt Edie Jones based in Liverpool for the entire summer of 1960. With her two children in tow, she travelled England and Wales with her extended family and, when joined by Ted in August, spent three weeks on the Continent. Overseas trips became a regular part of the couple’s lives together, and a growing interest in photography resulted in a trove of photographs from each trip, many turned into audiovisual slide shows that she edited, narrated and presented to community clubs all over southern Ontario.
Her proficiency with a single lens reflex grew through the ‘70s and ‘80s as she delved more into the details of photographic composition, technology and competition. As an active member of the Hamilton Camera Club, Betty taught composition and competed in photography contests all around the world. There were many medals and ribbons.
Meanwhile, in the mid 1960s Betty tried her hand at a master’s degree in English at McMaster University. This did not go well as the post-modern movement in literature had taken hold in English departments across North America, and literary criticism had degenerated into academic irrelevance. She agreed with her son who, years later upon hearing her take on McMaster’s English department, remarked that “They seem to know more and more about less and less and wind up knowing everything about nothing.” Betty couldn’t stop laughing.
But the good that came out of this was Ted’s encouragement for her to put her education to use as a teacher. And so began a very fruitful period as a teacher of business English classes at Mohawk College in Hamilton. She was a tireless educator, working well into each night crafting lessons and reviewing student writing. She worked all through the ‘70s, retiring in the mid ‘80s with a Best Teacher award. That work too came with its own challenges as other college staff were more inclined to overlook non-performance. Betty’s refusal jeopardized the graduation prospects of a number of students, but she held her ground, forcing recalcitrant students to pull up their socks.
Betty’s domestic pleasures included gardening, and the English country garden that she and Ted created and tended at 253 Roseland Crescent was a source of pleasure and an outlet for her impulses of creative design. Her intellectual pleasures included art history, visits to museums and galleries worldwide, and her beloved Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra.
Sadly and much too soon, Betty lost her beloved husband, Ted, in 2000 and mourned his passing even more as time went on. The depth of her grief never seemed far from the surface, and in the afterward 20 year period she often mentioned Ted’s name, the things they had done together, and how much she had loved and now missed him. Theirs was a great love; Ted a good and faithful husband; Betty his one true love; he hers.
Betty George touched many people in kind, energetic and instructive ways. She was a true force of nature, as attested by the outpouring of affection that has been expressed as news of her death spread among her family, remaining friends and even the staff at Lakeshore Place in Burlington where she spent her last years. She was a most remarkable woman, although she didn't see herself that way: there was always a certain modesty and shyness, a result of a girl’s childhood in a world still a man’s. But she was the most down-to-Earth kind who came into this life with every Newfoundlander's natural proclivity to never stop talking!
Betty’s remains will be committed to the Columbarium at The Parish Church of St. Luke, Anglican Church of Canada in Burlington, Ontario where hers will join Ted’s. A later funeral service and gathering to celebrate Betty’s life will be held once pandemic restrictions have been safely lifted.