Dear Editor,
One of Bowen’s oldest residents, Dora Trethewey, will be leaving the island for the Kiwanis apartments in West Vancouver early in March. SKY (simply keeping young) will be hosting a potluck meal in her honour at noon on Monday Feb. 13 at Bowen Court. All Bowen friends are invited to come (just bring something for the table, please).
Dora’s life on Bowen began in the early 1920s when her family and some friends came each summer and rented cottages above the lagoon from the Union Steamship Co. She remembers the fare from city to island was $1, and a band played all the way over while the passengers danced. In fact, her first dance ever was with her father, coming to Bowen when she was 11 years old.
There were six picnic grounds scattered around Snug Cove and Deep Bay, each run by a different church or city group. Dora and her best chum would wander around each, seeing what the meal was that day, and simply add themselves to the lineup for the most enticing one. When ‘The Lady Alex’ departed on Sunday evenings, the trumpeter from the band stood on a vantage point playing: “When it comes to the End of a Perfect Day,” as the ferry left the cove. Bowen was known as “The Happy Isle”in those days.
That way of life ended when the Lions Gate Bridge was built in 1939, the war years came, and people had money for cars and a new ferry system evolved.
Dora and her husband Dick bought land on the lagoon and began to build their home, living in the basement and planning the structure above. Sadly Dick died in 1980 when he was only 63 years old. Eventually the house was completed and Dora began to look for new outlets. Her son took her to SKY, she liked its range of activities and today Dora is our longest serving board member. She will be missed, but she leaves an inspiring role model to follow.
Sincerely,
Bev Rogers
