Contributed by Laura Stovel, Community Response Network Coordinator
Source: Revelstoke Senior Life
Sherrin Davis knows a thing or two about being calm under pressure. In 1966, when she gave birth to her youngest child, Lorelie, she was alone at her home in Victoria. “That night I phoned Mom and said, ‘I think tonight’s the night.’ Her parents had visitors over for tea so her mother said they would come after they left.
“Then things really picked up in speed,” Sherrin said. “I had two baby boys in cribs. The baby came fast and furious.” Sherrin delivered Lorelie herself, then “I thought maybe I needed to protect my body and her body though I didn’t know why we did this. I was a seamstress so I went to the sewing machine, got bias tape and tied the umbilical cord.”
The next challenge was to call for help. In those days, phones were high on the wall. Sherrin made her way to the phone but she couldn’t let go of the baby to reach it.
“I was figuring out how to do this when I saw the lights of my parents’ car coming up the driveway. So when they opened the door I was standing with Lorelie between my legs at the phone. That’s the vision they had of this baby. And she was just making very soft, googly, contented baby sounds,” she recalled.
Sherrin Grainger was born in Moosejaw, Sask. in 1942. Her family moved to Oliver, then to Victoria, where she graduated from high school. Shortly after graduation, her friends set her up to meet her husband-to-be, Lawrence, who was studying marine engineering with the navy.
She was attracted to Lawrence because he had a great sense of humour and he liked to play the guitar and sing. They were married in 1961.
Lawrence was posted to the naval base at his home town of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia soon after they were married. Three years later, Lawrence left the navy and the couple moved with their first child, Richard, back to Victoria, where Sherrin had family support.
After the youngest children, David and Lorelie, were born, the family moved to Fauquier, a community by the Columbia River south of Nakusp, so that Lawrence could work on the Fauquier-Needles ferry.
Fauquier was a wonderful place to raise children, she said. “The freedom for our kids was so good. Our house was up on a hill and there was a playground below so I could see where they were. Also, we had a cowbell and at supper time I would ring it. They could hear it all over town and if they didn’t there was always someone who said to them, “Did you not hear your mother ring the cowbell?”
Lawrence was a fine horseman and a competitive barrel racer and Lorelie fondly remembers him taking her to local gymkhanas. He bought her a horse and taught her to ride.
“As kids, our outings would be huckleberry or mushroom picking or getting wood,” Lorelie said. “My favorite parts of those trips would be the lunches that Mom would pack. She would buy chocolate bars from the store, which we didn’t usually get.
One time when we were mushroom picking. Dad found a grade-A pine mushroom, a beauty but it was sort of down a cliff. The only way we could get it was for Dad to hang me over a cliff so I could get at it.” Sherrin, who enjoyed watercolour painting, memorialized that hair-raising event in a painting.
“If the hill where we were picking was very steep, Lawrence would throw a rope up then climb up and secure it,” Sherrin said. “Then we could get up a hill. Sometimes it was so steep that I’d be hanging onto the rope with one hand and trying to pick a couple of mushrooms.”
After the kids left home, Sherrin and Lawrence moved to Revelstoke and Lawrence worked on the Shelter Bay ferry. They bought the Stone Castle, a beautiful stone house just west of Revelstoke, and turned it into a bed and breakfast. They also co-owned and managed the Bottle Depot for a while.
Tragically, while they were still running the Stone Castle, their middle child, David, was returning home from his work with forestry when he was struck and killed by a drunk driver. It’s a pain that you never recover from. (Sherrin wanted this mentioned in this article to show the heartache caused by drinking and driving).
When they retired, Lawrence and Sherrin stayed busy. They continued to pick huckleberries and mushrooms, cherishing their secret spots. Lawrence played guitar and sang in the Selkirk Ramblers band that played at seniors’ residences. When he was not in his ‘man cave’ (workshop), he grew a huge garden and had plenty to share with friends and neighbours.
Sherrin was one of the first members of the Golden Girls, a watercolour painting group based at the Visual Arts Centre. She participated in several exhibitions with them. She and Lawrence also competed in the B.C. Seniors Games – Lawrence in swimming and Sherrin in bowling.
Now in their 80s and experiencing declining health, Lawrence and Sherrin are faced with the reality that they need more support. They have made the difficult decision to move to Vancouver Island to be closer to their family. “We wanted to live here until the day we died. We wanted to stay where David was buried. But now we need family to help us,” Sherrin said.
The Revelstoke Community Response Network is a committee of service providers, including the City, Interior Health, and several nonprofits that work together to prevent adult abuse and support vulnerable adults.
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