Greta Ethel Jones

Greta Jones was born in Moncton October 13, 1883, the daughter of a proud pioneer family.
Her ancestors had been sent to settle the area with good Protestant stock, German settlers in
Pennsylvania ("Pennsylvania Dutch") sent by Benjamin Franklin in 1766 on behalf of the British
government to replace the Acadians recently cleared from the land. Her ancestor Johan Carl Shantz
changed his name to Charles Jones to sound more British, so the first census of the settlement listed
eight German families and one Welsh. Greta's family had forgotten their German heritage, and were
proud to be Welsh. And they hated the French.

Greta longed to escape this claustrophobic atmosphere, so when a young engineering student she
met at church showed some interest she happily encouraged him. Ned's father, David Grant, moved
his family from Port Elgin, New Brunswick to Vancouver, where he became a judge. Nevertheless,
the young couple stayed in touch, and finally Greta travelled alone by train to Vancouver to marry her
fiance in 1907.

The marriage was not an easy one. Ned, whose ancestors had been in Canada for over a century,
was more Scottish than the Scots. He studied Gaelic, played the bagpipes, and wove tartan. He had
little time for his children, and the family enjoyed summers without him in Gibsons.

Greta's son Ken (my father) studied the violin briefly, but his playing so irritated his father that Ned
threw the violin out the window. Greta got even - she burned his bagpipe bag in the wood stove.

Greta had five children, four of whom lived past infancy. Mary and Audrey had five children each, Elsie
had three, and Ken had just me. Mary and Elsie stayed in British Columbia, and their children grew up
knowing and loving their grandmother. When Ned retired early, believing himself to be in frail health
(he died in 1956, aged 72), the couple moved to their Gibsons cottage. This became home for all her
descendants.

I visited Granny in 1959, the summer I turned 13, three years after Grandad died. Things I remember:

• There were no pictures of Grandad on display, She didn't think you should keep pictures of dead people
• I had to ask permission to read Grandad's interesting books, and had to remove them from the shelf very carefully. 
• She was very concerned with her grandchildren's bowel habits, and asked us every evening if we'd had a bowel movement that day. If not, we had to take an ExLax.

Ned's death liberated Greta. She travelled. She visited family in New Brunswick; she went on cruises; she saw things she had always wanted to see. In her late 80s she met a man on a cruise, a rich retired publisher who lived in Florida. He wanted to marry her, but (she told her daughter Mary), "I've wasted too much of my life looking after one sick old man. Why would I want another?" They cruised together a couple of times, and then he died, and she got on with life.

In her 90s Greta had problems with diabetes and aching joints, but was still very much alive. She was
a little forgetful, but she lived alone in her cottage until the end - although Mary checked in on her and
cooked for her every day. On her final trip to the hospital, Greta refused to lie down in the back of the
ambulance. She insisted on riding shotgun, beside "that handsome young man."

What did I get from her? I think I have some of her strong will and independence, although I don't feel
as courageous as I think she was. I have inherited her healthy body, for which I thank her.