Testimonials

“Words may melt us, deeds inflame us, but persons influence us.” I met May in her twilight years, and now I am in my twilight years, and she continues to influence me.”
- Fr. Vincent Travers, OP

“The person of greatest influence in May Gutteridge’s life was a parish worker in a church near her childhood home. This woman was very kind to young May, and May took her as a model of service. She told me that she thought the highest honour was to be called a Parish Worker (she always saw the designation in capital letters). When May became a member of the Order of Canada in 1981, her personal modesty made her declare that the honour wasn’t hers alone, but belonged to the St. James’ Social Service team.

I remember May and her husband at Mass at S. James, always friendly, always reverent. She was a remarkable woman. A great Parish Worker.”

-Lyndon Grove

Author of Pacific Pilgrims 1979

“I believe she was a saint in our midst and I have the intention of asking the national church to add her name to the church’s calendar of commemorations.”

- Fr. Harold J. Nahabedian

Former Assistant Priest at St. James Church

“When I turned sixteen years of age and while attending high school I wanted to work a weekend job so I could earn money. I remember going to see Mrs. G and told her of my wish. Mrs. G then offered me work at St. James’ Home Help Department on weekends.

I’m proud to say that I’m still working at St. James’ Home Help (2010). Mrs. G was the godmother to my three children, presided over and hosted my wedding. She was my most precious friend and teacher.”

- Loreena Gulbranson Life-long employee of St. James Social Service

“Mrs. G. was a woman of great faith but didn’t ‘preach’ to the clients or staff, some found her a bit formidable but not when you got to know her. She was given numerous awards and she always said she would not have been able to do the work she did without her faith, her husband’s support and all the Society’s loyal staff and volunteers. She had her detractors. She spoke out for what she believed was right or if she thought there was an injustice.

I am grateful to have known and worked for Mrs. G, I admired her faith, compassion, willingness to see the best in everyone, her certainty that if a project was meant to be, funding for it would materialize!”

- Kathy Swain

Former life long employee of St. James Social Service

“For those of us, who saw and interacted with May, we saw a woman who could be tough with bureaucrats when seeking help for the poor and downtrodden in the Downtown Eastside and yet a gentle and peaceful woman.

May in the middle of Sunday worship would interrupt her worship to offer a loving word, a hug or some money to “a street person” who had wandered into the church, and/or on some occasions might be causing a disturbance.

May, I believe, was a woman who truly lived her faith.”

- Cynthia Green

St. James’ Church Parishioner

It was 1997 when Tyleen Katz formally introduced me to May Gutteridge. At the time, Tyleen and I were working together on a fundraising committee to raise the funds for a new hospice in Vancouver. Tyleen had known May for some time and was a great admirer. I had met May briefly before and knew her by reputation through research work I had assisted with in the form of a needs assessment and a feasibility study for the development of the new hospice. We hoped that this facility would help to absorb the growing waiting list of the only other existing free-standing hospice on Powell Street – a wonderful oasis for the dying known as “May’s Place”.

Tyleen was frustrated that the extent of May’s life accomplishments, especially those changes she had effected on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, had not been recognized in any significant way. Consequently, Tyleen contracted me in my capacity as a personal historian to interview May for a total of four hours, which I did in February and March, 1997.  Tyleen paid me for this work, and I was pleased to donate the remainder of the time I spent interviewing and transcribing the tapes so that a more permanent record could be started of May’s impressive and inspiring work.

As many others had undoubtedly discovered before me, one didn’t engage in conversation with May Gutteridge for hours without falling completely in love with her. Sitting in her kitchen over numerous cups of tea, I grew closer to this remarkable woman and to her story.  Her husband Arthur would occasionally tread softly through the kitchen and silently salute us with a wave – an appearance that always prompted May to greet him with deep affection.

As time went on, May and I continued our new friendship with occasional visits and the mutual wish to have something come of this story we had started. At one point in 1999 I applied with the help of the St. James Society’s administration to the BC Heritage Trust for a grant to further the work we had initiated, but funding was not granted at the time.  As a new mother and a personal historian who was just beginning to build a small business, I lamented the fact that I was unable to donate the time and funds necessary to bring May’s story to completion.

May spoke eloquently about her life and its many turns, but it was clear that what she really wanted to talk about was her work in Vancouver. What I recall most was her humility in the face of such accomplishment. In her descriptions on and off tape, May revealed the degree and intensity of her commitment to the community she had chosen to adopt as her own through the St. James Anglican Church (and subsequently to the St. James Social Services Society). May’s leadership was palpable in the way that she spoke and in her unswerving passion for what she knew was right.  She lived and breathed her loyalty to people whose life circumstances had brought them hardship and seemingly insurmountable challenge. May’s knew through her faith that the challenge was in fact not insurmountable. She was full of hope and light. Her legacy remains as such.”

-    Robin Fowler
Speak Memories Publishing

“… a very well- written story of a woman who did a great deal of work on behalf of low income  people, marginalized and depersonalized in Vancouver’s downtown Eastside. Doug’s admiration of the work of Mrs. Gutteridge and her biography is very readable and well- presented.”

-     Harry Atkinson