Stories

Honoured by Donald, John and Peter Moseley-Williams and their families.

On behalf of Derry and Stella’s three sons, their spouses, 10 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, we would like to tell the story of their lives and how they were involved with the North Bay Waterfront.

Thurston Derrick   (Derry)  Moseley-Williams was born on May17^th, 1915 in Latchford, Ontario, the son of Thurston Moseley-Williams (1888-1959) of Manchester, England and Mabel Foot (1887-1976) of Parry Sound, Ontario.

Derry was the eldest brother to Mary-1916, Walter-1918, Edward (Ted)-1919, Barbara-1923, Gerald-1925 and Elizabeth-1931. The Moseley-Williams family moved from Latchford   to spend the twenties in New Liskeard and Hailebury, including the Great Hailebury  Fire of 1922. With the advent of the “great depression” the family moved to Timmins and then North Bay in the mid- thirties.

Derry finished his education in Hailebury and worked for a short time in Timmins before joining Silverwood’s Dairy in North Bay in the mid 1930’s. Derry played baseball, cards (cribbage) and enjoyed fishing-especially on Lake Temagami, where he would spend wonderful times with his brothers, family and friends for the rest of his life.

Stella Marie Lydford was born on March 1^st, 1920 in Bournemouth, England, the daughter of Harold O. Lydford (1888-1969) of Bournemouth, England and Emily Hyde (1887-1964) of Northants, England.

Stella was the third child, with older sisters   Muriel -1915 and Gwen -1917 and younger brother Jack -1922. The Lydford’s immigrated to Canada in 1923 and lived in Toronto, Niagara-on the Lake and Pembroke before moving to North Bay in 1934.

Stella completed her education at North Bay CI&VS and joined the office staff of Richardson’s Hardware in 1937.  She later worked for the CNR and Mr. J.W. Trussler.  Stella enjoyed photography, sewing and helping her father with the Boy Scout program at Trinity United Church.

Derry and Stella were married at Trinity United Church in North Bay on September 13^th, 1941.

The couple have three sons, Donald James- 1944, John Walter- 1946 and Peter Harold- 1948.

From 1946 to 1959 Derry and Stella owned and operated “Derry’s Lunch” at 382 Algonquin Ave. The restaurant was a favorite spot for business people and students from the local high schools.  They were both involved in many social and fund raising events in the community.

Derry was an active member of the North Bay Kinsmen Club. He also coached the Bourke Street playground Bantam Fastball team (10-12 year olds) for several   years. The team enjoyed a pop at the restaurant after every win.

Stella was an active member of the Kinette Club and especially enjoyed making dolls clothes to be sold at the Christmas Tea as a fundraiser for her club.

During these years Derry and Stella rented cottages on Trout Lake for the month of August. Sullivan’s Cabins at Anita Avenue and Highway 63 and the Bona Vista Cabins on Dugas Bay.

In June 1959 they sold the restaurant and bought their first home at 492 Greenwood Avenue.

Derry took over the bait business, snack bar and long term parking (for French River summer residents who used the Chief Commanda to get to their cottages) at the government dock.  This was a time when the waterfront was a sandy parking lot and some storage sheds for Young’s Marine.   He later added the Dickie Dee ice cream carts to his summer businesses.

In the winter he was Manager of the North Bay Granite Curling Club, where he was known to serve “spicy” chili at many bonspiels.  Derry enjoyed curling in many bonspiels for the competitiveness and fellowship.

He was a member of the Association Canadian Travellers and the North Bay Legion Branch 23.

Derry died in September 1975 at the age of 60.

After selling the restaurant in 1959 Stella went to work as a secretary. In the spring of 1963 Mr. Bishop, Principal of Chippewa Secondary School, asked Stella to start teaching a Girls Two Year Occupational Program.  This program involved teaching hairdressing, cooking, baby care, retailing and personal finances. This was to give the students a better opportunity to find meaningful employment after graduation.    Stella attended night and summer  school through Nipissing University and received her BA in Geography in 1979. Stella took a sabbatical in 1978/79 and attended the University Of Syracuse, New York and the University of Canberra, in Australia, to further her education with “challenged students”.

Over the next three decades she was able to travel extensively and saw much of the world. In all Stella did 48 trips, 42 outside of Canada, including India, Russia, China and Australia three times.  In Canada she saw every province and the Yukon and Northwest Territories. She also enjoyed gardening, painting in oils and water colours, golfing, curling, sewing her own clothes and re-decorating her home.

Stella retired in June 1984 after completing 21 years of teaching at Chippewa Secondary School.

In 1986 Stella moved to the Woodland Condos on Lindsay Street.  She lived there until 2009 when she moved into the Empire Living Centre.

Stella was an active member of the North Bay Literacy Council (President for 3 terms) and in 2006 she received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award for 25 years of active participation. She was also a member of North Bay Living Fit and enjoyed the activities and outings.  She participated on her condo board and the Board of TrinityUnited Church.

In 1997 Stella joined the North Bay Heritage Gardeners and became a “Master Gardener”.  For the next decade she and her team cared for the flower gardens behind the park bench dedicated to Derry at the waterfront. The bench is situated in the area where he had had his businesses for 16 years.

On the bench the inscription reads –

“If only you could see the waterfront now.”    

Honoured by the Merritt children and the Holtzendorff Brothers.

Ute Barbara Merritt, nee von Holtzendorff, was born on the 4th of May 1956, in London, Ontario. She was the first of four children born to Arndt and Ursula von Holtzendorff, German immigrants new to Canada.

On August 20th, 2011 12:50 pm E.S.T Ute perished in a plane crash, with eleven other people on board First Air flight 6560 near Resolute Bay, Nunavut. Only three survived. This catastrophic news shocked and deeply saddened family, friends and people globally. Ute was a youthful 55 years old.

Ute was a sister, daughter, wife, mother and recent grandmother. She was a great friend and colleague to so many others in her life. Her loss touched all those who knew her. Between her birth and death Ute lived a full life; and while many words have been used to describe Ute and her life by those who loved her, one word seems to be common to all who speak of her – special.

Some weeks after Ute’s death a friend of hers remarked, “Ute was special”. Yes, special. Ute was special to her family, that was obvious, but after her death it became clear that Ute was special to all who knew her and even more than this, that she had the ability to turn the ordinary into something special. One of her cousins remembered how with Ute even the tedious job of washing piles of dishes after a large family gathering became a fun and interactive event.

Already in childhood Ute had something unique about her. When she travelled to Germany at an early age she impressed all her relatives with wonderful stories of Canada and family, or tales of cats and lakes. Living in North Bay, she was always next to water, and so perhaps it’s no great surprise that she would later choose to settle down in Yellowknife, on the shores of Great Slave Lake.

Ute loved games of imagination. Her specialness found expression in the imaginative games she invented and played with her younger siblings and cousins. One of these was the Alley Cat Club. To be admitted, on had to leap from the garage roof into a snowdrift, or slide down the staircase on your bottom. Only once you’d proved your mettle, were you admitted as a member and awarded the badge of honour that Ute had made – a black cat on a yellow circle.

In high school, Ute continued to shine. Although an excellent student who loved to learn, it was in musical theatre where her real passion and talent came to centre stage. In one of her roles she played the famous Eliza Doolittle, from My Fair Lady, to great acclaim. Ute had a beautiful and pure singing voice but she could act as well. She loved and worked hard on those dramatic roles. Her brothers still recall her practicing the cockney accent required for Eliza: “Oim a good gel oi em” (I’m a good girl I am). To this day, people fondly remember those performances.

Perhaps the biggest event in Ute’s early adult life was falling in love with a young tuba player in the pit orchestra for musicals in which she starred. James (Jim) Merritt, a young man of charm and ambition who was training as an aircraft mechanic and pilot, was to be Ute’s co-pilot for this adventure. Did his dark and dashing good looks remind Ute of Mr. Spock (the only true rival for Ute’s affections, as Jim himself noted)? Following a whirlwind romance (involving but not limited to: dramatic fire-escape escapades, exciting plane rides, poetry, awkward dancing, and plowing his future father-in-law’s driveway) at 19 years old, Ute and Jim were wed and Ute became Ute Merritt. With the Merritt name, Ute had a second family in the form of Jim’s parents and siblings. Just as Jim became part of the Holtzendorffs, so Ute was welcomed within the Merritt family. Ute and Jim were to be together until her death; they had five children together. Ute’s children soon became the main focus in her life and she was truly proud of what they all became: confident and beautiful, talented and kind. Some of her children are now parents themselves and all were touched by (and have a touch of) that spark of Ute’s specialness.
Ute was a wonderful mother. As her daughter Sam said, “she loved us just enough.” Ute managed to strike that elusive parenting balance between freedom and sheltering. It was amazing how there would seem to be a whirl of chaotic activity all around Ute, who seemed calm and unconcerned in the middle of it, and then, with catlike movement Ute would spring into action to prevent some impending catastrophe. But more change was soon to come: the Salvation Army.

Jim found organized religion and Ute’s faith too found and expression within the Salvation Army. They spent two years in training to be Army Officers and upon graduation they went to preach the Word, wherever the Army dispatched them. Ute’s specialness shone once more in her role as army Captain; with her intellect and writing talent she produced insightful sermons, and once again her musical ability came to the fore as she sang with joy that was sincere and heartfelt. She was celebrated in the Army’s magazine as a woman of compassion, gentleness, and wisdom. Ute’s deep love of God and people, her humility and her imagination and creativity made her someone whom coworkers and loved ones praised at her memorial and long after. All of them again used that word, special.

After leaving the army, Jim, who had kept up his flying skills while being the spiritual kind of captain, now was an aircraft captain again, and Ute also found a new calling. She began to work alongside Jim as a Customer Service agent. During these years Ute seemed to find real contentment. She was happy with her work and the freedom it gave her to enjoy leisure pursuits such as sailing and walking her two dogs, and of course, spending time with family and friends. She was overjoyed to become a grandmother, twice over, with the birth of Viktor and Edward. Ute welcomed her two daughters-in-law and treated them like her own daughters. Ute also enjoyed the camaraderie of her co-workers who were impressed by her ‘joie de vivre’. One of Ute’s colleagues commented that Ute was always perky and smiling, and worked very well under pressure. Soon she moved on to be a flight attendant, fulfilling an old dream from her adolescence. Here, her love of helping people, which she had begun to practice in the Sally Ann, and her love of flying (Ute also had her wings, becoming a pilot at age 20) were united in the person her colleagues and passengers saw. Seldom was she seen without her smile. Many have commented on Ute’s smile: in fact her children remarked recently that it was a challenge to find a photo in which their Mom was not smiling.

In recent years Ute returned to her love of wind and water with a new passion – sailing. She and Jim won many trophies and made new friends on their sailboat Checkmate. Their tee-totaling days of the Salvation Army were over, now replaced with moderate enjoyment of a good glass of wine and sailor’s grog. As she left for work on August 20th, Ute seemed a contented person. She enjoyed her job, she loved her family, and she loved her life. In the photo of her at the helm of their new boat, Arcturus (named after the brightest star in the northern hemisphere), taken only weeks before her death, something enigmatic and triumphant can be seen breaking through in Ute’s smile. To describe that charm and beauty, that strength and joy of Ute’s smile would be a challenge for the greatest of poets and it is fitting therefore that Ute’s children turned to literature, choosing a quotation from the Narnia novels of C.S. Lewis (a man who knew a lot about specialness), to celebrate their mother’s life.

The painting in question was of a ship. More importantly, it was of a Narnian ship. The prow of the ship was a gilded dragon. There was one mast with a large, purple, square sail. What was visible of the sides of the ship was a rich green color.
The ship was most assuredly Narnian, and it reminded the children of their reason for being there.

“The question is whether it doesn’t make things worse, looking at a Narnian ship when you can’t get there,” Edmund asked that afternoon.

“Even looking is better than nothing,” Lucy sighed. “And she is such a Narnian ship.”
C.S. Lewis, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader