Joan was born in Wauchula, Florida, January 4, 1925 to Florence Maude Peters of London, England and John Edward Gallson of Saaremaa, Estonia (born Johannes Ounpuu). In 1929, the Gallson family, including her older sister Jean and younger brother Phil, moved from the United States to Widdifield, Ontario, area.
Joan’s first memories are when she was about 3 or 4 years old and she fell down a flight of outside stairs. They were living in an upper apartment. She also remembers Christmas in the same building and there being a Christmas tree in the hall. She remembers her mother having nice things and in particular some beautiful napkin holders. Joan’s next memories are when she was about 5 and living in Widdifield. Their house was built with a drop floor and the basement would fill with water after a rain. Joan and her siblings would drop wood into the water and pretend they were boats. She recalls always getting into trouble doing this. Across the road lived Duncan McBeth. Joan remembers falling out of the back of the truck when going to Trout Mills and her father having to stop and pick her out of the ditch.
She remembered her mother “getting sick” while they were living in Widdifield. After the institutionalization of Florence, four days before Christmas, on December 21, 1929, Joan and her siblings were separated into foster homes. Her father, John, managed within a very short time to bring the family back together by acquiring the services of Mary Morrison, a single mother who was pregnant with her second child. They then moved to Mattawa. The family would continue to grow with the births of Jimmy, Barbara, Maisie, Hilda, and Betty. Unfortunately, the children survived many years of mental and physical abuse at the hands of Mary while John spent months at a time in the bush as a lumberjack. Mary was a strict and brutal home-school teacher which revealed itself when Joan finally attended school, grade 5 or 6. She was so far ahead, she was skipped a grade. She remembered doing well in history and geography, but not so well in arithmetic.
Joan’s teacher occasionally had to call the Children’s Aid Society to investigate the bruises that were found on Joan’s shoulders. John was so angry with Mary, that he told her to “stop beating on the kids”. This prompted further threats from Mary, that if the kids ever complained, they would be beaten worse. Once in high school, Joan suffered even more abuse from her classmates as her clothes were shabby and ill‑fitted. Joan had members of being bullied and taunted with rhymes such as “Farmer John with her big boots on…”
Through all this, Joan did so well in school that she was exempt from writing the entrance exam for high school. Her sister Jean was not so fortunate and was denied high school entrance for failing the test. Phillip, her brother, was exempt from writing as well, but never attended high school either.
Joan didn’t remember having any aspirations or dreams – only “to get the hell out of that house!” So after 6 months in grade 9, Joan left school and found relief from her home life by working as a live‑in housekeeper. Her first position at the tender age 13, was with Verice Chenier. After only two months, she worked for Joe Rochon. Her salary was about $1.00 per month. It was her third position with Mrs. John Smith of Mattawa that set the stage for her future. The son of Mrs. Smith, Newton, was married to Helen Cross. Helen’s mother, Mrs. Viola Cross became ill, so Joan took employment at her house in Eau Claire. By the age of 15 or 16, Joan was working for Mrs. Cross’s other daughter, Bessie, who was married to Harry McLaren in Rutherglen. They had a 1‑year old daughter, Jeannie, at the time. She soon met Lloyd Smith who was a good friend of Harry’s.
When Joan’s salary rose from $5 to $15 per month, her father instructed her to send $5 per month home to Mary.
Wanting to better herself, Joan would go to the employment office in North Bay to look for jobs. She found one in the kitchen at St. Joseph’s Hospital. While working there, she boarded with Mrs. Miller on Algonquin Avenue. Joan was often visited by her gentleman caller, Lloyd Smith. Joan’s next position was with the Gordon’s on Jane Street, who’s father‑in‑law was Senator Gordon. The Gordon’s did not allow Joan to have callers, so she would sneak Lloyd into the house for their visits. Joan went back to work for Bessie and Harry McLaren in Rutherglen for a short period before taking a position at the home of Myrtle Buchanan in North Bay. Myrtle was a spinster, a teacher and the sister‑in‑law of Lloyd’s sister, Georgina Buchanan. Lloyd eventually proposed to Joan by asking her if she would like to “help him milk the cows”. And even though she hated milking cows, she said yes.
While working for Myrtle, Joan took a 3‑month course at Algonquin Secondary School with Lloyd’s other sister, Vera, and his cousin, Iva Rose. It was a training course for women who wanted to assist in the war effort. Joan took Drafting and Machine Shop. This course would also give Joan a good paying job in Toronto so that she could save for her wedding. So in the fall of 1942, Joan, Vera and Iva set off for Toronto. Vera worked at a small arms factory just outside of Toronto, while Joan and Iva found work at the John Inglis factory as a Cutter‑Grinders. One of their duties was sharpening blades. Joan and Iva boarded with a family named Hough. One night, while on her way to the bathroom, Joan was surprised to see that Mrs. Hough was completely bald. Also working at Inglis was Joyce Worsnop, a woman who would become Joan’s best friend. Joan spent many weekends at Joyce’s family farm near Barrie.
In June of 1943, Joan and Lloyd were married. For her wedding, Joan had a “street length frock of powder blue with lace inserts and white accessories. She wore a corsage of Premium roses. Mr. and Mrs. J. Buchanan attended the couple.” For the first few years, they lived with Lloyd’s parents in Rutherglen.
Lloyd was Anglican and Joan was United Church. Lloyd used to take his mother, Alice, to church every Sunday. Joan wouldn’t go and would walk over to Bessie McLaren’s house. Lloyd informed his mother that he and Joan would not be attending the Anglican Church after Alice invited the Anglican minister over to sign them up. This caused much tension between Joan and Alice. Joan always felt that Alice resented her for not converting, and felt unfairly treated as Lloyd’s sister, Georgina, converted to United Church when she married and remained on good terms with Alice.
Joan embraced being a farmer’s wife. She not only milked the cows, she cooked meals for threshing gangs, drove tractors, prepared chickens from henhouse to table, shoveled manure, fed livestock, chopped wood, made preserves, jams, jellies, bread, pies, cakes, cookies, doughnuts, sewed, knitted, embroidered, crocheted, quilted, smocked, gardened vegetables and flowers.
In 1945, Donna Lee was born; in 1948, Carol Joan; in 1954, Wayne Lloyd and in 1956 Wendy Vera.
Joan belonged to many different organizations – the UCW (United Church Women), the WI (Women’s Institute), the WA (Women’s Association) and the True Blues of the Glen. She was the District President of the WI as well as a leader for the 4-H Club in Rutherglen. She won so many ribbons and prizes at the Bonfield Fair, she was able to buy most of her 12-place setting bone china and silverware from the prize money.
Lloyd and Joan attended church regularly; square danced at every opportunity and played cards with many friends.
In 1968, with the help of Bessie’s husband, Harry McLaren, Lloyd got a job at the Ontario Mental Health Centre in Porcupine, Ontario as a Stationery Engineer. So with Joan, Wayne and Wendy, they left farm life behind and moved to Porcupine. Joan found a job at the Golden Mile Restaurant as a short-order cook. Later she worked at Woolworth’s department store where she headed the Notions Department for many years. During this time she made many friends and joined a bowling league. To her already bulging skillset, she added découpaging, copper tooling and ceramics. She loved anything crafty – making something out of nothing. When the hospital finally closed, Lloyd was transferred to Gravenhurst.
That’s when Joan became an AVON Lady winning many awards including the Mrs. Albee award for top sales. After Lloyd’s retirement in 1982, they moved back to North Bay, buying a semi-detached home on Ferguson Street, the other semi being owned by Harry and Bessie. Together, Lloyd and Joan learned to curl, golf and play bridge.
Joan’s story parallels with Lloyd’s until his death from cancer in March of 1988. For all the long days, weeks and months he was in the hospital in Toronto, Joan was by his side. She stayed with their youngest daughter, Wendy. One year after Lloyd’s death, Joan sold their home on Ferguson Street in North Bay. Even though the memories within the home were all good ones, Joan sought to escape the pain and loneliness by buying a condominium on Main Street West. The pain became less with time, but the loneliness continued.
A year later, Joan sold their home on Ferguson Street to make a fresh start in a condominium on Main Street West. In 1991, Joan met an Austrian widower, Albin Miklautsch, at the Golden Age Club. They were married in September of 1992 and travelled to many places including Austria, Germany, Portugal and Hawaii. Albin passed away in 2004 after a severe stroke.
Joan remained in North Bay, living at Marina Point and Empire Living Centre until 2016 when her memory began to deteriorate to the point where she couldn’t live alone. Her daughter moved her to Muskoka Landing Long Term Care facility in Huntsville to be close to her. Joan passed away surrounding by her children in October 2017.
