After 87 years in Williams Lake, Win Gooding says it’s time for the next chapter in her life.
Gooding has written a seniors column for the Tribune, was involved with establishing the museum, served on the hospital auxiliary and the Williams Lake Association for Community Living, was a member of St. Peter’s Anglican Church and is the great granddaughter of pioneer William Pinchbeck.
Her departure from Williams Lake this week to Campbell River in order to live closer to her daughter, Pamela, will certainly not go un-noticed.
Gooding says she will miss her friends, but she won’t miss the cold weather.
“I’ll enjoy Campbell River. I’ve been visiting Pamela there for years.”
Win was born and raised in the lakecity in 1927.
Her mother Christine Pinchbeck married American Fred Buchholtz in 1926.
Fred had come to Williams Lake in 1919 after the First World War.
“He was looking for greener pastures,” Win said. “He was a carpenter, but had been a rancher previously in Washington.”
The Buchholtz home was located on Second Avenue near where Shopper’s Drug Mart is today.
Win was the oldest sibling to Sylvia, Adrienne, Carl and Terry.
Her first memory of Williams Lake is attending the Williams Lake Superior School, located where the library is now.
She attended the school right up until graduation.
Even though the walk to school was only a block and a half away from home, that was far enough, she smiled.
“The winters were much colder then.”
When she graduated in 1945, there were only four girls in the class because most of the boys were enlisted in the army or the navy.
After graduation Win worked for the Bank of Montreal, located at the corner of First Avenue and Oliver Street, remaining there until 1950.
In 1945 she met her future husband Victor Coleman.
Victor had been a signalman in the navy. After his discharge he began working for highways.
“They were starting to pave the road from Hope to Prince George, and he worked until it got to Quesnel,” Win recalled.
The couple were married in June 1950 and eventually had three children — Richard, Pamela and Robert.
After a four-year stint living in Quesnel, the family returned to Williams Lake where Coleman secured work with Win’s father building homes.
Because Victor was a veteran he was eligible to receive funds to build a home on an acreage and pay the loan back without interest.
He ended up developing the Coleman Trailer Park and small apartments, located on North Lakeside.
In 1976, their son Richard suffered a brain injury after being in a motorcycle accident in Williams Lake.
“It was very hard on him,” Win said. “He was left with short-term memory and physical injuries that stopped him from being able to work.”
Eventually Richard moved to live in a private home in Kelowna.
“They take really good care of him there,” Win said.
When Victor passed away in 1979, Win sold the trailer park and bought a home at the golf course.
Being on her own, the trailer park was too much to cope with, she said.
In 1991 she married Noel Gooding, also a veteran who served four years in England.
Neil had a stroke in 2009 and now lives in the George Darby Centre for Veterans Care Home in Burnaby.
Two years ago Win stepped back from being a museum board director and said it’s been exciting to see lots of younger people step up to the plate.
“I’m also glad that Pat Cassidy of the OAPO will be writing the seniors column for the Tribune,” she added.
Once Win settles into Campbell River she may consider taking a vacation.
She’s travelled to Australia, France, England and Peru, and is thinking of adding Hawaii to the list.