(submitted by Monica Whelan)
William Michael (Mike) Whelan (1913–1996) was born in North Yorkshire, England. He met his wife, Florence Hill (1916–1988), from Swansea, Wales, during World War II. They immigrated to Canada in 1952 with their four children: Margaret, David, Pat, and Monica.
Mike arrived in May and the rest of the family in December. Monica remembers that the ocean voyage was so rough the waiters wetted the tablecloths down to keep the dishes from sliding. They were on a vessel that had been used for carrying troops during the war.
It was the following year that Sarnia was hit with a devastating tornado. The Whelans’ reaction was “What a welcome!” The Whelans lived in the Sarnia area until 1965, when they moved to 6479 Egremont Rd. in Warwick Twp. Florence worked for a time at Sarnia General Hospital and Mike worked at Polymer/Polysar until 1982. They raised four children. David and Margaret have moved away, but Pat and Monica are still on the home place in 2008.
Monica remembers,
It was quite a change and took some time to get used to country life — hydro being interrupted by storms, the hydro wire sparking in a bad wind and snow, snow and more snow. There was heat in the summer and cold winds in the winter.
The house that was on the property when we moved in was old and Dad decided to build instead of fixing up. A fire in the spring of 1975 in the old house got us moving quicker. One thing that happened with the fire was that the neighbours and firemen came and helped get all the furniture etc. out. That would not have happened in the city as the firemen would not have let you near the house. Our present house has some of the old one in it. Dad built the kitchen cabinets, the living room furniture and many other pieces of furniture out of the wood from it; waste not want not. Or just plain cheap, or too much Yorkshire blood, we don’t know which.
When we came here we found someone in their wisdom decided to plant 40 or so pear trees. Now as nice as pears are, 40 trees are a lot. We could neither sell nor give away the pears. We found the cows liked them so we would give them to the cows in the field. When they saw you at the gate, they would come running. The thing to remember is that if you are going to give them to the cows, don’t let the pears go until they are fermented or the cows become a little tipsy. One tree was in the pasture, and after the cows found it we never got a pear off that tree; they would shake the tree to get them.
Another memory of Monica’s was the
snow, the winters of the early 70s were some of the worst that we have known. It seemed all the snow from Hwy 21 blew into our laneway. One winter Dad left the truck at the top of the laneway, took the battery out at night and brought it into the house to make sure the thing would start and we didn’t have to clear the snow away in the morning. We had a Dodge Charger and it hibernated through the worst of one winter, not because we didn’t need it but it was covered in snow. When the spring came, the battery was put in and the truck started the first time.
Chapter 24 of 25 - Whealan, William
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