Member Portraits
Janine O'Leary Cobb
I had a peripatetic childhood, attending ten schools in Ottawa, New Brunswick, Montreal, and Toronto before graduating from high school. Denied university because of family finances, I moved from Ottawa to Toronto at age 19 to get a job in advertising (very glamorous in the 1950s) and it was there that I met the man who became my husband, Jack Cobb. We were married in 1957 and moved to Montreal in 1960, just before the birth of our first child.
For the next 15 years, I was a home-based wife and mother with my fifth and last child born in 1969. Starting in 1963, I attended evening university classes, graduating with an honours degree in 1975 and a masters in 1980. From 1976 to 1990, I taught humanities and sociology at Vanier CEGEP. I always felt that teaching was what I was born for.
We bought a computer for the children for Christmas 1985 and, intrigued by this new technology, I wrote a newsletter about menopause (and the sheer lack of information available on it) which I sent to eight or ten same-age friends who lived in various parts of Canada. One friend worked for a leading radio station in Toronto and she arranged for me to be interviewed on air. This led to a newspaper story about the newsletter and, within days, over 700 women had written to ask for information and/or for a copy of the newsletter. A new career was born.
As the demand for the newsletter mushroomed, I reluctantly decided to resign my teaching position to work full-time as writer, editor and publisher of A Friend Indeed and to write the book, Understanding Menopause, which--over the next 14 years--sold over 45,000 copies. Also, as the reputation of the newsletter grew, it led to speaking engagements across North America as well as in England, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia.
When I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1998, I decided to sell the newsletter and retire, but my interest in women’s health led to a membership in Breast Cancer Action Montreal, an advocacy group that sought to highlight the causes of breast cancer; I served on the board and as president.
In 1999, Jack and I tripped over the Unitarian Church and quickly became devoted members. Over the next 20 years, I was variously secretary to the Board, a coordinator of the Caring Network, a member of Telecrew, the producer of the e-bulletin, Week at a Glance, active in the 175th anniversary celebrations and, latterly, a Warden.
I can look back on many different stages of life -- as advertising assistant, housewife, student, teacher, author, editor — but my main and most important role was and is as proud mother of five next-generation Cobbs, each an independent, decent and caring individual and each a wonderful parent, blessing Jack and me with a brood of 13 superb grandchildren.
Jack Cobb
Jack Cobb and Rex Batten were both active members of the Fossils Club, a men’s club that wrote and staged a topical musical each May, with proceeds going to summer camps for disadvantaged children. One Saturday, Jack and Rex entered the Unitarian Church to attend a memorial service for a deceased club member, and were surprised and pleased to find a live jazz group playing in the Sanctuary. For Jack and Rex, finding live jazz in a church was a revelation, enough to induce them to attend services from then on
Jack took the news home to his wife, Janine (me), who had been curious about the Unitarian Church for some years and who was glad to accompany him to a service the next day. Within a few weeks, we had both decided to sign the membership book.
But this is Jack’s profile.
Jack was born in 1929 in Newbiggin-by-Sea, which sounds like an idyllic English village but was, in fact, a grubby coal mining town. His father was on active duty in the Royal Navy and shortly thereafter, took Jack and his mother north to live in Rosyth in Scotland.
In 1936, the family (now including two younger sisters) moved to Forest Hall, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. After completing his mandatory two-year military service (in the RAF) Jack began to think of making his way to some place far from home.
In 1952, he sold his beloved motor cycle to cover the fare to Halifax, and booked a crossing which took him, via boat train, to Toronto’s Union Station. He arrived with a cardboard suitcase and $20 in his wallet on Grey Cup Day, November 29th, 1952. He loved to tell people about the big parade that welcomed him to Canada!
Within a few weeks of his arrival he was hired by a national advertising agency (Cockfield Brown) which charitably advanced him money to buy a suit. That same year, Jack moved into an apartment with three other Toronto Scottish rugby teammates. Down the hallway was an apartment with four young ladies, one of whom caught his eye. On their first date, Jack told Janine that he would marry her. Janine laughed. Two years later, in October of 1957, Janine became Mrs. Jack Cobb. Who had the last laugh? In that same month, Jack moved from Cockfield Brown to another national advertising agency, McKim Advertising.
In 1959, Jack’s boss moved to Montreal and shortly thereafter, asked Jack to come and work with him. The move took place in February of 1960, a few months before the birth of their first child. Thus the Cobbs became Montrealers, proud citizens of N.D.G., living initially on Harvard Avenue and then, from 1965 onwards, on Wilson Avenue below Monkland. Four more Cobbs were born (1961, 1963, 1967 & 1969), each eventually enrolled at Notre Dame de Grâce elementary school.
Meanwhile, Jack climbed the ranks at McKim – from Assistant account executive to Account executive to Manager of accounts to Vice-president in charge of Eastern region (Quebec and the Maritimes).
However, as the agency grew, so did the emphasis on the bottom line. Jack felt that they had lost something significant when the stress shifted from the creative side (striking copy and illustrations) to the profit margin. When he couldn’t take it any longer, he resigned. He was 58, not yet at retirement age, and there was general consternation at the agency. However, he was determined.
In retirement, he continued the volunteer work he had been doing for years. He never lost the sense of how lucky he had been in his own life. In the early 60s, the Montreal Volunteer Bureau asked him to drive blind persons to social events organized by the Montreal Association for the Blind. In later years, he sat on the boards of Catholic Family Services and Camp Amy Molson. After retirement, he read and recorded books for the blind and then spent ten enriching years as a volunteer in the Palliative Care ward of the Royal Victoria Hospital.
He also travelled where and when he could. The first trip was a trip to France, a 50th birthday gift for his wife. This was followed by at least one trip per year – to Switzerland and Italy, the Low Countries, Turkey, Sicily, Tanzania, China, Japan, Scandinavia, Central Europe, Australia, the Baltic States, and Hawaii.
While hiking in Hawaii, Janine noticed a tremor in Jack’s left arm. Shortly after their return home (2006),he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. However, perhaps due to luck and perhaps to Jack’s devotion to fitness, the worst symptoms were kept at bay for a long period of time.
By 2012, it was time to discuss a move to a seniors’ residence where long-term care might be available if needed. The move was made in June of 2012 and a few months later, Parkinson’s really took hold. Jack began to lose his voice and to fall -- tumbles caused by sudden turns or an unexpected loss of balance -- not too serious until the day he impacted the hip joint so solidly that his pelvis cracked. The prescription was six weeks of bed rest – weeks that marked his farewell to walking. Nowadays, Jack is moved from bed to wheelchair and back again. He cannot speak, cannot write, cannot communicate – an enormous loss for a man whose life and livelihood centered on a mastery of language and nuance.
Cared for day and night, Jack lives a life of supreme boredom, interrupted only by visits from his family. He lights up when they walk into his room.
- Janine Cobb
Elizabeth Anglin
I was born Elizabeth Fulcher, at home in Suffolk, England. Myidentical twin Diana and I had an older sister, Margaret, and were joined by a brother, Roger, twelve years later. I started my studies in a small local school (27 pupils) and then, at age ten, went from home to boarding school for seven years. After graduation, I took a year off, learned to drive and helped look after my handicapped brother (my mother had died of polio two years previously). When I was eighteen, I enrolled in the Dunfermline College of Physical
Education in Aberdeen, Scotland, graduating three years later as a specialist teacher, which required me to work with 1500 students a week. Then, at the age of twenty-two, I embarked on the grandadventure of a teaching job in Canada, where I earned three times the salary I’d had in Britain and had to teach only 320 students.
I arrived in Montreal in 1961, met Tom Anglin, a widower, on the tennis court in 1962, and was married in 1963, becoming stepmother to Tom’s four children, ages five to fourteen. Tom and I then had three more children, born in 1966, 1968 and 1971. Although settled in a home on St.
Sulpice Road, I still yearned for life in the country, so in 1979 Tom and I began to build the home of our dreams in Vermont. This house, still very much part of my life, has been a great source of joy over the years. In many ways it is still unfinished, but even so, very much loved and lived in. It has welcomed many of my friends and colleagues and is now the family home.
Tom died in 1995. After a period of readjustment, I began to search for a friendly community that thrived in the absence of dogma. I had been impressed by the Unitarian Church of Montreal in earlier years and now found my way back to it. Over time, I have become involved and active in many aspects of congregational life.
I was honoured to receive the Unsung Hero award in 2015 and have maintained my commitment to the UCM. I have been a board member, a member of Telecrew, organizer (and chief cook and bottle-washer) of the monthly Midday Meals; a key co-convenor of our 175th anniversary celebrations; active in planning the Bidnite (now BidSunday) events; a keen volunteer for the Caring Network; and, latterly, a Warden, who enjoys cleaning the church silver and counting money with Julie.
I am happy to be part of this open, honest, accepting community.
Nancy Lorimer
l love history and I enjoy planning events - especially as a team member. So when asked to co-chair the 175th anniversary celebrations of the Unitarian Church of Montreal (UCM), with Elizabeth Anglin, I accepted immediately. For starters, I reread Montreal’s Unitarians, 1832 - 2000” and soon realized that I had joined the church during its sunshine years - when the pews were full and the Religious Education (RE) program flourished with 300 registrants.
When I entered the hallowed hall of the Simpson St. church 53 years ago, I was filled with awe as I experienced the eloquence of Rev. Leonard Mason while immersed in the commanding sounds of the pipe organ.
Once I learned that social justice underlined the church’s principles, I was hooked. One year later, my baby daughter Megan was dedicated and her sister Sally joined the RE program. In accepting an invitation to pour coffee after service in Channing Hall, I knew that I had found my church community. Though neither my life nor UCM’s has been free of turmoil over the last half century, I have found comfort and purpose in the church community.
As my daughter Kendra reached RE age, the Durnford family headed for UCM on Sunday mornings and I gradually added RE leadership to my volunteer work on bazaars, conferences and social events.
The sudden death of my husband, Hugh in 1979, was life-changing. As a single mom, I had to cut back on church duties as I moved from freelance writing and supply teaching to a staff position at the Gazette.
The most wrenching event in that period was the destruction of our beautiful church by fire in 1987. Gradually, I resumed active participation and joined the committee for imagining a new church building. I also headed up the Social Concerns Committee.
After many years of searching and planning, our new church on de Maisonneuve was ready for a well-stocked kitchen and soon I found my home economics background at work. Meanwhile I had retired and remarried. Once again, opportunities to serve appeared. As my new husband, Gordon Lorimer, acted as UCM treasurer, I got involved with collective kitchens to promote the concept of “Cook and Share.” The Green Team which focused on sustainability at home, in the community and at church also beckoned. We became a certified Green Sanctuary in 2005.
Gordon’s illness and subsequent death in 2011 precipitated another slowdown, but soon the UCM Caring Committee and then the Garden Committee welcomed me.
UCM has been “my rock” for more than a half century, and through the “ups and downs.” I cherished the solace and cheer I experienced with four UCM ministers. Rev. Leonard Mason, minister emeritus led the memorial service for my husband Hugh; Rev. Charles Eddis, the internment service that followed Rev. Ray Drennan married my daughter Megan to Larry Dionne and later conducted the memorial service for my stepson Graham. Gordon’s memorial was coordinated and led by Rev. Diane Rollert.
As the mother of three, grandmother of seven, stepmother of three and step-grandma of six, I am truly blessed - and involved. Until recently, I enjoyed a very active life: skiing, cycling, tennis, gardening and sailing - often with the “grands.” I now spend more time reading, playing bridge and enjoying concerts and plays.
While I thoroughly enjoyed working with Team 175 last year, I think that dead-heading daffodils and making soup for shut-ins is more my speed in 2018 and beyond.
Danielle Webber, Sabbatical Minister
In 1967, my grandparents first went to the Ottawa Congregation when my father was a toddler, and this is where my story with Unitarianism Universalism began. In 1978, their family moved to Burlington, Ontario and became members of the Hamilton Congregation, where my grandparents still attend weekly. After my father and uncle moved away from home, my grandmother decided to go to seminary, becoming a Minister of Religious Education and working as a consulting minister for the St. Lawrence District, ministering to churches and congregations that wanted to offer better religious education to their members.
My parents had me dedicated to the Regina Unitarian Fellowship when I was a toddler, and when my family moved to Calgary in 1997, we became members of the Unitarian Church of Calgary. I still hold membership there, and my parents are a part of the regular leadership of the Calgary church.
As I said to the youth in the Coming of Age service in December, I remember planting seeds in Styrofoam cups, celebrating world religions’ holidays and holy days, and writing my own credo during Coming of Age. I started attending adult religious education and creating young adult worship services while in college. I was taking an Arts Degree in Psychology, wanting to be a therapist for families with children who have mental disabilities. But while participating and leading worship at my church, being apart of the committee on ministry, and participating in the caring committee at the Calgary Church, I started hearing a call to ministry.
While in the last year of college, I started applying to seminary to begin a Masters of Divinity, and was accepted to Meadville Lombard Theological School in the spring of 2013. Over the last five years, I have been preparing for Unitarian Universalist ministry, serving as intern minister for both the Calgary Church and First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto. I am now in the process of becoming a fellowshipped minister with the Unitarian Universalist Association.
I am very much looking forward to spending the next three months with all of you here in Montreal, and to sharing my love and understanding of this faith. Please know that I am here to help support this community in this time of sabbatical rest. We will spend time together in worship and meetings, but please know that you can connect with me one-on-one at any time, I look forward to hearing from you, and what you love about our faith.
With love,
Danielle