Ian & Arda Shields Farewell

Potluck for Ian and Arda Shields

This is a post from Arta Johnson's Family Blog.

June 14, 2019

Last night Greg and I drove into Salmon Arm to attend the Farewell Potluck Supper for Ian and Arda Shields.

I didn’t have enough blue berries to go in the carrot / blueberry / sunflower seed salad I was taking, so I asked Greg to come a little early so that we could stop by Askews and pick more fruit up.

By the time he got here and I was finished obsessing about did I have enough food to take for I had also made three tall loaves of Country Seed Bread and thrown in a pound of butter which may or may not have been enough.

Well, it was definitely not enough butter if other people treat bread as I do – as only a vehicle for getting butter to my mouth.

The kitchen help in this ward are like a well-oiled machine.

They took the food that was brought, put it on 2 long tables, had people walk along both sides of each table, so that four lines were moving at the same time.

All had their plates of food in short order.

After dinner four people had been asked to give talks: Al Flemming, Pat Demonzo, Dorothy Morritson and Roy Dow.

Al began by saying that he is not a public speaker, but that he had responded affirmatively to the request to speak because of his love for this family who were moving.

Al Flemming said that he went on a mission to California and when it was time to come home, he was afraid that his return home to B.C. would be a let-down, since he had never experienced anything as wonderful as living in California.

Al said that when he came home to Salmon Arm, he didn’t miss being in California because Ian Shields took him under his wing and Al began to have an even more wonderful life here in Salmon Arm.

Pat Demonzo spoke second. She said that in 1970 she was widowed at the age of 43 and she had a 10 year old son.

Together they moved to Salmon Arm to begin a new life together.

About the first month that she was here, Arda Shields invited them over to dinner.

Arda had three little girls and baby John had just born. Still Pat was invited to dinner and Arda will never know what that meant to Pat.

Pat had been deep in loneliness and now she had a friend. In fact Pat is sure that Arda will probably not remember that day. Arda agreed.

She does not remember doing that. But it was an indelible Sunday dinner for Pat for it was the beginning of a long friendship with Arda, much of it around getting together and making music.

 Pat can still remember Eda with that cute little violin, joining in with everyone as they sang. Pat said she didn’t know all of the church songs and when she would make a mistake with the timing or the melody of a hymn, Arda would gently say, “You know, I think it might go a different way.”

Dorothy Morritson agreed to speak, but she said that she could not pull out what was in her heart into words, so she interviewed her daughter to see what she would say about Arda. Veronica remembered that they would have fun at the Shields, a sleep over with Arda, making pancakes in the morning. And there were blueberries picked from the garden and then that was topped with whipping cream. She also remembers that in those days Arda had long hair which she wound high around on her head. But at those parties Arda would let her hair down and Veronica thought that Arda was so beautiful with that long hair. I thought that was nice of Dorothy to present a younger person’s perspective on having the Shields as friends.

Roy Dow spoke last. He asked people to raise their hands, those who could remember church when we met in the Scout Hall.

“More than I thought,” said Roy after looking at the hands in the air.

 Roy said he first bought a cabin on the Shuswap in 1972 which is when he first remembers Ian.

Ian was the Branch President. Ian came to Roy and told Roy that he had a job for him to do.

Ian had heard that Roy was a music teacher.

There were women in the ward who liked music but not one of them had musical training. Ian wondered if Roy would teach a music class during Sunday School to those willing to learn to lead music. And that is how the Sunday School Music Class began. I remember that class although I only saw them meet once, and then they disappeared. Roy told Ian they would have to have a classroom. That building was a small hall and there were classes in every corner of the large hall and some classes out on the lawn.

 Ian said, “I have a place for you.”

 And then Roy laughed before he went on to tell what that space was. “We met in one of the bathrooms, downstairs,” Roy said. “ I always wondered how many people we kept out of the bathroom for that 45 minutes.”

In those days there was some kind of deal with the scout hall. The rent was cheap. But someone had to go in early each Sunday morning and clean up the mess from whomever rented the night before. So Ian did that. The next thing anyone knew, Ian had renovated the scout hall and built two classrooms in that space downstairs where the bathrooms were.

Roy had a cabin on the north shore of the Salmon Arm and then he built one on the south shore of the lake. By this time there was a new chapel in Salmon Arm with lots of room for people in the winter. Still the church was burgeoning in the summer when Alberta visitors would come to church. Again there was no room and some classes were out on the lawn, which doesn’t always work. So a way was arranged to accommodate people who had cabins and came to church first by boat and then by car. Now they meet in someone’s cabin up the lake and the Salmon Arm people had room in their chapel again.

Roy retired, sold his house in Calgary, went on a family history mission to Salt Lake and when Roy and Florence came back and they decided to live permanently in Salmon Arm.

They moved into their house by November.

Since then Roy had worked with Ian Shields in the bishopric for a total of twelve years.

Roy has watched Ian and he said he knows of no one whose life is so devoted to practicing Christ-like principles.

Roy said he can explain best what was happening in the ward by saying that one person who worked with them had a truck.

 “And you know what having a truck would mean in the context of those years. People moved into Salmon Arm hoping to settle, the economy was not good, people moving out.”

And Ian and the person with the truck would be there to facilitate those moves, in and out.

I think those are the people who really deserved to be at the potluck , since their hearts would be filled with gratitude for help all those years ago. I could feel myself saying in my heart, and yes, the church should have paid for the truck for I am sure more than one truck was worn out with these moves. Ian would call the person with the truck and the conversation would be short.

“We need to move someone.”

“OK. Give me the time and the place.”

When Roy was finished speaking, Gordon Taylor said many more people would like to speak but he was closing the evening down. Gordon was right. Every person there had a story to tell, which is why they were there --to honour Arda and Ian. All of us wanted to tell our story, in public, with our other friends present, witnessing – that is what we wanted to do: witness that we had seen the Shields in operation and we have been forever changed by watching them.

The man who gave closing prayer said that even though no one else could speak, because he had the microphone, before he used it for the prayer, he too needed to say what knowing the Shields had done for him and so he took his chance … and then he said the closing prayer.