played bridge together and often sat up late at night discussing the latest controversies which plagued the NFB, including the refusal of the government to renew the contract of its commissioner in 1950 after he refused to give in to demands that he fire a number of employees who were accused of being Communist sympathizers.

After spending a couple of months with Mary and her family, Kathleen moved into a room of her own on Laurier Street, where she shared a kitchen and bath with other tenants. She took the streetcar to work each day, and kept in touch by letters with Bill in Halifax.

Before Kathleen moved to Ottawa that September, Bill had proposed marriage. In November, Bill and a couple of friends came to Ottawa for a visit with his uncle and to be with Kathleen, when they began to discuss marriage plans.

Kathleen spent that Christmas in Ottawa. Just before Christmas Day, she received a parcel from Bill. Tucked inside was a special Christmas present. It was an engagement ring (which Kathleen has worn constantly to this day.) She displayed the ring excitedly to her family and co—workers, and began to plan for the wedding which would take place the following year.

For Christmas, Kathleen sent Bill some knitted apparel which she had been working on all that fall.

Throughout the spring of 1950, Kathleen busied herself with marriage preparations. She attended a marriage preparation course — on her own

— along with a number of other single women whose fiancés were living elsewhere as well. She bought her wedding dress while out shopping

one day on her own in downtown Ottawa. She had her traveling outfit prepared by a downtown Ottawa tailor, and spent her last couple of months in Ottawa finalizing the wedding plans. Les’s wife Helen threw her a shower, as did a friend at work. In August, she resigned her job and, for the first time in a year, returned home.

Bill was supposed to meet her train in Moncton, but she received a telegraph while en route to continue on to Halifax because he had been

91