Edythe Phillips' Welland home is rich with history. Photos cover the walls, mementos are prominently displayed and in the corner of her living room sits one of her most precious possessions: a soft blue reclining chair.
“That is Don's chair. He never, ever sat any other place except there. I remember once when we had company; Don was making drinks and he came back and one of the fellows had sat in that chair,” Phillips, 88, pauses while smiling at the empty chair and then continues with a light laugh.
“My poor husband looked around and didn't know what to do. It was his place; he used to always be there. Now I sit there every day too.”
Phillips' husband was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 1995 and several months later he died in her arms. Before his death, she began writing his memoirs.
“One day we just kept talking and I kept writing. It's the story of my husband's life: his war years and our lives together. We met at Welland High School and we just kind of got together. Before he went away to war he gave me a ring and I waited for him. He was gone three or four years in England and Italy and then he came back.”
They were married a year later, on June 28, 1947, at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Welland. They lived in a small apartment on Regent Street, but soon Don learned about an opportunity for veterans.
“A new subdivision was created in the early ‘40s by the Veteran's Land Act,” she explains. “It was a re-establishment credit to buy property in the Summerlea subdivision. So we bought the property and built a house. We were in within three months.”
The Veteran's Land Act was designed to help ex-servicemen resettle after returning home from the war. Veterans were able to receive government loans if they wished to construct their own homes.
The Phillips were the 13th family to move into the Summerlea subdivision and Phillips began documenting the neighbourhood right away.
“I started in 1952 with snap albums, of course, and I took pictures of everything that went on in the subdivision. So I have a pictorial history of the subdivision. I kind of passed it on to another lady down the street who is looking after it now. You have to do these things to keep the history alive.”
A few years ago, Phillips was presented with a plaque for her “commitment to preserving the history of the Summerlea community.” As past president and now a member, of the Welland Historical Society, she has contributed to many other projects as well.
“I wrote a book on Sunset Haven. I asked people to give their memories and they did. It's full of letters from people who worked there or had friends or relatives there. It was quite popular,” she says. “The society wrote another book called The Origin of Welland Street Names and we've placed plaques around the city... we are quite active. We try to have meetings that are pertinent and historical.”
Besides preserving history, Phillips also has a keen interest in horticulture.
“I belong to the Horticultural Society in Welland and they always have interesting meetings. I like gardens and roses and rose bushes and looking at that sort of thing. I've always had a garden.”
Her backyard is home to several fruit trees that are around 50 years old.
“We planted them ourselves and watched them grow all these years. It has been very nice working with them and using the fruit in my own sauces and pies.”
Phillips says she has been fortunate to have travelled around the world, but there's no place like home.
“We've been to Europe, Paris and Switzerland, and Ireland and many very interesting places. I've enjoyed all this travelling and been all over, but I always come back to Welland,” she says. “That's home and I like it here. I'm very content to stay home now and read my books and do my writing.”
One thing she just finished writing is her annual Christmas letter.
“Family is very important to me. I write a lot of letters to family and friends and at Christmas I always write a Christmas letter; and now we're at a time when Christmas cards are out of fashion.”
She may even put the letters together in a book because, in essence, they are her personal history.
“I've been doing them since 1960, and I have such a large pile of them. One day I thought, ‘My goodness; that's the story of my life'. And it's been a good life. It's been quite interesting.”