Reasons why Canadian men marry foreign women

Life in Canada was “no bed of roses” for English war bride Doris Mac-Duff,who crossed the Atlantic in 1945 after marrying Canadian ErvIn Mac-Duff. About 50 years ago more than 48,000 women and 22,000 children from 16 countries were repatriated to Canada after marrying home-town-boys who were soldiers overseas. Some war brides returned home, unable to deal with the loneliness and disappointments. But most stayed, raised families and endured the hardships and homesickness. For many, 1996 marks the 50Th anniversary of there arrival in Canada,but there are no plans for celebrations. It should be noted that they were greeted with a similar lack of fanfare on their arrival decades ago. In April 1945, Doris Mac Duff arrived alone at St-Eugene train station where she met her mother-in-law for the first time.Doris talked about her life as a war bride While visiting her daughter, Parthena, who lives near St-Eugene.

After 51 years, she hardly speaks with an English accent; she tells her story in a quiet, unassuming way. When asked about her early years as a war- bride in Canada she says with a laugh:”I survived. It was no bed of roses.” ” husband was still in Ottawa; he had been sent home because he was sick, but he was still in the army,” Doris recalls. The journey to Canada was fraught with tension; there was a war on she emphasized. “We were not allowed to wear any brooches or jewellery that had anything to do with Canada. WE travelled to London, England on a plane at night; we went on a boat at night. At London we had the option to carry on or turn back” she remembers We were not allowed to let anyone know whee or how we were leaving.She chose to travel to Canada on a ship that was part of a convoy.

“When we landed at Halifax, Doris boarded a train for Montreal, where she was supposed to be met by her new mother-in-law.”But I was not let off in Montreal; I ended up in Ottawa, where I had to spend the night, and then take another train back to St-Eugene. Doris remembers being driven to her in-law’s home by Gauthier, who operated a store in St-Eugene. “I thought Canada was such a wide-open country,” she recalls. Doris had been part of the land army in England; she worked in the fields and did farm work as needed. “I had the choice to join one of the forces: army, navy or air force,or to go to work in the factory. I chose the land army,” Doris says in a matter-of-fact way. “Everybody was joining; everybody was doing their part. It was war time.”

Doris recalls the good times and fun that so many soldiers in England.” It was good clean fun,we went to parties we danced,” she says. A girlfriend introduced Doris to ErvIn Mac-Duff,a Canadian mechanic stationed in England. They dated for about a year before being married. She recalls being driven home by ErvIn in an armoured tank, something that was against regulations. “He drove me right up to my front door, and kids along the street ran inside their homes, shouting,”The Germans are coming; the Germans are coming,” and then it was only Doris Rogers who climbed out of the tank,” she says with a laugh. Another time she and her girlfriend were driven home by another soldier. “We felt that the tank was Sig-sagging all over the place, and started to worry he was not taken them home the right way. But soon enough, we were home. When we asked him why he was driving in such a rough way, he told us the police had been following him, and he was trying to lose them,” Doris related.

Doris and ErvIn decided to get married in 1945 ErvIn’s brother travelled to England for the wedding and acted as best man. Doris also met another brother Earl who was stationed in England. But that was all she knew of his family as she prepared to leave her own family for good.”My mother was upset I remember. But I was young, and I decided to step out and leave home for good,” Doris relates. It would be another 39 years before she returned for a visit. By then her mother had passed away. The youngest of a family of 13, Doris left Richmond for London travelling alone. After her arrival in Canada, she lived with her in-laws until the end of the war, when her husband returned to the family home in Chute-A-Blondeau. A train used to pass near where she lived. “One thing that bothered her was the sound of the train whistle. It used to make me think of air raid sirens; I always felt like I should be heading for a (bomb) shelter.” ErvIn was released from the army and returned home to his new wife, who was living with his parents. The couple continued to live for about a year than they they bought a farm on third concession near St-Eugene.

With their three year old baby daughter Joyce, the couple moved into a log cabin building; there wes no running water and no electricity. Doris remembers the hardships of raising five children on the farm.” We had a kitchen and two little rooms off the side and one big unfinished room upstairs. The ceiling was just rafters,” she related. “I would get up early each morning and make a fire in the stove and the children would come down and get dressed by the fire.Harsh winters in a log home. “Today you have icicles on the outside of your house. Back then, we had icicles hanging from the rafters upstairs,” Doris laughs. “We had a big garden; and they do have gardens like that today. I made maybe 300 jars of pickles, jams and preserves every.” “we did not really have a cellar, just a dugout underneath the house. We would bury bury the potatoes, turnips and carrots to last the winter. A lady told to how to keep my winter cabbage by digging them up, roots and all and replanting them in the dugout underneath the house. That way, we had fresh cabbage all winter,” Doris said.

Water had to be drawn from outside for the house. During the winter Doris having to chop the ice away at a nearby creek so the cows could drink. Electricity was installed in their home in 1955. The day it was completed, the family could have eaten supper with the lights turned on, but Doris made it their last supper by lamp light. “I wanted ErvIn grandmother to come over over and be the first one to turn the lights. She had raised her family in that log home and never thought to see the day that there would be electricity there,” Doris remembers. When ErvIn died in 1967 Doris rented out the farm for a time, then sold it. She moved to Toronto with one of her daughters, later relocating in Ottawa, where she lives today. Her only son, Earl, and three daughters, Joyce, Dorothy, and Bethena all live near St-Eugene. another daughters, Joan lives in Alberta. ” I tell my granddaughters to go for the-their goal. My husband died in1967 and I had nothing to fall back on. Before girls get married they should get an education,” Doris said. Doris says that her decision to come to Canada was typical of a young person with no experience. “I think I’d change my ways if I could do it all over again. It was the spur of the moment decision, and in Canada there was a lot of heartbreak. But I would tell myself, this is what I had to chose, and I had to make the best of it. You have to make amends with yourself,” Doris says. What a beautiful lady is, today she is known as my adopted mother, and I am so proud of her.