Former nurse plants more than 100 golf clubs in her Oak Bay garden
When Betty began transforming her backyard, her thumbs were far from green.
“It was just plain ordinary gardening,” the 88-year-old says. “And weeding!”
But over the decades, Betty’s garden has grown into an extraordinary array of blossoms and whimsy.
“There’s a little bit of everything,” she smiles, pointing out some of the teapots, teacups and ski poles rising amongst the dahlias.
There’s also the golf clubs, which Betty first found discarded at the municipal yard.
“There were a few there. They were free. I took them,” Betty explains. “And then people started giving them to me.”
And now there’s more than a hundred golf clubs ‘growing’ in her garden.
Although the clubs share the flower beds with those pots and cups, Betty’s puttering is more “tee-time” than tea time, more wedges than hedges, more birdies than bees.
It’s an un-fore-gettable, par-fect garden.
After considering golf/gardening puns, I ask what Betty’s golf handicap is.
“I don’t know. What’s a handicap?” she asks with a smile. “I don’t golf.”
Betty says she’s never golfed before. Since she was six years old, she had her sights set on just one thing.
“When the war broke out, [I decided] I’ll become a nurse,” Betty says. “I’ll join up. I’ll go overseas.”
Although the war ended before she became a nurse, Betty did serve on the frontlines of the polio pandemic during the early 1950s.
“That was very, very difficult,” she says.
But the most difficult thing was losing her husband Charles. That’s when Betty really started focusing on her flowers.
“It relieved the sadness and the stress,” she says.
And the nurse discovered that healing could happen beyond the hospital. Then and now.
“We’re living in a topsy-turvy world,” Betty says.
Which is why Betty keeps fertilizing her garden with fun — to inspire happiness and healing for all who pass it. Although there’s no hole-in-one solution to the countless challenges we face, Betty says it does help to cultivate joy.
“It’s good for one’s soul to go out and work in the garden,” Betty says with a smile. “And play in the dirt!”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What do weight loss drugs mean for a diet industry built on eating less and exercising more?
Recent injected drugs like Wegovy and its predecessor, the diabetes medication Ozempic, are reshaping the health and fitness industries.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Made-in-Newfoundland vodka claims top prize at worldwide competition
A Newfoundland-made vodka has been named one of the world’s best by judges at this year’s World Vodka Awards.