Long-time retired BC Tel employee Unice (Cleghorn) Caron was born in New Westminster in 1932; the second eldest of seven children of which only one is deceased. Unice laughed and said, "I am now the matriarch of the family. I will be 83 in November and I still have five siblings Marie Reid, Jeanne Fujikawa, and Lawrence (Joan) Cleghorn all live in Prince George, Edgar (Georgina) lives in Quesnel and Sharron (Carl) Berglund lives in Chase."
Here is her story in a nutshell:
Unice Cleghorn met Neil (Lionel) Caron in 1947 and they were married in 1952.
Neil was born in the historical Mtis settlement of Batoche, Sask. in the year of 1929. Batoche was declared a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923, the site of the historic Battle of Batoche during the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.
Neil's grandfather and his great grandfather fought in the battle, however the battle resulted in the defeat of Louis Riel and his Mtis forces.
The Caron family home is included to this day in this historic site.
Neil grew up in Saskatchewan and eventually moved to the Lower Mainland where he met and married Unice Cleghorn. Neil worked in the construction industry and Unice was a BC Tel employee.
Their family started to grow and when their eldest son, who suffered from a bronchial condition, was only seven years old the doctors advised the family to move away from the damp climate of the Lower Mainland for the benefit of their child; and for that reason they decided to move to Prince George.
The young family arrived in Prince George in 1963 and Neil easily found work in the construction industry. They had four children: David (Lorena), Linda (Don) James and Howard (Antoinette) live in Prince George and Ronald (Ann) lives in Vernon.
Unice said, "We were blessed with 12 grandchildren of whom one is deceased and nine great grandchildren. I always tell my family that their only inheritance is what they learned under our roof as we raised them."
Neil was injured in a building demolition project taking place on their property and as a result he was unable to work for a time.
Unice went back to work at BC Tel in 1964 in operator services and retired in 1986. She worked for 26 years in operator services and ended her career with five years under her belt as the manager of the local phone mart.
She maintains that BC Tel was always a great company to work for and enjoyed her many years with the company and her fellow employees.
Neil retired about the same time as Unice did after a lifetime of very hard and dedicated work in the construction industry.
Over the years he proudly worked at Wayne Watson Construction on many big projects in the Prince George area.
The couple moved to their summer cottage and lived at Purden Lake during the time that there was no electricity or phone service going into the area. Regardless Unice continued on with her volunteer work of knitting toques, mittens and sweaters for many worth while charities all over Prince George as needed; a project that she is still doing today.
Unice and Neil sold the property at Purden Lake in 1996 and then lived and traveled in their fifth wheel (the RV of choice for most full time users) until they needed to move into an apartment.
Time went by and Neil was diagnosed with cancer and Unice had to have hip surgery. Neil passed away in 2011 after celebrating 59 years of marriage.
Unice lived in the Hart area for the next several years and now lives in the new addition in the complex care unit at Gateway.
Unice is a diabetic and several years ago she had what seemed to be a simple accident in the kitchen while preparing a meal.
She accidentally dropped a cutting board that fell forward on its way down and scrapped the front of her legs half way down from her knee to her ankle.
Her doctor attended the injury, but things just did not heal well because of her diabetic condition and infection set in.
The infection quickly turned into a very serious condition and soon there was no circulation to her feet and Unice became a very sick lady.
In just over nine months the situation was so bad that Unice had to have both legs amputated just above her knees.
She said that she cried when she heard the news but she knew she would soon die if they didn't do the surgery.
Unice gratefully says, "In retrospect I would like to thank Dr. Palerme for saving my life and getting my health back for me and also for the way things all turned out in the end. I am now living at Gateway, I am happy here and I consider myself fortunate; I can receive family and friends and I am safe.
"Staff at Northern Health and at Gateway is wonderful. I have a beautiful room that looks out over the school grounds and I can watch the children play. I have nine great grandchildren that are between three months to 16 years of age and I can still watch them grow up and I am so happy about that."
Unice went on to explain and said, "I spent many months recovering after my surgery. One day when I was finally out of bed my five year old great granddaughter noticed and came to the realization that I did not have my legs and in a very concerned voice she asked her grandmother about it.
"Her grand mother simply said that great grandma's legs were very sick and the doctor took them away and now great grandma is not sick any more. I thought what a wonderful explanation to a young child."
