Bernice Bernie Harriet Osborne

First Metropolitan Church - Kevin Worth, Co-Executor

Bernie loved KFC, McDonald’s Quarter-pounders, deep-fried prawns, chocolate, and potato chips. She was an early-adopter of the health food movement. This healthy eating seemed to work, as she lived to age 87, and it wasn’t heart disease that brought about the end.

1925 was a long time ago. That was when Bernie was born to a 15 year old schoolgirl and adopted by parents Charles Ernest Osborne and Martha Collins Burritt Osborne of New Westminster.

We can speculate that Bernie’s adoption shaped her approach to life, as she reached out to children for the next 87 years. Bernie enjoyed her close family, though she had no siblings. She had the greatest respect for her parents throughout her life. She often spoke of them as though they were still alive.

She went to a Catholic school where she and Gloria Mosser became friends. At age 17, Bernie lied about her age and joined the Army, the Canadian Women’s Army Corps. When her unit was about to deploy to Europe, someone alerted authorities about her actual age and she was prevented from sailing with the other women. She was retained in the Army though, and drove an ambulance in Ontario, working out of a base outside Toronto.

So it was that at age 17, on a cold, snowy night outside Toronto, she and her male partner collected a young woman in distress. She was having a baby. Bernie loaded her in the ambulance and headed for the nearest hospital. Partway there it became apparent the baby was coming. Bernie stopped the ambulance and she and her partner got out to attend to the young mother-to-be. Her male partner slipped in the snow. He hit his head as he went down and lay there unconscious. So Bernie delivered the baby at the roadside, wrapped the child in her shirt, loaded her partner in the ambulance and continued.

A short distance later, there was noise from the back. Bernie stopped to find out - what now? Another baby was what now. Bernie delivered that baby, too, using her pocket knife to sever the umbilical cord. Then she sped off to the hospital. But not for long. The police stopped her for speeding. She set them straight and got an escort the rest of the way. When hospital staff had taken mother, her partner, and the infants inside, Bernie was sick beside her ambulance. All this at age 17 in an era where few women were driving, let alone driving ambulances.

When Bernie got out, she moved back to New Wesminster and trained as a psychiatric nurse. She worked at the old mental hospital, as they were then called – Essondale. Then, in 1954, at age 29, she moved to Victoria and studied to be an x-ray tech at St. Joseph’s School of Nursing. She went on to a career as an x-ray technologist, working in cardiology until her retirement at the Jubilee Hospital.

So, 1954 is when she became a member of the Metropolitan Church. She joined a singles group at the church and was immediately voted President. She started a basketball program for boys, but the deal was they had to attend Sunday School, which she taught in the kitchen. The boys had to learn the Books of the Bible, The Lord’s Prayer, the 23rd Psalm, and to respect one another.

She was also a TYROL leader, worked with CGIT, Canadian Girls in Training, and started a Metropolitan Sunday School Basketball Program. She took over the girls’ Explorer Program too, and took both boys and girls groups to Camp Pringle for fun and fellowship. She was a lifeguard at Camp Pringle, then a camp leader, camp director, and finally Camp Manager. She ran her camps with the same philosophy as with basketball – teamwork, sportsmanship, and respect: words found on all the First Met Basketball trophies.

The young campers loved her, and through her came to see a Christian at work and play.

Metropolitan basketball grew and grew with age groups from 8-18 playing against each other and then in the V&DABA. Bernie was the leader. Coach, referee, organizer and eventually President of the V&D. Like many of you, I am a product of her program, playing for her Junior Men teams in 74 and 75 and coaching for her at First Met.

Bernie and Gloria. They were a team. Well, they were school chums and remained friends, though Gloria remained across the pond. After Bernie’s Dad died, her mom moved in with her, leaving her home in New West. When her mom died, Bernie took in some girls who needed guidance. They became a real handful. Then Gloria called. She was leaving her marriage and going to Prince George. Bernie said she needed help with these girls, so why didn’t Gloria stop with her for a while first. Well, Gloria did. The while lasted 40 years. And Gloria sorted out the girls as well.

Bernie and Gloria took charge of the Christmas Eve candle-lighting service at the Met, preparing 1300 candle-holders and candles. And who were the players in the Christmas pageants? Her basketball players, of course. Just as the players were “voluntold” for the annual Remembrance Day ceremony held in the church, where they acted as flag-bearers for the colours of the Army, Navy, Air Force – and the ultimate honour – the Canadian Flag. If the kids were reluctant to participate, there’d be an ‘argussion’ with Bernie, so they accepted their fate.

Remember the blue Magic Wagon? The 88 Plymouth Voyager Bernie drove, with Gloria riding shotgun and faithful dog Skye somehow finding a place in the back among the basketballs, jerseys, programs, groceries, score clocks, knick knacks, phone books and everything else.

Bernie and Gloria lived in Shawnigan Lake. First on Harvey Rd., then on Hepworth, onto a property they’d bought from Lew and Mae McCorkall in 1980. The Hepworth house was, like Bernie, unique. This was a house they had custom built. A house of their own design. Certainly it was not a house of anybody else’s design. This was Shatolah, their bee-hive house. Actually, a double bee-hive. The house had no siding. It was structured as two bullets and covered from the ground up in roofing shingles. Inside, the walls were round. Towering walls, curving to a small ceiling. A catwalk on the second level.

They got an occupancy permit and moved in. The walls were only primered. Their planning was to equip the house with amenities as funds would allow. So, this month they’d buy a kitchen cabinet. A few months later with a few more dollars on hand, they’d buy another. Not matching the first, but on sale. The same in the bathroom and throughout the house. Nothing matched or lined up. A section of carpet would butt against another section that was different in the middle of the floor. But that was ok, because the floor wasn’t visible anyway. Bernie was a collector of fine ‘objets d’art’. Pretty well everything fit this description.

The house sat on an acre beside a creek. The acre had vegetable gardens, flower gardens, chicken coops, tires and railroad ties. Bernie and Gloria hosted friends and fed them from outside their door, home grown turkey, veggies and eggs.

They had a nice life there, travelling in to Victoria for basketball most every day.

Bernie running the league, Gloria in a support role. The end of the season always brought the Metro BBall banquet on the second Sunday in March. Most people here will have attended these. Bernie would assemble a head table, for years consisting of Rev. Laura Butler, Rev. Dr. Bert King, Ron and Kathy Nicholson, John Adams took pictures and a guest speaker would have been chosen – some high profile basketball person. I remember Ken Shields and Eli somebody (Pasquale). There was always Joan & Magnus Flynn, Dave Wirtanen, Sid Chow, Danny Ireland, Loris Corletto, Al Dudridge. All would take turns presenting one of 8 trophies Bernie had struck, two of which were in honour of her mother and father: The Rebel Trophy established for girls in ‘67 and The Spartan Trophy, for boys, in 68, respectively. For Faith, Fellowship and Fair Play.

Then she would take the microphone and address the kids. RESPECT, she would intone, and describe the behaviours that went with it. This was her lifelong theme. Just when you thought the banquet marathon was wrapping up, Bernie would announce that it was Dr. King’s wife, Ethel King’s birthday, and it was time to call her and sing happy birthday! So we did. Someone at the head table would call Mrs. King and when she answered, 300 kids and parents would sing Happy Birthday into the phone.

Meantime, Gloria was in the kitchen slinging the hash. Originally it was a big meal with all the food groups, but it evolved into a pizza/pop night when Bernie realized kids weren’t interested in cutlery or vegetables. Poinsettia sales at Christmas helped fund this event, and Rick Vickery and his family were a huge part of that.

So, in 2004, Gloria got sick and moved to Oak Bay Lodge. Bernie was not doing great on her own and definitely needed help of all kinds. Refusing to leave Shatolah, she stubbornly hung in there as her mobility became more and more restricted. Enter Galen. Galen is a traveler, and she stopped at Mason’s Store and overheard a conversation that Bernie Osborne needed help at her house. Galen inquired and found out where this Bernie lived. She drove her old Toyota camper down the road, knocked on Bernie’s door and said she’d heard Bernie needed help. Galen said she’d help if she could park on the property and run an extension cord to the house. Done.

Galen started doing everything to help Bernie, while living in her camper in the yard with her dog, Teddy. This allowed Bernie to stay on for a while longer, but she eventually agreed to go to the Cridge, an assisted living facility. The house is sold, after the inside walls were finally painted for the first time 19 years later, and Bernie began to enjoy a more active social life among women and a few men in very pleasant surroundings with great food. And Bernie loved to eat, so this worked out well.

When she broke her hip, she had to go to Glenwarren, a complex care facility just a few blocks down Balmoral from here. Bernie had a nice private room there, with her big flat-screen TV mounted on the wall at the foot of her bed. She had it on for 16 hours a day, watching the CFL, NBA, NFL, NHL, college hoops, figure skating, the Olympics. She loved them all. I don’t know if they televised field hockey, but if they did, she watched it, as she was a former field hockey player herself. And she was a critical viewer of TV sports, commenting on the play all the while. She knew the athletes, their stats, the standings and the playoff schedules.

I remember describing the defense I was watching with her and she corrected me, advising me the team was running a 2-3 zone, not whatever I had thought it was. I learned to watch more closely and keep my mouth shut. A few months ago, she asked me why she couldn’t get NBATV on her set. I added that subscription the next day – channel 148.

So it was fitting last week when I got the call from Glenwarren advising me to come quickly, that as I walked into her room as she lay waiting for death to come, the game was on. Ironically, her Set For Life scratch and win lottery tickets lay waiting for her attention on her bedside table.

Even in those last years at Glenwarren, Bernie made it her business to inquire about the families of the staff. The walls of her room were decorated with drawings made by their children, and Bernie distributed Christmas cards to each of them. She sponsored a Sri Lankan girl with World Vision. Thirteen year old Faith has visited her every Wednesday for the last couple of years and played cards with Bernie.

Bernie lived a good life, and was happy. She influenced generations of young people and modeled the qualities she sought to develop in others: Respect, faith, fellowship and fun.