Professor, storyteller; artist, cook extraordinaire
John C. Courtney: born Oct. 4, 1936, in Regina; Helen J. Courtney: born April 15, 1937, in Winnipeg; died Nov. 30, 2023, in Saskatoon, by medical assistance in dying; John aged 87; Helen aged 86.
Helen J. Courtney and John C. Courtney.Courtesy of family
Every single day of a road trip (of which there were many for Helen and John Courtney) started with the singing of “their” song, Side by Side.
“Through all kinds of weather, What if the sky should fall
Just as long as we’re together, It really doesn’t matter at all”
The couple travelled the road together for more than 67 years.
They met on a double blind date in first year at the University of Manitoba. The date was not with each other but they soon fixed that.
Their first adventure of married life was to London, Ont., where John did his MBA at Western. There Helen was hired as a hospital dietitian after graduating with a home-economics degree. She was not one to closely follow rules if those rules could be bent somewhat. Since excellent food was always close to her heart, she felt that no one in a hospital could recover properly if fed inferior food. One day, she changed the kitchen’s order of salmon from pink to more expensive sockeye.
John joined the University of Saskatchewan as a professor of political science. One summer, John’s research work took the family to London, England, for three months. Their children, Joanne, 9, and John, 6, would miss a month of school, so Helen placed them in a local school. At that time, the British milk program for children was still in place. Metal baskets of small glass milk bottles were placed outside of each classroom door. By the time it was given to the students the cream had risen to the top and the milk was warm. Hearing her children recount that horror was just too much. Joanne and John never went back.
John loved to tell stories and had a never ending supply. At 13, while staying at Saskatoon’s Bessborough Hotel, he was asked to walk Gypsy Rose Lee’s dog and then sneaked into the Exhibition tent to watch the stripteaser’s performance. At the Dominion Drama Festival in the early 1950s he, along with Shirley Douglas, won the best actor and actress awards.
As a young man, he extravagantly shot a whole roll of film photographing his first sighting of jet contrails, thinking it unlikely he would ever see them again. He almost failed first year university because of his love of going to the movies. After such a misspent youth, it always astonished his family that he became an eminent professor at the University of Saskatchewan, which would eventually honour him with a Distinguished Researcher Award and an Earned Doctor of Letters degree.
John’s career allowed them to travel – three years at Duke University for his PhD, sabbaticals spent at Oxford and Harvard, and numerous visiting professorships to Germany, Israel, and Washington. In each of those places they immersed themselves in all that was offered. Helen spent much time at local food markets, art galleries and museums. Once her children were in school full time, she went back to university to study her first interest, art. She became an accomplished artist although had no interest in selling her works. Her final show was just four days before her death. She relished the joyful occasion and gave everything away to the crowd in attendance.
Dying with MAID together allowed John and Helen to hear from friends and relatives around the world during their last two weeks. They thought it was a bonus to have been allowed to hear the reminiscences, funny stories and heartfelt messages of love. When asked where she thought she would be going after death, Helen replied that it wouldn’t be to either heaven or hell: “I don’t think there will be good food in either place.” John was pleased knowing that MAID would be “my last teachable moment.” They both wanted to die of MAID, nothing else, certainly not the underlying illnesses that allowed them to be eligible.
Their last day ended with champagne and a family dance party of four generations along with the most spectacular of Prairie sunsets. John spoke eloquently about the joys of their long marriage and of the importance of their family. It concluded with the acceptance of the circle of life – theirs were ending but their first two great-grandchildren were there to show the continuation of life and love.
They died side by side, hand in hand.
“We’ll travel along, singin’ a song
Side by side.”
Joanne Green is Helen and John’s daughter; John R. Courtney is their son.
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