It mattered little that many of these women were nurses, educators or other professionals. Domestics were what Canada needed – or rather, what Canada determined as her immigrant need from the West Indies – so they came and the rest of us, of necessity, followed.
This soft spot turned to moist eyes yesterday during a discussion over the passing last Friday of Edsworth Searles, and his wife, Kathy, last December. An era of black life in this city is coming to an end.
Just yesterday, Gloria Johnson died – she of Third World Books fame, the Bathurst St. landmark that for decades served as propagator and preserver of black literature on love and protest, triumph and disaster.
The first families are being laid to rest. Edsworth's funeral, likely Saturday, will be akin to the burial of royalty.
Neither of the Searleses received an Order of Canada, Harry Jerome Award or the acclaim that accompanies modern accomplishment. But the record shows they were made of fine stuff.
From Caribana to immigration policy to education to religion, their imprint is indelible. They've left a legacy that daily delivers scholarship, honour, fame, service and a steady beat and grind of daily labour that is the contribution of West Indians in Canada.
Twenty years before my mom raised the kids of the Forest Hill wealthy, Edsworth returned to his birthplace, Toronto, from Barbados, where he'd been raised. Soon he would take Kathleen as his bride from Barbados and start a family.
By day he studied law at the University of Toronto. Spare time was spent working at the postal office and on the railroad.
"You don't have to ask what a black man did in the '40s; either you worked on the railway or as a shoeshine boy," Edsworth told the Star in 1996.
He was the first black called to the bar in British Columbia. He ran a Toronto law practice for 30 years. He played in a band, Caribbean Meletones; was organist, youth organizer and Mr. Everything at the British Methodist Episcopal Church on Shaw St. (The landmark tragically burned down in 1999.) And whatever Edsworth wasn't engaged in, Kathleen surely was.
She was a founding member of Caribana, Canada's centennial gift from its Caribbean community. The first black cotillion ball to teach black youth the trappings of genteel society? Kathleen started it. First efforts to stem drop-out rates? University transition courses? The roots sprung from her.
He was president of early black organizations like the United Negro Improvement Association. And he accompanied a 1950s delegation of blacks to Ottawa to petition Canada to loosen the immigration doors to people from the Caribbean.
So, when Ottawa started letting the domestics in, Kathleen remembered her own loneliness when she arrived in Canada without family and friends.
Every Thursday and Sunday was open house at the Searles', as domestics, students and newcomers got a home-cooked meal, fatherly advice from Edsworth and a home away from home.
Itah Sadu was particularly sober yesterday. She owns A Different Booklist, the Bathurst St. bookstore that is today's Third World Books. She'd just heard of Johnson's passing. And she sees another revered elder, Judge Stan Grizzle, walk by her store almost every day. Besides, she's received many hours of free advice and love from the Searles family.
"We are better off for these people," Sadu says. "They were very decent folk, ordinary working-class people who done good. Their superstardom is the stuff we are made of. It's special for us because they are us. We can touch them and laugh with them and hug them and recognize the place they hold for us."
Singer/songwriter Dan Hill has just published memories of his legendary father, Daniel Hill. The other stalwarts are tilting, falling over.
All the more reason to pause this week and recognize another early giant who made us all a little better.
The Searleses are survived by their three daughters, Kathleen, Marjorie and Sylvia, and two granddaughters. Sylvia Searles-Elam is Mayor David Miller's special assistant and a veteran in employment equity and race relations at City Hall and Queen's Park.
Royson James usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
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