The Origin of the Dora Drinkwater Library
“…In 1947, Dora moved from New Westminster, where she was born and raised, to Denman Island with her husband Joe and two small children, Dan and Jean…Joe planned to farm on the island which, at the time, lacked many amenities such as hydro and paved roads. Dora, with her usual pluck, heated water, carried from the well, on the woodstove, and washed diapers by hand.
Then, in 1949, Joe died suddenly, and Dora became a single mother, long before the term came into use. When asked if she was tempted to move back to the lower mainland with its hot and cold running water, central heating and streetcars, she said, “No, I had the house here and I knew I’d have to work.”
And work she did. She clerked in the stores both on Denman and Hornby islands, she delivered the mail, she took in boarders and she scrubbed floors. For several years she also raised tomatoes for the commercial market. “Joe kept 200 plants growing, but I cut back to a more manageable 100 after he died.”
It wasn’t all work; although there was little money, there were books. Dora has always loved books and she read those she brought from the mainland (mostly classics) not only to herself, but to her children. Later, the school left books at Dora’s during the summer holidays, mostly children’s books, but a few for adults. Islanders borrowed these books under Dora’s care and thus was the Denman library born. Now we know it as the Dora Drinkwater Library.”
Excerpted from Dora Drinkwater: a friend to man, by Diane Davis
Published in The Flagstone, May 1999 Vol.3 #11