Baby Irene warmed by wood stove oven

Photos by Barry Wallace

This small charming King City house on the north side of the King Road, two doors west of the Shoppers Drug Mart, is one of many buildings currently for sale or rent in the centre of the village.   The imminent doubling of the house count in King City is causing substantial speculation about commercial properties.   The house pictured here (or cottage as many still refer to it) has had many tenants over the last couple of decades.   I'm old enough to remember when an elderly Irene Kelly lived here.   Irene was a sister of of one-time King City fire chief, Pete Glass.   Pete was the man who oversaw the pouring of a zillion tons of concrete into what became the CN Tower in downtown Toronto.   Irene was a dear little lady and loved to tell the story of her birth in the early 1900s.   The story wasn't about her birth so much as it was about how she spent the first several days of her life in this little yellow cottage.   Irene was a premature baby -- very tiny at birth.   A shoe box was lined with a small blanket and Irene was placed in the box and covered with another small sheet.   Irene and the box were placed on the open oven door of the kitchen wood stove and there she spent many an hour, for several days, cozy and warm.   The story needed no embellishment.   Hearing Irene tell the story, and I was lucky enough to her it from her lips, was a magical moment.

Please comment if you wish.

Barry Wallace