Jane has just sent in her biography direct to the elderly web master and received much thanks especially for great photographs to enliven the text. Thanks again, Jane!
Biography the e-mail said. Well, I wasn't sure ...but as an afterthought, why not?
If it had not been for the tragic death of my father, I would never have set eyes on OBHS. I had been a student at St. Ann's Academy for 9 years. After his death I refused to go back to the "convent" and the nasty nuns. So reluctantly my mother agreed to send me and my sister into the real world and attend public school. My first day as a student at OBHS was rather mind-boggling. When I came home my mother asked me about my experience. I remember replying: "If I ever get bored, all I have to do is look around, and there are boys" You must realize that I had been protected for 13 years from any "boy" contact whatsoever.
My 3 years at OBHS were not too exciting, by today's standards. My mother would not permit me to participate in any after school activities, instead I was to walk home, lock the door and study! I broke the monotony with a steady job on weekends. I had a few friends but never felt like I was part of "the crowd".
I remember Mr. Reimer, I loved social studies and not just because Maureen Fanthorpe, Ellis Pryce-Jones and I wrote poems back and forth in his class. Why he never objected is anyone's guess. I also remember Mr. Huggett, "The Toad" in Latin class and of course my Typing teacher, Miss Piggott (I had a spare and took it as a lark). It was one of the most influential of all my courses as typing skills turned out to be very important in my later careers. My favourite and most influential teacher, however, was Bill West. He guided me along in my artistic pursuits.
I remember being on Bus 4 travelling through Europe for 4 weeks between Grades 11 and 12. I was bitten with the travel bug and except for hitch-hiking across Canada twice, travel was on hold for a long time. At 16 I left the nest and went out on my own. Attended UVIC. Enrolled in the BEd program and after 3 years transferred into the BFA program. I was the first student to qualify for a BFA degree in graphic arts. I only had one more year to earn my BEd degree, but didn't bother, time to travel on.
A short-lived union took me to Alberta where my life's journey continued, I taught art at night school at the UofA (Edmonton), was a high school teacher in Slave Lake and was involved in producing and directing community television in Edmonton I eventually became a legal secretary.
After 3 years of unbearable weather in Alberta and on my own again, I moved back to the Island and worked as a Deputy Sheriff and then a Court Clerk in Duncan for several years. Married a lawyer who was later appointed to the Supreme Court Bench and moved back to Victoria where I took up a career as a legal assistant for 25 years.
Golfing got in my blood and I became a member of the Victoria Golf Club in 1987. From 1999 to 2005 I challenged the Board of Directors and the BC Human Rights Commission to grant gender equity and was successful.
Through all my adventures, I have managed to cruise extensively throughout the world including the Nile, Amazon and Yangtze Rivers; self-published two cookbooks and am working on the third; have two sons from previous marriages and 5 grandchildren (22, 20, twins 11, 9 mos.) also 2 cats, calico Samantha and orange tabby, Max(imillian).
Oh yes, I still have that mouse!
Life goes on ...
Jane Murphy (Bonnie-Jane Lowman)
August 6, 2012, Victoria, BC
(attached photos - Toba Inlet, BC - July 2012)
(Samantha and Max cats)
