Marjorie Tuck will celebrate her 100th on April 23rd.
This long-time Leasider has enjoyed an interesting and varied life. After graduating from Humberside Collegiate, she did office work at Manulife before marrying Jim Tuck, the love of her life, in 1943. He was posted with the Air Force in what is now Haida Gwaii. Their honeymoon was a train trip across Canada. Missing the boat connection to the base and with $10 in their pockets, they waited for the next boat in Prince Rupert, with Jim working in a fish processing plant. On Haida Gwaii, their first home was a log cabin with no running water or plumbing.
After the war, Jim was able to use government grants to earn a Ph.D in psychology at the University of Toronto. They spent the next 11 years with Jim teaching at Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, where their children Wendy and Jim Jr. were born.
In 1962, they returned to Toronto and, in 1969, moved to Rykert Crescent, home for the next 40 years. Marjorie got the bright idea to enrol in night school at Northern Secondary School to improve her typing skills so she could assist Jim. Her typing skills were such that she even won a prize for accuracy and speed.
In Toronto, Jim set up the psychology department at the March of Dimes. He “volunteered” Marjorie for a typing job there when they were much in need of help. Jim subsequently worked for Toronto Rehab and at the University of Toronto in psychology.
Marjorie went back to Manulife for a bit, but decided to try for something closer to home, so she walked into Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and asked if there was a need for a typist. She ended up as the afternoon secretary for the nursing department until she retired in 1993. Her typing skills were world class.
Marjorie describes herself as a shy person, but has “worked at not being that all my life. … I make an effort.” She loves flowers, but is not a gardener. What she is very good at is “picking up the phone and placing an order” for flowers, whether for a birthday, a bereavement or any special occasion. She also boasts a good memory – remembering those birthdays and special occasions, with flowers or other small gifts.
Marjorie and family are long-time members of Leaside Presbyterian Church, enjoying the church and her good friends there. First Covid curtailed attending worship in person, then mobility issues made her change to online worship, which she now attends, faithfully, each week.
“I’ve been blessed,” she says. She has fond memories of the many trips she and her husband took throughout the US, England and Europe. Now, she is happy to sit in her chair and let the world go by – watching the seasons change in the trees outside her window.
