In the early fall of 1926, 2½-year-old Elizabeth Appleton accompanied her older sister to her first day of school - then refused to go home. She began school early, and this obstinacy and determination continued through the war, immigration to Canada, success in a male-dominated field, hunting down clues to Shakespeare's true identity and dealing with Alzheimer's.
The youngest of six children of Charles and Mary Appleton, Elizabeth grew up in a multilingual family, spending the first nine years of her life in Belgium. She finished school at 15 and completed her history degree at the University of London at 19. Her studies were punctuated by air sirens, blackouts and great loss as her two middle brothers died during the war.
In her early 20s, Elizabeth moved to Geneva, joining the League of Nations as a précis writer, and later was seconded to the International Refugee Organization helping to place the displaced in Wurzburg, Germany. In that camp she met a transport officer who suggested they go riding together. Not willing to confess to never having been on a horse, Elizabeth declined to join the group, saying, "I don't have any trousers to wear." Sizing her up, Dan van Dreunen claimed that he had pants that would fit her.
Married six months later, the newlyweds moved to London in 1949 and made plans to immigrate to Australia. The birth of Danielle in 1950 postponed that adventure. By November, 1952, they had decided to immigrate to Montreal. Elizabeth wore her favourite swirly brown coat on the aircraft to hide the imminent arrival of Elizabeth Jr., born in 1953.
A posting to Trois-Rivières, and then back to Montreal, with Avon Cosmetics gave Elizabeth an opportunity to bring her pioneering spirit to a 20-year career as a sales executive.
Elizabeth and Dan spent the early 1970s in the Caribbean, Europe and England. By chance, a neighbour in London lent Elizabeth a book that sent her off on her next quest: Who really wrote the works attributed to William Shakespeare? In 2001, she published the book An Anatomy of the Marprelate Controversy 1588-1596. While pursuing that question Elizabeth obtained her credentials to become a court interpreter for the Ontario Attorney-General's office, continuing in that role into her early 80s.
By 2006, it was evident that cleverness and resolve could not hide erratic behaviour. Elizabeth encountered Alzheimer's with Dan at her side as with everything else in their 61 years together. After a year of being cared for by Elizabeth (Jr.) in Nova Scotia and two years at a nursing home in Kingston, she made her definite and unyielding choice to let go.
Danielle van Dreunen is Elizabeth's daughter.