By 1935 conditions had begun to improve.  Jim and Maud were obviously feeling good about the future as they decided to get married that year.  Their first child John Joseph (Jackie) was born a couple of years later on June 2, 1937, the same month and year as myself.  By January 1941, they had four children – Jackie, Mary, Martha and Jim.

Jim & Maud Coleman & their four children
From L: Mary, Jim Jr, Martha & Jackie (John)

Maud spoke with love and pride about the wonderful times the young family had together.  Jim was a devoted husband and father and had great plans for their children’s future.  His children remember how much he enjoyed the countryside around Rawdon about 70km north of Montreal where he had begun to clear land which he had acquired in order to eventually build a house there.  But as fate would have it, that was not to happen until his son, Jim, returned to the same land in 1967 and, after clearing it, built the house that his father wanted to build there, a house and wonderful retreat that has been enjoyed ever since by the Coleman family.  I recall Maud’s tender reference to it in 1997 and can only imagine what it must have meant to her!

Jackie (John Joseph) Coleman b.1937 d.1946

Jim Coleman with his son, Jim, at the  1947 St Patrick's Day Parade

Life at times can be so merciless and inexplicably heartless.  As the 40’s progressed, the young Coleman family suffered tragedy after tragedy.  It was a period when the world, while trying to find a cure for tuberculosis, found itself confronted with the equally infectious and deadly poliomyelitis.  As I sat next to Maud in St Patrick’s Cathedral, she softly explained how she used to visit her husband, Jim, and son, Jackie, when they were hospitalized at the same time.  Both Jim and Jackie were in isolation in separate centres.  While having to care for three young children, she would visit one and then the other day after day and try to communicate with them as best she could from behind glass.  The family was devastated when young Jackie passed away, a victim of polio, on February 13, 1946 aged just 9.  While still trying to come to terms with this tragedy, Maud and her three young children lost their devoted and beloved husband and father to tuberculosis two years later on February 27, 1948.  I remember where my father was at the time when he received the telegram because of his reaction to the news of Jim’s death.  My brother Mick and I were with him in what is called the big meadow collecting hay from the stack there for the animals housed over winter.  I was ten years at the time and it was the first time that I had ever seen him cry.  I know what it’s like to lose a child but cannot begin to comprehend the feeling and effects of losing a father at such a young age or having to cope as a mother of three very young children at a time in history when there was very little or no support.  The situation could hardly have been worse for Maud not having any family in Montreal to turn to at any stage in the raising of her family.

With her world in turmoil, Maud’s strong convictions founded on an unwavering and deep faith and love of family restored that equilibrium in her life that developed in her children an intense pride in their mother and everything that she stood for.  They write, “Mom’s faith and love brought forth the perseverance, the pride and the strength, as well as the will and resilience, to guide her throughout her life.  She had a strong passion for Ireland and especially for her home in Mayo which unfortunately she was unable to return to until 1959 when she visited her two sisters and brother.  She also met, for the first time, her sister-in-law, Mary Swift, and her brother-in-law, Pat Coleman and their family in Cahermaculick.  Her next visit was in 1975 accompanied by her son, Jim, and his wife, Marilyn, and her three grandchildren, Chad, Kerri and Kirk.  She was very proud of her family and they drove throughout the west coast taking time to visit family members.”   

I did not get to meet Maud and her children and grandchildren until 1997.  It was my only meeting with Maud.  When I spoke to her by phone at St Mary’s hospital in October 2002, she recounted during our conversation aspects of our meeting in 1997, and said that she was forever grateful to her grandson, Chad, for making it all happen.  Maud passed away shortly afterwards on October 15, but not before knowing her legacy to Montreal and Canada of successful and happy families of children and grandchildren who are proud of their ancestry and of their Mother and Grandmother’s great strength of character and courage.

Back to Family Centres