8/19/1920-2/23/2010
My Dad, George Cluett was born on Rathgar Street, in Fort Rouge, Manitoba on August 19th, 1920 to Alice Ellen Evans Cluett and George Cluett, who were both from Portsmouth, England. In deciding his name, his father looked at him and said, “That’s George.” He was the fourth born of seven children – five boys and two girls. They had a bath once a week in a galvanized tub and the family often shared the same water. They had an outhouse at the bottom of their garden that they had to use even when it was -30’Celsius in the winter. They had to haul 24 foot timbers to their home from the train station that his father had bought. They would then chop it up for firewood that heated their house in winter. He said that his mother was a good cook; she made them oatmeal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, and a typical English evening meal, which included dessert every day. No wonder Dad had a sweet tooth. He and his siblings had to help with the housework and dishes. His mother had an electric wringer washer from the time Dad was little. When Dad was ten years old, his mother got an electric stove.
The family owned a cottage at Grand Beach when Dad was little and the family went there every summer, travelling by train. The children swam at the beach every day. Dad said that those were happy days of his childhood. He said that his mother was the kindest woman God ever made, that she lived for her family. He dearly loved his mother.
Dad remembers playing with his brothers and sisters and there was a fair bit of teasing. He said that he remembered that his sister Pearl would spend a lot of time in the bathroom fixing herself up. So one day George went around the side of the house and climbed through the bathroom window. Apparently she was really mad.
Dad was raised Catholic and attended St. Mary’s School as a little boy, and then later attended St. Paul’s College. He enjoyed learning French, but didn’t like Math. When we were teenagers, Dad hoped that we would want to attend St. Mary’s Academy. Jackie and I chose to complete our high school education there.
Dad loved to play hockey in winter and baseball in the summer. As a teenager, he enjoyed going to school dances. He has always loved to dance and sing familiar tunes to himself – mostly songs from WWII, by Vera Lynn.
When he turned seventeen, he had the opportunity for a job over in England. He moved there and started work at the British GEC for 3 ½ years until he joined the Canadian Army when WWII broke out. He met his wife-to-be (Ena) at a dance when he was stationed in Wallington, Surrey. They married three months later. Jackie and Denyse were born in Coventry, England, and then they decided to move to Canada. In 1952 the young family moved to Manitoba and settled in Dauphin for about 10 years. Dad worked for the Manitoba Telephone System. I (Karen) was born in Dauphin in 1955, and in 1963 Dad accepted a transfer to Winnipeg. Mom and Dad finished raising us girls there. Mom and Dad said that the ten years they spent in Dauphin were the happiest years of their lives.
Dad was such a good, kind and caring father and a good husband to Mom. Someone once said to me, “I think your Dad has so much affection for you girls that he doesn’t know what to do with it.” Everything he did in his life, he was always thinking of his family. He was ever the socializer and had many friends, always smiling and laughing.
In the winter of 1977 when Dad was in the car accident that broke his neck, he just decided that he was going to walk out of the hospital. He was so determined, even after the neurosurgeon said that he would be a ‘quadriplegic’. Sure enough, he came home after seven months in hospital and would spend hours hard at work with his two canes, striding around the house. He got about 80% of his capacities back and he and Mom were able to do some traveling together for a few years. Mom’s cancer returned about 1979, and her health rapidly declined. She passed away in November 1983. Dad’s feisty sociable spirit had him joining the Widow and Widower’s club not too long after, and he came out to BC to visit my family at least once a year. He went to Greece, Portugal England, and more – with Uncle Gordon. He lived his life to the fullest all the time, until his declining body gradually slowed him, and then wouldn’t allow him to move around beyond his apartment. He received help from his grandchildren – Jackie’s children with cleaning, bringing him meals, and doing laundry. Later as Rachel got older, she helped him too, running errands for him. As he was unable to do things for himself, Jackie and Denyse helped him so he could maintain his independence in his own apartment. They took wonderful care of him along with the grandchildren. He was basically living on his own – with much assistance, until a month before his death. I want you to notice the large pool of people who helped him through his declining years. It is easy for me to see why there were so many people who lovingly gave of their time to help him. Dad spent his years raising his family doing kind things every day. Every morning before school, Dad would polish our boots or shoes. He would bring a cup of tea every morning when we woke up. Every day he made all of us lunches for school or work. Every night he would do the supper dishes. As we grew up and left home, he would call us every day to see how we were doing. Then as the grandchildren arrived and grew up, he would phone them to see how things were going. From this, you can imagine that he had quite the social life on the phone on a daily basis. Dad once said that his mother was the ‘kindest woman God ever made.’ Well, I think the same thing could be said about our father.
