Nonagenarian nominated for provincial award

by Gillian Brunette

May 30, 2007

John Fuller of Muskoka Landing is a giving man whose presence lights up the room.

John Fuller is fast approaching his 96th birthday, yet his mind is sharp and his memory remains clear.

In fact, there are many things that Fuller would like to forget, events that occurred when he was just a young teen, memories that even now have him fighting back the tears.

John Reuben Fuller is a resident at Muskoka Landing, a place he has called home for the past year. He is happy there.

“Everything is to my liking. I do most of my own things here because the girls (caregivers) have a lot to do,” he said.

Fuller is well liked and respected at Muskoka Landing.

“John has a background of giving. He’s always looking out for others,” said Pamm Griffin, Muskoka Landing’s occupational co-ordinator.

“John is active in the home. He’s a member of the residents’ council and he motivates others to get involved with different programs, especially card night on Fridays.”

Fuller’s contributions to Muskoka Landing and its residents prompted Griffin to put forward his name for a provincial 2007 Senior Achievement Award. The award recognizes and honours outstanding seniors who, after age 65, have made significant contributions to their communities.

Each year 20 individuals are selected to receive the prestigious award. October 1 is the International Day of Older Persons and that is when the awards are presented at a special ceremony in Queen’s Park.

Being nominated, let alone winning an award of this nature is not something Fuller would have ever dreamed possible as a young lad who had a tough upbringing in an orphanage in England.

Fuller was born on February 4, 1912 and has a single memory of WWI. “I remember standing outside our house watching the searchlights picking out the airplanes in the sky. My mom would put us (an older sister and younger brother) under the table,” he said.

That’s the only memory Fuller has of his family as a whole. “That’s all I remember about my father.”

The family was living in Folkestone, Kent at the time. “My mother got word that Dad was killed. I don’t know how.”

Fuller’s mother moved the three children to Norwich, where the four lived in one room. It wasn’t long afterwards, however, that Fuller and his siblings were put into an orphanage where they were separated, the boys in one section and their sister in another.

“My mom changed our names. I was christened Reuben Hill, but in the orphanage our names were changed to Fuller. My mother also changed her name and then she disappeared.”

Fuller was six years old at the time. He wasn’t to see his mother again for 10 years, and then only briefly.

Fuller remembers the orphanage well. “There was never enough food. We were always hungry. One thing that taught me was to never leave food on my plate because I know what it is to be hungry.”

At the age of 14, Fuller’s formal education was completed and he worked in a couple of factory jobs before going to a naval school. He was there for one and a half years, where he was physically abused. Recalling those experiences are still very painful, even now.

“I had a rough time there,” he said, fighting tears.

An advertisement in a magazine was to change Fuller’s life.

“The ad said Canada needs English boys. I said I wanted to go.”

Fuller was sent to a Canada training farm in Kent run by Fegan Homes. There he learned to work with animals and all other aspects of farming. He was there for one and a half years.

This was when Fuller would see his mother again. She had been called to a meeting at Fegan Homes as her permission was required to send Fuller overseas. “That’s the only time I saw her. I didn’t know her,” he said.

At the age of 18, Fuller left for Canada. He remembers the day well. “I left Quebec on April 24, 1930 on the Duchess of Richmond. We were at sea for six days. I was with a lot of other home kids. The first day I was seasick, but after that it was fun.”

Arriving in Toronto, Fuller was sent to a Fegan Home and there awaited a farm placement.

“Farmers would write in for a boy. The arrangement was that you would get $150 a year with board. In the first year you sent $75 of that to England to assist another boy to come over.”

Fuller was sent to a Mennonite farm in Gormley, Ontario. “It was terrible. There were no bathing facilities. You did what you had to do in the barn. If the family had company the meal was given to me in a wood shed and I ate with the dog.”

Two months later, Fuller was back at the home and then went to another farm in Maple, just north of Toronto. “That was a decent place,” he said.

Two years later, attracted by a wage offer of 25 cents an hour, Fuller went to Holland Marsh to pick celery.

“That was the lowest point of my life,” he recalled. “We slept on straw in a wooden shack.”

Fuller headed north again and ended up in Timmins hoping for work in the mines. That didn’t happen, but he did get a job wallpapering and painting, learning new skills, which changed his life for the better.

Several years later, Fuller was back in Toronto. There he met his wife, Eva McKinnon, a Saskatchewan native. On May 4, 1946 they were married.

The Fullers purchased property on Lake Cecebe in Magnetawan in 1950, operating a tourist camp called Manor Park Cottages. When they sold the camp in 1975 they bought a home on the same lake.

Eva Fuller had a stroke in 1990 and her husband cared for her until her death 12 years later. They had no children and Fuller lived alone, still cutting his own wood, gardening and fishing until a fall brought him to Muskoka Landing in October last year.

Looking back, Fuller said he has a hard time putting his earlier life out of his mind, even though he credits his time at the orphanage as a place where he learned many of life’s skills. The day he appreciates the most, he says, was the day he walked the gangplank toward his new life in Canada.

“I had a happy life with the camp, especially the camp fires with the children on Friday nights. Then I’d be on the lake by myself and I’d say this is my time with God,” Fuller said.

Four generations of families have spent many happy summers at Fuller’s Magnetawan camp. Some of them still keep in touch with him, said Griffin.

“When John turned 95 the people from the camp came here and gave him a fish fry to celebrate. It just goes to show what an amazing person he is. He is always positive, a giver. The place always lights up when he’s around.”

Fuller has one last wish to make his life complete.

“I’d like to go to my old camp one more time and go fishing,” he said.