Tribute to Evelyn Mitchell

Mr. Speaker, on the heels of International Women’s Day, I would like to pay tribute to a phenomenal woman and long-time resident of Dartmouth North, Evelyn Mitchell, who died in 2019. Born in Northern Ontario in 1933, Evelyn, as her daughter Caron wrote, “split firewood, went fishing and helped raise chickens during the Depression.” At 18 she married her husband of 68 years, Doug, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Evelyn brought up her three independent daughters, who she taught to “do no harm but take no crap,” and she took up basket weaving, copper tooling, ceramics, crochet, and upholstery, in addition to sewing and baking. In the 1970s, when she learned that the Red Cross didn’t drive patients from Dartmouth to treatments and appointments, she received permission to run a driving service out of her home. Later Evelyn devoted herself to practising and promoting therapeutic touch, which she discovered was her calling. Evelyn Mitchell would have been the last person to think that she was leaving a strong legacy for her daughters and others, but her life and love inspired their independence and strength in the world.