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Ruth Eger
In Memory of
Ruth Gladys
Eger
1919 - 2014
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Obituary for Ruth Gladys Eger

Ruth Gladys  Eger
Eger, Ruth ‘Gladys’ passed away peacefully with family by her side on Sunday July 27, 2014 in her 95th year. Beloved wife of the late Fritz Eger. Loving mother to Albert (Bette-lyn), Ronald(predeceased) (Mary); Judith (James), Tim (Marilyn), Douglas (Jacqueline). Cherished grandmother to Acron and Vija (predeceased), Aaron and Richelle; Stephen(Heidi), Gillian(Kevin), Elizabeth, Ryan(Flor) and Ashley; Jonathan(Chelsey) and David(Colleen); James(Amber) and Alec(Alanna). Great-grandmother to Sebastian, Evie, Ruby, Davis, Camden, Clark, Nico, Nathan and Ben. A memorial service will be held Saturday August 2, 2014 at 2:00 p.m at Fawcett Funeral Homes 82 Pine Street, Collingwood. Another memorial service will take place at Dryden First United Church with interment at Dryden Cemetery at a later date. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Dryden Children’s Resource Centre 113 Albert Street, Dryden, ON P8N 1J1


Life Story

A Pioneer and Woman of Vision ( 1919- 2014 )

Ruth Gladys Eger (nee Lyon), was born in West Selkirk, Manitoba in September 1919,
the second daughter of Albert and Anna Lyon. Albert Lyon (1896 -1985) or Bert as he
was called, was of Scottish and English background, whose father had come to Canada
from Scotland about 1883 to work for the Hudson's Bay company in Manitoba. Anna
Lyon (1896 -1996), nee Kamman, was of Dutch background and had emigrated with her
family from Amsterdam in 1906. Her father was a Carriage Maker by trade.

Bert was a Station Agent with the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) in various small
communities across Manitoba, north western Ontario, and Saskatchewan. According to
family lore, he and Anna met on a city street car in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They were
married in June 1916 and had five children; Verna, Gladys, Audrey, Norma and Joy.

Gladys’ formative years were in Dinorwic, Ontario, a small hamlet in north western
Ontario where Bert was the CPR Station Agent. The family lived in the CPR station
which acted as a social hub for the community. Community residents would often come
to the station to socialize and listen to the radio. The train was the only transportation
link into or out of the community as the transcontinental highway had not yet been built
through that part of north western Ontario.

Gladys started school in 1925 and remembered crying the first day and falling asleep
the second day. She graduated from Grade Ten. She also studied the piano and as a
young girl would take the local train to Dryden for weekly piano lessons. They cost 50
cents per lesson. She graduated with a Grade Eleven from the Royal Conservatory of
Music and enjoyed the piano for her entire life.

As a young girl she often helped her father by running down the station platform to pick
up discarded train order hoops. Bert would hold up the hoops containing dispatch
orders, which were wired to the CPR agent for the train engineer who would slow the
freight train in order to grab the hoop. After pulling the orders from the hoop, the
engineer would discard the wooden hoop which Gladys would run to pick up.

Gladys first met her husband-to-be Fritz Eger in Dinorwic in the late 1920’s. His parents
had emigrated from Germany in 1910. At one point she persuaded Fritz to make her a
pair of snow skis.They become a couple in the late 1930‘s. Gladys' first job was that of a
House Keeper for a family in Petersfield, Manitoba. Fritz and Gladys were married in
September 1939 in Lenore, Manitoba, where Gladys’ father was then working. They
went to Victoria and Vancouver, BC for their honeymoon and danced to “Let me call you
Sweetheart” .

While living in Dinorwic, Gladys and Fritz had three children; Albert (1941), Ronald
(1943) and Judith (1946) and lived on a small farm. Fritz cut pulp wood for Dryden
Paper Company, bought wild rice from the First Nations people of the area for the
Hudson's Bay Company, made railway ties by hand, worked for the CPR on the section
gang and as a Fireman shovelled coal into the steam locomotive's fire box on the
Ignace to Kenora CPR freight train run.

Fritz would wave his white handkerchief to Gladys and family when the train he was
working on went through Dinorwic. Gladys and children would wave back. Before too
long, other workman on other trains were doing the same thing as they steamed
through Dinorwic!

As a young mother, Gladys was busy raising the children and looking after their home,
as Fritz often worked in the bush or away from home. There was no running water or
electricity. Water had to be carried from a neighbour’s well situated across the tracks or
melted from near-by snow, on the kitchen wood stove. Home made bread was always
available. The older children started their education in a one room school. Gladys
bought their butter from Fritz’s father, Frederick, whose family churned it by hand.

As Dinorwic had no high school, Gladys and Fritz decided to move to Dryden. In the fall
of 1947 Fritz and his brother-in-law George Diem, a cabinet maker, built a shop at 123
Queen Street, Dryden. Diem & Eger, a Glass, Sash and Woodworking business was
opened in 1948. Fritz lived in Dryden and on the weekend, commuted to Dinorwic
where the rest of the family still lived until the fall of 1949 when Gladys, Albert, Ron, and
Judith also moved to Dryden. The family lived in an apartment above the shop. Tim was
born in Dryden in 1950 and Douglas in 1953.

Gladys always encouraged the independence and creativity of her children. They built
wooden toys and forts of wood and snow. They played in the bush and even at a young
age were allowed to camp overnight and to swim in, and boat or canoe on various lakes
near Dryden. They were taught to fish and how to cook a meal over an open fire. She
also taught them the value of work and they learned to pick berries and mushrooms as
children.

Often, during the summer, Gladys would drive the children 200 miles to Winnipeg to see
a musical performance at Rainbow Stage in Assiniboine Park. She encouraged them to
play the piano and sports. She would also take them by train to Saskatchewan to visit
her parents and to play Canasta. They too learned to love the sounds of passing trains
and to run down the train station platform to pick up train order hoops, after the trains
had rolled by.

Throughout her life in Dryden, Gladys was heavily involved with children in the
community; initially through the Sunday School at First United Church of Dryden, then
later as a Nursery School Teacher at the Dryden Cooperative Nursery School. To further her education, she completed high school courses at Dryden High School and training in early childhood education at Seneca College in Toronto, in 1970.

She helped with the establishment of the nursery school and became the Director circa
1968 . She developed one of the first integrated nursery programs in Ontario where
handicapped children could attend the main stream nursery school. She was a regular
attendee at Town council meetings in order to advocate for public financial assistance
for Town children. The Town of Dryden recognized her contributions to the community
when in May 1992, the new Dryden Children’s Resource Centre was dedicated to her
vision and work.

Gladys was always proud of her children who all graduated from Dryden High School
and attended universities across Canada and the USA. Albert became a Professor at
McGill University and returned to British Columbia to raise Andalusian horses at
Robert’s Creek. Ron ( deceased in 2009) became a physician practicing in Port Alberni,
British Columbia and then Beaumont, Texas. Judith became a Curator of Mammals
with the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Tim became a Public Servant specializing in
Aboriginal Affairs with the Government of Ontario at Queen’s Park, Toronto. Douglas
became an Energy Trader with Powerex, a BC Hydro corporation in Vancouver, BC.
The children were always proud of their northern Ontario roots and thankful of Gladys’ and Fritz's determination that they obtain a good education.

In June 1977, Fritz and business partner George Diem sold their firm and subsequently
retired. By that time, Gladys and Fritz had moved to their retirement home on Maple
Road, on Lake Wabigoon, in Barclay Township. For a number of years they looked after
Gladys’ elderly parents, who lived with them. Gladys helped Fritz with his honey bees,
was active in the United Church, took up painting and supported her sons and daughter
living in Canada and the USA. They lived on Lake Wabigoon until Fritz passed away in
March 1990. Gladys found solace in her art, poetry, family and faith.

In 1993 Gladys moved to Toronto to be nearer to her family. She lived with Judith and
her husband James and helped with the raising of their young children in Leaside. She
attended Leaside United Church. In May 2003, Gladys moved to Oakville, to live at
Sunrise Assisted Living of Oakville. Gladys always had the ability to make critical
decisions with foresight. In May 2010 she moved to Collingwood, to the Collingwood
Nursing Home to be nearer to Judith and James, Tim and Marilyn, and Douglas and
Jacqui who were moving there.

Gladys was blessed with thirteen grandchildren and nine great grandchildren and
looked forward to their visits, letters, photos and phone calls. Her husband, children,
extended family and faith were the foundations of her life. While in Collingwood, she
enjoyed reminiscing about her life in Dinorwic, Dryden, Barclay, Toronto and Oakville.
She also enjoyed her new adventures in Collingwood including shopping trips to Zellars,
dinners at Swiss Chalet and at the Shipyards, church services at the Collingwood
Nursing Home, and picnics at Sunset Point. She died peacefully on July 27, 2014. She
is dearly missed.

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Life Story for Ruth Gladys Eger


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