Our ever-cheerful Alice was born in 1950 in a cottage hospital in the community of Johnston located near Glasgow, Scotland. Her parents, Sheila and James Kirwen, resided in Glasgow at that time. James was Scottish and Sheila was from Yorkshire.
Alice had three older sisters: Jill (8 years her senior), Jean (4 years older) and Margaret (3 years older). Alice says that later in life, lacking any brothers, she recruited her sister’s boyfriends to pretend they were related. She had always wanted a brother.
Jill was actually a half sister born to her mother during a previous marriage. Tragically, her mother’s first husband, Kenneth, had been killed in a wartime training accident in Saskatchewan.
Sheila and James had known each other previously and were actually engaged but then Sheila fell in love with Kenneth (the man who had died). James and Sheila subsequently reconnected and married. . . eventually adding Jean, Margaret and then Alice to their family.
James worked full time and studied engineering at night school, becoming a certified engineer. He was then hired by the major Scottish engineering firm of Redpath Brown. Alice was only 9 months old when her father was recruited with several other engineers to come to Canada to work with the firm Western Bridge. This firm took over work on the Second Narrows Bridge rebuild before and after the disastrous fall of the first structure that had been built by Dominion Bridge.
Arriving in Vancouver, the family were housed in the Sylvia Hotel until they could find their own lodgings. Their father continued working for Western Bridge for many years, ultimately becoming chief engineer. Eventually, though, James decided to start his own engineering firm called Kirwen Engineering. Sheila remained a housewife looking after her young family.
The family lived in several different areas of Vancouver including Narvez Drive, Kerrisdale and Oakridge. Alice attended school at Maplegrove Elementary (starting at age 6), Point Grey Junior High School, Magee High School and finally Churchill High School.
Here is a mystery that was never really solved. Authorities at Magee insisted that Alice couldn’t really graduate Grade 12 with a full certificate because, supposedly she hadn’t passed one of the courses … a course she had not even taken! She did attend graduation events there, though.
At this time, Alice was sent for a summer holiday and when her parents picked her up from that vacation, she was told the family had moved to the Oakridge area. Next she was told she had to take Grade 12 again — this time at Churchill High School. Unfortunately this became an unpleasant year for her as it was not a very welcoming community. Alice did not feel that she fit in as the students seemed cliquish. So athough Alice received her transcripts at year’s end, she didn’t bother to attend grad ceremonies at Churchill.
Following her second year of grade 12, Alice worked for a couple of years at what was then the office of the Medical Services Association in Vancouver. She wanted to go to Vancouver City College to take Early Childhood Education but she had to be 21 in order to do so. Later when enrolled in that program, Alice took certificates related to various age levels. Some of her training was also done at Capilano College.
During her lifetime, Alice has spent 16 years caring for children in daycare or in preschool care. It was during a practicum for infant care that Alice suddenly experienced what she calls a “nervous breakthrough”. She had begun to experience mental visions outside of her body and needed help.
Her sister Margaret was working in the field of Ayurvedic medicine and did some work with Alice. Alice also attended spiritual events seeking answers. Finally she was directed to a sessional counselor at Family Services. His name was Dr. Jim Browning, a psychologist. With his help, Alice came to understand that her emotional distress was related to sexual abuse. He later directed her to a Dr. Brasfield, a psychiatrist as well as a psychologist. Consequently, Alice has undergone a lot of intensive counselling over many years, learning to function again and developing her bright personality.
Unfortunately, many years have passed since two of her sisters were in touch. Alice had reached out to them, but finally gave up. They were resentful of what had evolved within the family after her nervous breakthrough. However sister Margaret surprised Alice recently by visiting her on her 74th birthday at Churchill House. Sister Jean is in Quebec and now is in contact on line.
For a period of about 5 years in the early 2000’s Alice worked as an executive assistant to the Executive Director of the BC Psychological Association. Later, after taking courses on lay counselling and with the mentoring support of psychologist Dr. Jim Browning, she established a practice of counselling women who had been sexually abused. She always referred clients to qualified psychologists if their situation was more complex.
In 1995, Alice began experiencing Multiple Sclerosis (MS) symptoms, but it was four years before she was actually diagnosed with the disease.
Alice had a brief marriage with an amicable divorce. Following their separation, Alice returned to the dating world and had some other great friendships.
She has lived on the North Shore for much of her life, renting and then purchasing her own apartment. Because of increasing physical difficulties, she moved into Churchill House 18 years ago but still manages to retain a great deal of independence.
How did Alice arrive at our NSUC door? She met Jasha working at the Serenity Shop. Jasha told of our then minister Stephen Atkinson, who liked to pair his sermons with movies. Intrigued, Alice visited and felt she had come home! She became a member in 2010 and still has the certificate hanging on her wall.
Showing great inner fortitude, Alice once presented at our church on the topic of Courage and explained some of her life at that time. Over the years, she has attended many church events and participated in various meetings. She was even on our Board for a year but found it too physically demanding.
Alice’s heart is with us, but increasing fatigue related to MS limits her involvement. She does love to chat though!