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Through Grace’s Eyes
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A window into the Annex at the start
of the 20th century
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| By Tom G. Kernaghan |
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| "Change your opinions, keep to your
principles; change your leaves, keep intact your roots." |
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Victor Hugo
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Five-year-old Grace Cooey sat on the running
board of the Model T Ford, dazed and blinking, her bright
green eyes regaining focus on the intersection of Bathurst
and Bloor streets, tresses of her sandy-brown hair poking out
from under her hat. Having slipped away from her mother,
she’d been hit by the Ford, thrown clean over its
hood, had bumped the back of the car on her way down before
finally landing on the road. Miraculously, the snow, along
with Grace’s winter gear, had kept her from harm.
Her mother, Susannah, of the Shuter family, was at her
side. Her father, Herbert William Cooey, founder of H.W.
Cooey Machine & Arms, creator of the Cooey .22 calibre
rifle, was busy working at his shop up at Howland and
Bridgman avenues.
The year was 1915. Though she could only sense it at the time,
Grace was poised on the verge of a new, urban Canada, and a
new century for women. As the years passed, Grace would tell
this story to many. A symbolic vignette, it conveyed what became
her keen awareness of the many changes underway in the world,
certainly in her part of it (Toronto’s Annex), and it
conveyed the importance of strength of character and endurance,
the vital and timeless human qualities inculcated in her
by her parents.
Grace Eleanor Cooey was raised on Bathurst hill, on the
present site of the Hillcrest Community School playground.
Junior to two brothers, Donald and Hubert, she grew to
become a woman who was known for her intelligence, resilience,
compassion, and, quite fittingly, her graciousness. Known
as “Cooey” to those dear to her, the precocious
and curious tomboy went on to skip two grades. She entered
Central Tech at age 12, and eventually was graduated from
U of T. She went on to weather The Great Depression, the
Second World War, many personal disappointments, and decades
of rapid technological change, all the while embracing
the growing
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Grace Eleanor Cooey
(left) in Toronto,
circa 1918, and a friend.
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ethnic diversity of the city; and extending decency to
everyone she met.
In 1929, Herbert moved the firearms plant to Cobourg,
and in 1931 Grace finished university, left the Annex,
and became a teacher in Galt. Eventually she married and
settled in Cobourg; however, the Annex never left her.
Quietly but heroically, she passed away in the summer
of 1998. Among the treasures she left behind were two
autograph books she’d kept during the 1920s and
early 30s. In them were written several sayings. Using
person quips, poetry, and insights, her many friends,
relatives and teachers immortalized their thoughts and
feelings about life and about Grace. In so doing they
left a window to their Toronto, and an appreciation for
what is timeless.
It was 1929, a year that saw The St. Valentine’s
Day Massacre, the first use of penicillin, Faulkner’s
Sound and Fury, Leon Trotsky expelled from the U.S.S.R,
the formation of Yugoslavia, the first round-the-world
dirigible flight (by Zeppelin), the beginning of a global
depression, and Hubble’s Law of the expanding universe.…
The date was March 9, 1929. Grace was 18 years old. The
Globe and Mail reported a “Bold City Hold-Up,”
in which seven local men (some from Euclid and Augusta
avenues) and a Buffalo cab driver had held up a church
payroll delivery vehicle, and then led police on a high-speed
chase to Oakville; the Atwater Kent radio sold for $4.00;
the Chrysler DeSoto Six sold for under $1,500.00; the
stock market crash that would change history loomed seven
months in the distance; and a dear friend of Grace’s
wrote: |
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She who enters Heaven’s gate,
A crown of faith must wear.
Each kindness done in love alone
Will make that crown more fair.
Though faith alone may let us in,
How much more blessed is she
Whose crown, with deeds of love, will shine
Through all eternity. |
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Your loving friend
Irene Shortread |
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Grace was my maternal grandmother. Join
me in the coming issues as I will reveal more and more
about her life. I invite you to visit our liveable neighbourhood,
as seen through the eyes of Grace and those whose lives
she touched so deeply.
(February 2004 -- the first installment of Through
Grace's Eyes, a monthly column in The Annex Gleaner.)
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