MINI BIO JASHA RAMSAY-LATTER DECEMBER 2024

Jasha was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in June of 1944 to Margaret Thomson, a governess and artisan, and Edward Olejnik, a Civil Engineer who had fought as a Captain in the Polish Cavalry.

In Jacobean times, Scottish Catholics were invited to come to Poland to escape religious and political oppression after the Battle of Cullodon. (Bonnie Prince Charlie’s mother was a Polish noblewoman, Clementina Sobieska.) Scotland and Poland had a close relationship during WW2, and Polish military were welcomed in Scotland.

The English family for whom Margaret was governess often entertained foreign troops, and Edward was stationed in England after escaping France. They were married in North Berwick, Scotland, and three children were born to them: daughter Irena, Jasha, (christened Janina), and son Krys.

As a governess, Margaret made certain the children were taught reading, writing and basic arithmetic before they attended school. This became a double blessing for Jasha, as she, unlike her siblings, was a “leftie”, and also dyslexic, dismorphic, disgraphic and disnumerate (although these challenges remained undiagnosed until her adulthood).

After the war ended, times were hard in Scotland, and because Poland was occupied by Russia, Margaret and Edward decided to emigrate to a Commonwealth country. As there was Scottish family in New Westminster, Canada was their destination, reached by ship (Empress of Canada) and train to their new home.

Initially they stayed with relatives, but in September 1948, as the maple trees were turning crimson, they purchased a 49-acre farm near Aldergrove in the Fraser Valley. The land came with some dairy cows, two enormous Belgian horses to pull farm implements, a flock of chickens, a Border collie to herd the cows, and a black cat. Jasha developed a fierce love and respect for animals, particularly working animals, and she chose early on to become a vegetarian.

The children had a three-mile walk to and from their school, Otter Elementary. Jasha remembers walking with snow up to their shoulders, and their father having to dig through the drifts to the well, as the farm had no running water. They also had to plough through snow to feed the animals and make a path for them to the water source.

Margaret learned to can and preserve vegetables from their large garden and fruit from the trees planted years before. She did all her cooking and baking on a wood stove, with wood cut from their property that the whole family hauled and stacked. Everyone helped to bring in hay in summer, and everyone had farm chores.

The three children became 4H members, and showed their calves at the PNE and local fairs. Margaret taught Jasha and her sister to sew and knit and embroider, and they followed her passion to read a broad swath of literature. Jasha and her siblings are grateful to their parents for the courage it took for them to leave everything and everybody they had known to move to Canada.

Jasha and her siblings were raised in the Catholic faith, as this had been a requirement of the church when Presbyterian Margaret married Catholic Edward. She became enthralled by the power of ritual and the strength and significance of many religions, particularly the Celtic traditions.

When Jasha graduated in 1963 she enrolled in Grade 13 at Langley High School, the equivalent of first year university. Her marks enabled her to get into UBC where she earned an Elementary School Teaching certificate with the proviso of completing a Fine Arts course to secure her permanent certificate. She shared off-campus housing with her older sister and a friend, and it was there she met Neil Ramsay, the eldest of seven siblings.

Neil aspired to become a pilot and moved to the Centralia RCAF air base to take the training, while Jasha shared an apartment in nearby Exeter, Ontario, with a woman friend whose husband was also training there. Neil and Jasha were married on the air base by the base chaplain. Unfortunately, Neil’s poor depth perception proved too challenging for the visual training, but he was offered navigation training, so they briefly moved to Winnipeg. Eventually Neil chose not to continue with the Air Force and they returned to North Vancouver.

In 1965 they were both employed as management trainees at the Northlander Hotel in Roger’s Pass in the Selkirk Mountains, where Neil ran the bar and Jasha worked in the gift shop, housekeeping, front desk, dining room and café. The hotel was modelled after the European “ski in, ski out” design, and attracted visitors from all over the world to ski the pristine powder snow of the Bugaboos.

Back in North Vancouver, in 1967 they drove to California in their Mini Cooper to San Francisco to visit Neil’s relatives and discovered the “summer of love” hippie life there. Jasha said she had “found her people”. . . Neil was less enamored.

In 1969 they decided on an amicable separation. Jasha attended Capilano College to take the course she needed to earn her permanent teaching certificate. She worked at the Danish Pastry Shop in Edgemont village, decorating wedding cakes and working the front of shop. In 1972 Jasha attended Continuing Education at Douglas College, to learn shorthand and typing, with the aim of becoming a legal aide assistant.

The seventies were an exciting time to explore alternative lifestyles and world travel. Jasha went to Scotland where she visited many historical sites and made her way to Findhorn, and then Greece and Turkey with friends. She spent much of the decade travelling and living in America (in Chicago, Dallas, Memphis and New Orleans). To support these travels, when back home in B.C., she ran several sub post offices around Vancouver.

In 1978 Jasha settled back in Vancouver and with a musician friend who had become the manager of a rock group called Sweeney Todd. They opened an office in Vancouver, booking gigs and accompanying the band locally and across the country. The group had won a Juno award the previous year, and put out another album, but eventually dissolved in that particular incarnation.

Jasha took a job as Office Manager for Volunteer Grandparents, a small nonprofit that sought to match families without elderly members with older folks in the community who wished to have contact with young people. Many of these relationships lasted years, to the benefit of both parents and children as well as folks whose relatives were not in the community or were estranged.

Jasha trained and volunteered as a phone counsellor at the Vancouver Suicide Prevention Centre. After the mandatory year on the phones, she was hired as the Office Manager, Secretary, Receptionist and Bookkeeper, and through the eight years she worked there, moved to Programme Manager, Volunteer Coordinator and eventually Interim Executive Director when the director resigned in 1988.

In 1980 Jasha and Gordie Latter were introduced by a mutual friend. Gordie was an IBM executive from Toronto and had a six-year-old daughter named Lindsey. Jasha decided she would like to marry him, as having a delightful ready-made family was a wonderful plus! They were married by Rev John Quirk of the Vancouver Unitarian Church on Thanksgiving 1980, as they wanted their family involved in the ceremony and appreciated the non-dogmatic but spiritual nature of the UU church. They lived in Lynn Valley, in North Vancouver.

At the time, Jasha was taking Volunteer Management courses at Langara’s Continuing Education Department. She was invited to join a committee which eventually developed a certification program for managers of volunteer programmes. This course taught recruitment, training, support and evaluation of volunteers, and was offered through the continuing education department. The six women on the committee have been close friends for 45 years.

From 1980 to 1988 Jasha was heavily involved in volunteer development and participated with United Way reviews of member agencies, with a view to supporting standards and best accounting practices. In this capacity, she first met Doug Sabourin, of the North Shore Neighbourhood House. As a member of the United Way Speakers roster, she was introduced to many of the agencies and individuals working with volunteers, and joined the Western Association of Directors of Volunteers, an organization formed to support volunteer managers.

In 1988, her growing interest in New Age ideas led her to work at the Serenity Shop Bookstore, dedicated to material for 12-step recovery and support for Adult Children of Alcoholics. She facilitated free weekly workshops in the store for all subjects to do with wellness and recovery. The shop sponsored well known speakers and writers in the field of ACOA such as John Bradshaw, Terry Kellog, and New Age teachers Shakti Gawain and local adventurer and writer Brock Tully. One of her colleagues was Alice Mc Sherry, now a member of NSUC.

In 1990 Jasha attended a channeling workshop given by Shaari Kamil, and for three years supported her gatherings in Vancouver. This was a wonderful time to engage with the growing interest in New Age thought. There were many opportunities to engage with people all over the world who were committed to envisioning and working to create a more loving world in every area of life.

In 1993, Jasha took a job with a local property developer who introduced her and Gordie to a small resort on Roche Lake, an internationally famous fly-fishing lake near Kamloops. For 25 years they enjoyed the resort and their fellow owners, using their cabin as a home from which they explored as much of B.C as could be visited in their Jeep. Now their daughter and son-in-law and two grandchildren use it as their vacation home.

It was 1996 when Lynn Sabourin came into Kidsbooks where Jasha was working in Edgemont Village, to buy a book for a new baby’s family. Lynn’s invitation to visit NSUC struck a chord with Jasha and Gordie, and this chance meeting became significant for them as well as the church. Initially, they sat at the back, admiring the etched glass of the Sanctuary windows, and appreciating the courteous greeting given them every Sunday by Dorothy Kent. Gordie and Jasha found that the seven principles expressed by the UU faith were a match for their desire to live intentional lives. Even through challenging times, they felt this community was a home for their hearts and minds, and are grateful for the inspiration and friendship they found there.

Harold Rosen was minister at that time, and had led a course called “Building your Own Theology”. Jasha offered to edit his sermon notes and arrange for self publishing a book with those sermons for his 50th birthday. There used to be copies of Harold’s book in our library.

Gordie and Jasha officially joined the church in 1996, with Gordie volunteering on the Finance Committee. Jasha joined the Membership Committee and became involved in decorating the church for services and events and creating costumes and sets for Christmas children’s pageants and FundFest (now called “FUNfest”) events.

In 2000 while working at Kidsbooks, Jasha contracted a bad case of shingles, which knocked her out of commission for almost three years, as she was virtually bedridden. Becoming involved with NSUC again in 2007, she was invited to apply to be one of the Lay Chaplains. With encouragement from Karen Funt and Frances Gray, she held that position for seven wonderful years, officiating at or celebrating some thirty plus weddings, 24 memorial services and one special child dedication.

Gordie and Jasha also joined the Vox Lumina choir and participated in concerts and two productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors produced and directed by Alison Nixon.

From 2015 on they made several trips to Scotland and England, visiting many of the famous sites in both countries. After a trip to Scotland in 2019, they both became ill with what turned out to be Covid19 and were sick for several months. In 2021 a routine heart test discovered Jasha had a congenital malformation of a heart valve requiring open-heart surgery. In 2022 and again in 2023, she had a broken bone removed from her left foot – and in 2023 she had covid again, which left her with long covid or chronic fatigue syndrome. Gordie is her champion for recovery and makes an excellent nurse, according to Jasha. They enjoy their friends and family and community and their tuxedo cat, Mister Beans.

Jasha considers herself to have had a very lucky life, and she and Gordie continue to be involved with NSUC.