Sirje (Puusepp) Weldon

Born February 13, 1941 to Karl and Marta Puuseep (née Soo) in Tallinn, Estonia. Her family fled to Germany during the war (sometime in 1944), where she lived in a refugee camp for four years. It was in the refugee camp that Sirje and her sisters learned to speak English and German. Sirje’s mother Marta had been a Professor of World Languages at the University of Tartu, so the girls had an able tutor at home.

Leaving his family behind in Germany, Sirje’s father Karl Puusepp came to Canada in 1946. Karl, who has been a founder of the field of Pharmacology in Estonia was nevertheless unable to get his pharmacy credentials recognized in Canada, and worked in Northern Ontaria installing telephone lines to generate the funds to bring his family to Canada. The rest of the family, including Marta, Sirje and her two older sisters, Inna and Malle, were finally able to join him, following him to Canada in 1948.

Sirje and her sisters were excellent students, as their demanding parents expected. Sirje was an accomplished pianist who competed against Glenn Gould at one point (she lost). While her sisters went on to medical fields like her father, becoming a psychiatric nurse and pharmacist, Sirje chose social science (much to the disgust of her father), studying political science at University of Toronto (Victoria College). She was an active member of the Estonian Sorority, Korp-Amicitia. At University of Toronto, Sirje added study of Russian language to her knowledge of Estonian (her first language), German (her second language); English (her third language) and French (which she learned at school but spoke very well). It was at U of T that she met her first husband, Lawrence Weldon (Larry).

Sirje loved the study and practice of the law and always emphasized the importance of integrity and rigor in her legal work. After attaining her BA at University of Toronto (Victoria College) she went on to get her LLB at Osgoode Hall and LLM at Stanford University in California, one of the first women to graduate with such a degree. (In fact, when she first applied, she was told they did not have a program for women!) Her thesis was in the field of Comparative Law.

At the same time as she produced this thesis, she also produced her first child, Laurel. She often laughed when remembering how it was getting harder and harder to type her thesis as she strained to reach the typewriter over her growing belly. After Larry obtained his PHD in Mathematics from Stanford, the family returned to Toronto to live in an apartment over Larry’s mother, Audrey Mundell. Sirje articled at a prominent Toronto Law firm.

In 1972, the family moved to Halifax, where Kaljo, Sirje’s second child and only son, was born. Sirje always swore she would chew through the neck of her obstetrician if she saw him in the street- He was apparently unreachable during her labor (playing golf?) and so was unable to prescribe the epidural she requested.

When Kaljo was about a year old, Sirje taught administrative law at Dalhousie Law School: She was the youngest person and only woman on faculty at the time. She also directed the Legal Aid clinic and worked for the City of Halifax, arguing two cases before the Supreme Court of Canada. She was an impressive young lawyer in the Halifax legal scene, and she loved it.

By 1976, Sirje and Larry separated. Shortly afterward, Sirje returned to Toronto with her children, Laurel and Kaljo, to be closer to her family. She took a job at the Retail Council of Canada, working as a legal advisor. It was around this time that she met Donald Walker, her life partner and closest friend for thirty years, until his passing in 2010.

In 1980 she returned to Halifax- She loved Nova Scotia, the sea and the people. She bought and renovated her house on Chocolate Lake, where she could swim and host parties on her patio. She worked in private practice (Newman, Routledge and Weldon), and had some hilarious stories about being paid for legal work by one of her fisher clients in the cash-equivalent of frozen fish. Don sold his shop and followed her back to Halifax, and his assistance was invaluable when she had to embark in a questionable-looking boat with a client who took her to inspect a watery property line as part of a title search. When “breakfast with the Captain” of the boat turned out to mean a mug full of Captain Morgan Rum, she was very glad Don was there to steady her out of the boat and get her home safely (not to mention to chuckle about the experience for years to come).

Sirje liked the flexibility but not the instability of running her own practice, and she returned to her work as a legal advisor, this time for the Canadian Manufacturer’s Association. She quickly became an influential “downtowner” and had close relationships with many important public and legal officials as well as journalists. She subsequently served as Atlantic Director of the Canadian Banker’s Association, where her political acumen, executive abilities and tremendous energy and drive served her well. She worked as the Director until she moved to the Aquaculture Association. The work was interesting, but she started to think about retirement: When her grandson Zed was born in 2002, and with Audrey born in 2006, she felt a greater pull to spend more time with her children and grandchildren. She always stayed active- Even after retiring, she continued to serve as an employer representative on an appeals board for Employment Insurance, an activity she always found very interesting and important.

When Don became sick and died shortly afterwards in 2010, Sirje was devastated, and for a short time, it seemed like she might not recover. Her family worried when Sirje- an inveterate world traveler- expressed concern about whether she would be able to navigate the Chicago airport. But we needn’t have worried: Soon afterwards, she chose to travel to Thailand where she stayed with her son Kaljo’s friend Jodie for a month, visiting monasteries, taking cooking classes, and riding elephants. Her stock message upon arrival was delivered faithfully: Yo! The eagle has landed. She inexplicably lost a tooth in a signature move she could never explain. There was always an adventure with Sirje, and she was never dull to be around.

After retirement, she further deepened her participation in the Estonian community, often hosting the Estonian Cultural representatives (the gymnasts or rollerskaters) for the Halifax Tattoo at her house on the lake. She loved to participate in and host the Estonian Summer festival (Jannipaev) and she rarely missed remembrance day events at the Cenotaph; attending each year with her beloved friends was an important and solemn tradition for her.

Sirje is survived by her children Kaljo (Kelly German) and Laurel (Aaron Hoffman), and her grandchildren (Zedekiah Hoffman-Weldon; Audrey Hoffman-Weldon)

.

A celebration of her life will take place on Thursday, June 26, at 2:00pm at JA Snow on 339 Lacewood Drive in Halifax. A reception will follow.

Donations may be made to The Estonian Foundation of Canada (Korp Amicitia) https://estonianfoundation.ca/en/korp-amicitia) or to the Heart and Stroke Foundation https://www.heartandstroke.ca