Eileen Dell has a beautiful smile.
Having lived the bulk of her life in the Cariboo, the 96-year-old shares her smile generously when she talks about her family history.
Her parents Bill and May Broughton were living in Quesnel when she was born on May 21, 1927.
“I was delivered by the revered Dr. Baker,” she said, referring to the fact the GR Baker Memorial Hospital was built in his honour. “He also had delivered my father 21 years earlier.”
The oldest of six children, her family moved to Williams Lake when she was “very little.”
Eileen’s grandparents Frank and Ada Aiken lived there and her first memories of Williams Lake are of visiting them.
Her mom, May [Henderson], was a teacher who moved to Alexandria to work.
Bill’s mom took May in as a boarder.
The two were married in 1926 and made their first home at 188 Mile Ranch.
Bill worked in construction and road maintenance and was a grader operator from 1926 to 1930.
In 1930, he went to work for the Provincial Game Department and in 1931 moved the family to Hanceville where he opened a new game department for the province.
Eventually he joined the British Columbia Provincial Police and moved his family to Alexis Creek.
Eileen was three-years-old at the time and remembered they lived in a forestry house there until she and one of her brothers, Bill, were old enough for high school and their dad took a transfer to Williams Lake in 1940.
“When they said we were going to move away from Alexis Creek I cried,” Eileen said. “That was the only place I knew.”
When Bill left the police force in 1942, they bought the Cuisson Creek Ranch at Alexandria.
“His children were all old enough to work hard on the farm,” Eileen recalled.
Her mom had stayed home to raise the children until 1956 and then returned to teach, first in Alexandria and then in Williams Lake at Glendale, the old Parkside School and finally at Marie Sharpe Elementary.
“She always taught Grade 3 at Parkside,” said Eileen’s son John. “We always asked her why she’d never passed that grade.”
After the Second World War, Eileen met Herb Dell, who was from Alexandria.
Herb’s dad was the ferry operator there.
They were married in 1947.
In 1955 they moved into Williams Lake because Herb was working for Wright Brothers.
Within two years Herb went to work for Lignum’s.
They first lived in Glendale, when it was not part of the city yet, and then bought a “little shack” on Hodgson Road.
“My husband built a house out of it and we lived there for 14 years,” Eileen said.
The Dells had four sons - Robin, Gerry, John and Albert.
As the boys began growing up, Eileen said she needed something to do.
“We went hunting all around the province for a mom and dad job, came back home and found out the bowling alley was for sale and bought it.”
They sold the house on Hodgson and moved into an apartment on the side of the bowling alley, where they lived for several years.
Eileen and Herb purchased a home on Fourth Avenue a block away from Cariboo Memorial Hospital in 1975 and moved there before they started construction to expand the bowling alley from six to 10 lanes.
“My husband was a carpenter and very good at it. He got rid of the living area and the wool shop that was there to add more lanes,” Eileen said.
Before they bought the business she was already an avid bowler and continued to bowl for many years into her 90s.
She worked at the bowling alley for about 10 years.
In 1980, their son John took over Cariboo Lanes, carrying on with the family business and she stayed on working for him for a couple of years.
John said in 1997, they installed automatic score keeping and then in 2007 installed synthetic lanes, replacing the old wooden lane surfaces. In 2020, they installed a newer version of score keeping.
“We have had a very busy year,” John said this August. “I think people were so tired of being locked up for two years that they were eager to get out.”
Herb died in 2002, and after that, Eileen downsized and moved into the Donald Road Apartments, where she stayed for 15 years. She moved into Glen Arbor three years ago and enjoys living there.
“It’s just the right size,” she said.
For her 96th birthday her family celebrated with a party.
Three of her sons were able to attend.
Gerry came from Armstrong and Albert came from Penticton.
Today Tony Saville and his partner Maggie Pugh own the home the Dells had on Hodgson Road.
They generously offered their home for the birthday party and Saville drove his vintage 1947 Pontiac to Glen Arbor to give Eileen a ride to the party.
monica.lamb-yorski@wltribune.com
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