Elizabeth May JOHNSTON

Elizabeth Johnston (nee Panchuk) was born on January 24th, 1924 in the family’s home about six kilometers southeast of Gorlitz, Saskatchewan. Her mother and father had come separately to Canada from neighbouring villages in the Ukraine. Beth was the third youngest of seven children; in order of birth: Kay, Anne, Fred, Mary, Beth, John and Lea.

After graduating from grade nine at the school in Gorlitz, Beth was sent to help her sister Kay with her children. But there wasn’t a logical role for her to play long term, as older siblings had assumed most farm tasks. So, when a salesman arrived at the farm (always at dinner time) to talk about the wonders of an education at the Regina Commercial College, Beth’s father purchased a one-year tuition package for $25 for his sixteen-year-old daughter.

A month later, Beth was put on a bus in Gorlitz with a phone number in Regina and her tuition receipt. On landing in Regina, Beth stayed with Mary Young, a relative of her sister Anne’s husband, for a week, during which she secured a part time live-in job with Mr. Duckworth, a banker, taking care of the family, as Mrs. Duckworth was unwell after giving birth to a new baby. Instead of a wage, she received room and board, and worked when not in her College classes.

On graduating ten months later, she was offered two jobs; one as a secretary at the provincial legislative building for $80 per month, or one working for the Red River Construction Company as a secretary on the newly initiated Alaska Highway project for $190 per month. She took the latter in the fall of 1941 and was given a bus ticket to Dawson Creek, BC mile zero on the Alaska Highway.

During her year on the project she travelled in a rolling office from Fort St. John in BC to Watson Lake, Yukon. She had not had a penny in her pocket since leaving the farm two years earlier. Her wage was sent directly to her father. He mother sent her "care" packages when she needed something.

At the end of her year on the Alaska Highway, Beth was given a bus ticket back to Edmonton, where she stayed at the YWCA for a couple of weeks while she worked at Woolworths to pay for a bus ticket back to Saskatchewan.

Back on the farm, Beth soon realized that there was very little for her in rural Saskatchewan. So, she packed up and went to Winnipeg, where she rented an apartment and started looking for jobs. She noted that finding work was difficult for anyone with a Ukrainian name, so she hired a lawyer to change her last name to Page. She used the name Page and did get various jobs, but found out later that the lawyer had taken her money and never did change her name legally.

Beth met her future husband Ernie (died in 2003) when he operated a small watch repair shop at 477 Portage Ave in Winnipeg. She was working for McGeachie and Holdsworth at the time, delivering watch parts. Although they dated for two years, Ernie was reluctant to commit to a wedding date until he was able to buy a personal car (long waiting lists after the war) and a residential lot on which to build a house (an even longer waiting list in Winnipeg at that time). They were married in Winnipeg on September 14th 1946, and gave birth to Brian at Winnipeg’s Grace Hospital while they lived on Amherst Street in St. James. Later Ernie built a garage at 260 Egerton Road in St. Vital, where the family lived one winter until the main bungalow could be built. While living in this house, the one and only family home ever in Winnipeg, Alison was born at the Misericordia Hospital one and a half years after Brian, and David followed four and a half years after that, also at the Grace Hospital.  As the children grew Beth had various jobs first in retail and then as a secretary at the University of Manitoba and then the Fort Gary School Board.

Beth and Ernie retired to Parksville, BC in 1984, where they rented an apartment while having a house built on Pym Road. Well into his mid-eighties Ernie volunteered to "drive old people around" and Beth volunteered for a variety of organizations. After Ernie died in May of 2003, Beth stayed in the home for two years before eventually buying a large apartment in Parksville, and then selling and moving into Stanford Place early in 2011.

Beth is survived by her youngest sister Lea Beatson in Calgary, her three children Brian (Linda), Alison (Wally) and David (Karen) all residents of BC. She is also survived by seven grandchildren; Kendra and Kristen (Brian), Jason, Jamie and Angela (Alison) and Leigh and Kate (David) and six great grandchildren; Riley and Aiden (Jason), Kennedy and Rylan (Jamie) and Abby and Harper (Kristen).

We will all miss her very much!