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Annie Theresa Ballott Lewis.Handout

Annie Theresa Ballott Lewis: Mother. Sister. Schoolteacher. Storyteller. Born Oct. 6, 1932, in Canada Harbour, Nfld.; died Jan. 24, 2018, in Vancouver Island; in her sleep of a suspected cardiac arrest; aged 85.

Annie Ballott Lewis was born in Canada Harbour on the isolated French Coast of northeastern Newfoundland. Well into the mid-20th century, the 20-family fishing village was visited only twice a year by mail boats and once each year by merchants who would buy the season’s take of salt cod. Young children helped clean and salt the fish and in old age Annie still bore scars across her fingers from a serious cut when she was six years old. She often spoke about how her mother calmly thrust her hand into a bag of flour to stanch the bleeding, a story that always seemed to remind her of the title of the essay she wrote for matriculation, entitled Sweet is the Art of Adversity.

Upon graduating from Memorial University in St. John’s, Annie returned to the outports as a teacher. In a few years she became principal of one of the small schools, with six teachers in her charge. A life teaching seemed to be her calling but at age 21, she said, “I met the love of my life.”

Gerald Lewis was born four days after her in Fleur De Lys, on the other side of White Bay. He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force, commencing his career in military intelligence. Annie also enlisted and went through basic training and the two soon married, living together for the first time near Stuttgart in West Germany.

In Germany they had their first two children, Patricia and Donald. More would follow, as would more Air Force base transfers. Sylvia was born in Nova Scotia, Gerard and Kelli in the Yukon and then the sixth, Kimberly, back in Germany at the height of the Cold War. Gerald was promoted again and he was away on an officer’s training course when he died of a heart attack at the age of 41.

With her five youngest children between the ages of 3 and 15, Annie moved around, unsure of where to live. Edmonton was tried, as was England, where she and most of her children lived in hotels for a few years in lively mid-1970s London. Eventually deciding on Vancouver Island, Annie then saw her children all graduate and make their way into the world.

Despite the arduous lifestyle, Annie always spoke fondly of her childhood. She had an ironclad memory for dates and names. She told stories of climbing about on an old Spanish shipwreck just down the shoreline. On Saturday nights in the summer there would be a village dance with her father playing the accordion. But a good part of her childhood, she often said, was spent studying and reading in the early mornings, looking out on the Atlantic Ocean. On stormy days the sea spray splashed up against the big window of the small house. With a love for conversation and people, Annie would keep telling her stories until the end of her days.

Gerard Lewis is Annie’s son.

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Lives Lived celebrates the everyday, extraordinary, unheralded lives of Canadians who have recently passed. To learn how to share the story of a family member or friend, go to tgam.ca/livesguide.

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