While her baptismal name was Lilly, my mother always used the name Lillian, as she did not like Lilly.

           She was raised by her paternal grandmother, grandfather, and three maiden aunts. Her mother had died in childbirth when she was just two years old and her father remarried less than a year after her death.

The family decided that she would be better off with her paternal grandparents, rather than her father and his new wife. No one ever contested the issue. Her older sister and brother remained with their father and his new wife. With elderly grandparents and three maiden aunts to pamper her, living in the house afforded her much liberty. While her grandmother was quite stern, as was Emma, one aunt, while her grandfather, Edith, and Helen were very mild-mannered.

           A child learns early on how to get what they want and with Lilly, her aunt Edie, and grandfather were the two she knew were the most likely to give in to her demands. 

In 1917, when she was just nine, her grandfather passed away after a lengthy illness with terminal paralysis agitans (Parkinson’s disease). 

           Her aunt Nell, one aunt still at home, married when Lilly was fourteen and Emma, four years later, in 1926, but Edie was never to marry and would remain part of Lilly’s life forever.

           Lilly grew up at 27 Saulter Street in Toronto, a working-class neighbourhood. Near to the bustling streetcars on Queen street. Getting around the city was easy. When the family interned her grandfather at the Hospital for the Incurables, she remembered well the trips on the streetcar with her aunt and her grandmother to visit him.

She attended Riverdale High School, and here she met her future partner. Kelvin Bell, a pitcher for the highschool baseball team.

           Lilly’s aunt Edie was a dressmaker and kept her well dressed. With her long dark hair and eyes, she turned a few heads in her time.

In 1925, a few months after she turned eighteen, Lilly’s grandmother died. It was only then that her aunt Em married, as her parents would have never have approved of her choice. 

           Em married a Catholic, which was unacceptable to her Presbyterian grandmother. The marriage took place in October 1926.

           Lilly remained with her aunt Edie. However, December 1st of the same year, she married her high school sweetheart. Afraid to announce what they had done, both she and her new husband returned to their respective homes and kept the marriage secret for more than a year.

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More on Lilly's married life and children see link below: LILLY MCEWAN (BELL) in blue

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