SouthWest Stories: Dennis and Dorothy Brown
“We were introduced by his old girlfriend.”
Dorothy Brown is recalling how she met her husband Dennis, over sixty years ago. They were just kids: fifteen years old. Nevertheless, they have been together ever since.
Both grew up in Verdun, and attended Verdun High (which is currently the Champlain Adult Education Centre). Dorothy attended Verdun United Church as a teen, when her family lived around the corner on Egan. Dennis lived on Claude street until the age of ten, when the family moved to Moffat.
“I thought everybody had rats until I moved to Moffat,” he says. In his early home, “you could hear them running up and down the halls all the time.”
The happy couple, 1962.
Dennis and Dorothy – interestingly, her maiden name is also Brown - were married by Rev. Jones at VUC in 1962.
“I remember the day very well,” Dennis says. “We listened to the Alouettes game in the vestry while we waited for you.”
Dorothy admits to arriving half an hour late for her own wedding despite the short distance she had to walk. “All the neighbours were out in the street,” she says. She had to stop and talk to each one as they admired her dress and wished her well. She was 20 years old; Dennis had turned 21.
Dennis started working at Trans Canada Airlines as a mail boy, but before long had moved into purchasing. He stayed with the company as it became Air Canada, and retired as a Manager after 34 years.
Although Dennis had to travel a lot for his job, he says he rarely got a chance to visit the cities he flew into. “I saw the Eiffel tower out the window of my hotel room.” After he retired, they drove across Canada and visited “cities where I’d only ever been in airports,” Dennis says.
Having worked for an airline, Dennis still gets passes for travel. That helped them afford a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Australia about three years ago. They flew to Sydney, then took a Pacific Ocean cruise with stops in New Zealand, Tahiti and Bora Bora, and ending in Vancouver. A highlight, according to Dennis, was swimming with sharks and stingrays off Mo’orea, an island near Tahiti.
The couple has two daughters, six grandchildren and one great-grandchild. The daughters, Carolyn and Lisa, were baptized at VUC, and Dorothy attended with them for a time, but then the family moved to Lasalle and life got busy.
Dorothy worked at the Montreal Star as a clerk for five years when they were first married, then left to become a full-time mom and homemaker. She volunteered at her children’s school in the library and the lunch program, and got involved with the Girl Guides of Canada. She continued volunteering when she became a grandmother, becoming known as the “pizza lady” at their primary school.
Dorothy says it’s when she lost her mother in 1996 that she felt a strong need for a church community again. They decided to give Crawford Park United a try. At the time, Rev. Nerny was leading both the Crawford and Verdun United congregations. Within a few years he would retire and Rev. David (Lefneski) would take over both churches.
By 2005, both churches were in severe financial difficulty. Dennis by this time had taken on the responsibilities of Clerk of Session and was on the Official Board. He recalls two years of meetings, meetings, meetings before the decision was reached to merge the congregations and sell the VUC building, the larger of the two. The stained glass windows now found in the back and sides of the SouthWest sanctuary came from Verdun United. The distinctive wooden pipe organ was built specially using some of the proceeds from the sale. The choice of the name SouthWest signaled a new beginning. Dennis has continued as Clerk of Session and is still on the board – now called Church Council.
Dorothy was never an “official” member of the UCW at Crawford or SouthWest, but over the years, she always seemed to be helping out with church events, whether cooking, setting up or serving. These days, Dorothy is in charge of the church kitchen. She is hoping to bring back a once-a-month meal at the church, and maybe a Holly Tea during the Christmas season. She coordinates the Bingo that is on a break for the summer, but will be back in the fall on the first Saturday of each month.
Dorothy is not shy to say more help is needed. The congregation is getting smaller and people have less energy. She also recognizes that some may not have been made to feel welcome in the past when they tried to volunteer. Today she says, “If someone wants to help, I say, ‘pick up a cloth’! I’m never going to say no,” adding, “I also think saying thank you is important.”
