Rank: Private
Second youngest child of Robert Alexander Love (farmer of Irish ancestry) and Sarah Jane Love (nee Harris – teacher of British ancestry), Elliott Alexander Love was born on October 10, 1917 on the family farm near Boissevain, Manitoba, the only boy among 5 sisters whom he loved visiting throughout his life after they married (Betty Ford-Bezanson; Ruth Hilton-Edmonton; Florence Kent-Winnipeg/Kelowna; Muriel Lea-Red Deer and Phyllis Whittall-Port Alberni). Elliott was adored by his sisters due to his work ethic, kindness and very funny low-key gentle sense of humor. The family worked three quarter sections in Boissevain, MB, for many years before Elliott’s dad, Alex, made enough money trading on the Winnipeg Grain Exchange to move the entire Love family to Winnipeg in 1929 where, for a brief period, the family traded the toils of the farming life for a life of relative leisure in the big city where Elliott had a job delivering groceries on a three wheeled bicycle for the Wiggly Piggly grocery store. Alex was a daily fixture at the Winnipeg Grain Exchange before the October crash of 1929 caused him and countless others to lose everything. Too proud to return to farm in Boissevain or return to his birth community in Morden, MB, chagrined Alex packed the family and 12-year-old Elliott up to return to farming anew, buying three quarters from Tom Rice near Bezanson, AB. Elliott left school in grade 8 to work full time on the farm.
After volunteering to serve in WWll on June 24/40, Elliott undertook basic training before being granted temporary harvest leave on August 25/40 to bring in farm crops. There he suffered a wound to his foot chopping firewood and a case of gangrene necessitated that his leg be amputated in September of 1940 before a planned army posting overseas. He was subsequently discharged as physically unfit for military service on March 3, 1941. After being hospitalized in Peace River, he spent several years convalescing before finding work he could physically handle, which would have been difficult having left school young to work on the family farm, the only occupation he had known. He enrolled in a Radio & Electronics course in Calgary from which he graduated in 1945. 1946 found him working in Kelowna, BC, for the insurance firm Whillis and Gaddes (Dr. Gaddes was a war veteran from Saskatchewan). While living in Grandma Bains Rooming House he met his future wife, Grace Gudrun Olafson, who had also moved to Kelowna from Winnipeg in 1946 after giving up her job to returning WWII servicemen, taking a secretarial job at BC Tree Fruits in Kelowna at age 24. Grace was impressed with Elliott because he was very self-sufficient and could not only cook, but ironed his own clothes. No big deal for a self-sufficient farm boy of that era!
Elliott and Grace married in 1947 and they first lived in one of the small cottages behind the Willow Inn in Kelowna before buying their first home on Leon Avenue in about 1949, then into a bigger home on Water Street in 1954 with their two children (Barbara – August/50; Robert – January/54).
Grace was a Winnipeg born city girl of Icelandic heritage and she encouraged Elliott to take night school courses to become an accountant so he could work in an office environment. Elliott graduated as an RIA (Registered Industrial Accountant) and, in 1956, moved his family to Penticton, BC, to work in the regional Federal Income Taxation office. He was also a member of the Rotary service group. In 1965, Elliott took a promotion to work in Ottawa where the family lived in the Elmvale Acres neighborhood until 1970, when they transferred to North Vancouver for Elliott to be the new Chief of the Source Deductions department, then located on Georgia Street in downtown Vancouver. His wife Grace was delighted with the move as she had 4 brothers living in the Vancouver area at that time.
The family took many summer vacations driving from both Penticton or Ottawa to visit both Bezanson, AB and Elliott’s farm birthplace outside Boissevain, MB, as well as trips to Winnipeg and Gimli, MB where Grace’s Icelandic family holidayed.
Elliott retired from Revenue Canada in 1979 after a successful 33-year career in the public service. In his late 50’s, Elliott decided to pursue a hobby making stained glass lamps, ornaments and windows and for years he was a regular with his sales booth at the many Christmas craft fairs in North and West Vancouver – a hobby that he continued in his little shop at his home on Colwood Drive in North Vancouver where he lived happily for 34 years well into his 90’s.
From about 2002 until 2011, Elliott faithfully made daily trips to see Grace at Capilano Care Home in West Vancouver where she lived with Alzheimer’s disease until her passing on Dec 31/11, having being married to Elliott for 64 years. Elliott also lived briefly at Capilano Care Home from mid 2011 until his passing on November 19/12.
Liked and respected by everyone, Elliott was typical of farm bred boys who worked hard, helped others, was loyal to friends & family, remained ever optimistic and maintained a wicked but respectful sense of humor throughout his life. He never lost the habit of getting to bed early, rising early and staying busy most days. He always had a sense of wonder about progress as his early farming experience with manual pump water wells, outhouses, chickens, a milking cow, horses, mules and donkeys were replaced by modern machinery, things that fly and cars that speed. His usual expressions were “things never stay the same” and “better days ahead”, which were really his requisites for optimism.
It is noted that Elliott, in his 80’s, finally avoided ironing his own clothes by buying wrinkle free shirts and pants! His children, Barbara and Robert, both live in North Vancouver and still make visits on contemplative days to seek Elliott and Grace’s advice where they rest in adjoining niches in Capilano View Cemetery, located along the beautiful Capilano River in West Vancouver.
“Things never stay the same!”
“Better days tomorrow!”
Written by Bob Love – son