When I walked into Dolores Kivi’s home I immediately knew that I was surrounded by love. Dolores’ bookshelves were full and the sounds of The Tennessee Waltz played in the background. A binder lay open on a chair displaying a poem Dolores had written as a nine-year old in 1935.
She was reminiscing, she said, before I came over and reminiscing usually meant reading some of the things she had written: poems, love-letters to her beloved husband Alf, and her newspaper columns.
At nearly 92, she had just written her last Council on Positive Aging column in The Chronicle-Journal. It takes commitment, tenacity, ideas and talent to write a column; a gentle editor with reminders and an editing pen helps too! It then takes guts to share that column with the hope that it resonates with readers.
Dolores wants people to appreciate the little things around them. Her columns inspired people stop, think and act. She became a friend to readers long before The Internet and World Wide Web.
A collection of her musings and those of Betty Chalmers, were published in a book called Two Ladies and A Column but many readers, like myself, have clipped Kivi columns out of the newspaper to save and share.
Dolores doesn’t believe in the concept of retirement. Her writing career continued to age 91 and she nursed until she was 70. That part-time nursing career started at age 17. Too young to get into nursing school at St. Joseph’s Hospital, she worked as a nurses’ aide at the local Sanitarium. It was a challenging role but she took to it and when she was 18, she enrolled in nursing training.
At age 16 she had met the love of her life for only about two hours when they shared a seat on the westbound CP train. They met again 3 years and 7 months later after he came back from overseas with The Lake Superior Regiment. “It was Christmas Day when Alf and I met,” Dolores recounted about her late husband, Alf Kivi. “I lived in Finmark and had always wanted to go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. My parents let me go one year. I took the train and I stayed with family friends.
I nearly missed the train because the alarm clock hadn’t gone off! I remember the train man beckoning for me to run! I got on the train and the first car, then the second car were packed with soldiers. Some of them looked unhappy. I just kept walking through the train. I saw a soldier sitting at the back of the car and he had his feet up on the seat. He was holding the seat for his sister who would be getting on in Fort William but he let me sit in that seat! I must have charmed him because years later he said he fell in love with me that morning! He left for overseas some months later with the Lake Superior Regiment and I was almost 20 when we met again. We got married soon after that.”
The couple raised four children and Alf, with the part-time help of Dolores, ran the Kivi Service Station five miles west of Sunshine, Ontario. It was a busy and fulfilling life. When Dolores suggested that she would like to go back to school to become a Registered Nurse (RN), Alf and her children were behind her. Alf said that he wanted her to get first-class standing! And that she did! In 1963 she graduated from the School of Nursing at St. Joseph’s Hospital with the Gold Medal (highest marks) and two other medals. She was the first married woman to graduate from the Nursing School at St. Joseph’s Hospital. As this was in the early 1960’s, it was possible to be a married woman in a nursing program usually because of the permission and encouragement of her husband. They lived in the nurses residence during their schooling but Dolores, who lived at home, was also able to stay in the residence when the weather was bad. Today, she still gets together with the classmates from that class that live in Thunder Bay and those medals that she received at her graduation are now in the collection of the Thunder Bay Museum.
Medals are given to people for a job well done. In Dolores Kivi’s case, there isn’t a medal big enough or shiny enough to demonstrate how much she has meant to so many. As a wife, mother, grand-mother, writer and Registered Nurse, the many gifts that she has shared in her lifetime have helped make our world a little brighter, lighter and friendlier. Here is an excerpt from one of my favourite Kivi columns:
Today I decided to make a short list of little happenings that have, for decades now, brought joy to me in summer.
In no particular order then here are a couple of things that have made my eyes twinkle and my heart sing:
- Bringing a new book (or magazine) home from a bookstore or library
- Having a grandchild or child demonstrate a trait or a gift of mine which I am both joyfully happy and proud to see passed on.
- Receiving an unexpected postcard or letter from a distant land.
- Making and tasting, and feasting on delicious homemade soup.
- Finding a ripe tomato on one of the few plants I usually have annually. They can make a weekend treat or a part of the daily menu.
- Northern lights ablaze in the night sky.
- Flying in small planes at 10,000 feet or lower. The views are usually fantastic.
- Reading stories to children.
- Pussy willows in spring.
These items are not complete but they make a fair start in Northwestern Ontario. Viewing them, can make for happier days, days of delight and twinkles of happiness that often affect us more than we might think. It can bring much joy to store up a few more memories as the seasons pass by.
Dolores Kivi is an original. Take her advice and make memories every day. She has done that every step of her journey and she has inspired many to do the same!
