Winnipeg woman, 98, packs up a lifetime of memories
A 98-year-old Winnipeg woman, linked to the famous painting "The Spirit of '76," an iconic image of the American Revolutionary War showing three musicians on a battlefield, is leaving the house she's called home for nearly a century.
Gail Carruthers first lived in the house on Rathgar Avenue in the Lord Roberts neighbourhood when she was just a baby in 1917.
"1917, a baby, a brand new house. Nobody else has lived here except my family," Carruthers said.
Carruthers is visually impaired and has mobility issues, so she has sold the house and is moving into an extended care home in March.
As she packs up her possessions from a long life, some treasures are being sent to a museum in Ohio to honour her family's famous connection to The Spirit of '76 by American painter Archibald Willard. Carruthers is the great-granddaughter of Hugh Mosher, the fifer depicted in the painting.
A secretary desk that belonged to Mosher's brother, made before 1850, is among the items being shipped to the museum.
"There were letters in it from the battlefield of the Civil War," Carruthers said.
But Carruthers is taking the print the famous painting she's had for decades with her to her new home. She got it for 50 cents during a promotion by Carnation Evaporated Milk.
Some things will be left behind, like an old, black rotary phone that's attached to a wall in the hallway that has been there for as long as she can remember.
"I don't know what's going to happen to it when I move," she said.
Hard to leave
Leaving the house, virtually unchanged since the day it was built, with original hardwood floors, won't be easy for Carruthers. "I had tears, but I have to," she said. "I thought I could do everything and I think I still could if my legs were okay."
"I thought I'd stay until I died, and I would have if I could have, but I can't," she said.
"I don't like going, but maybe when I get there I'll say — why didn't I do it sooner? They tell me some people say that."
Along with so many memories of her Rathgar Avenue home, Carruthers also remembers a Winnipeg from her youth that's so very different from Winnipeg today. It was a time when she played with a ball on the wooden sidewalk in front of her house, followed the iceman down the dirt street and waited for a chance to sneak some ice chips and took a streetcar to Kelvin High School.
"There was a special street car that all the kids from this neighbourhood, who could afford it, took. Some kids couldn't afford it. The tickets were eight for a quarter and some kids walked. I don't know how they did it when it was 40 below."
Carruthers has even earlier memories, of being a young child and going with her mother to the Santa Claus Parade. "We sat in front of the hole, where they were starting to build The Bay."
At the age of 98, Carruthers is still quite active. She belongs to a glee club, plays bridge and shuffleboard and goes out for groceries with a helper.
Her advice for leading a long life?
"Start getting rid of your stuff when you turn 80," she said. "I mean, when I was 80 I was still washing the ceiling. Start getting rid of your stuff."
