The Jane Rule Commemorative Bench
by Allan Forget
In the 2000s the Galiano Club Board began to rent the refurbished lower level of the Community Hall to a group of island parents looking for a space to locate activities for their pre-school children. Later in the decade the Board, under President Don Anderson, decided to create a kids playground on a nearby level piece of land within the Hall grounds.
(Part of this area had been cleared in the late 1980s when the number of Hall washrooms was increased and a new septic field was installed. An outdoor wood performance stage had been built adjacent but it wasn’t much used and was eventually dismantled and removed.)
A major part of the funding for the purchase of equipment for this playground came from a bequest of the Estate of recently deceased islander Jane Rule (1931-2007).
Jane’s home property had included an outdoor swimming pool which she opened to island children to use during the school holiday summer months. It was here, during almost three decades of operation, that many Galiano kids learned to swim.
Once the playground was completed, in the summer of 2009, the Board decided to commemorate Jane’s contribution by erecting a wood bench nearby. Remembering Jane’s attachment to the island’s younger residents a commemorative brass plaque was included which reads:
Remembering
Jane Vance Rule
1931-2000
Always a good friend
to the children of Galiano Island.
Author and equal-rights activist Jane Vance Rule came to Galiano in 1976 accompanied by partner, Helen Wolfe Sonthoff, both women having recently retired from teaching positions at UBC in Vancouver. Jane had decided to dedicate her time to creative writing; eventually she would have published over a dozen novels, numerous essays, magazine & newspaper articles.
Soon after moving into their Highland Road house, Jane developed serious rheumatoid arthritis. A life-long swimmer (Jane’s father, Art Rule, had been a member of the 1936 USA Olympic swim team) Jane decided to add a small outdoor pool to the property where she might swim and gain some relief from the arthritic pain.
Wishing to share this luxury with others Jane offered the use of the pool to island kids (and their parents). From then on during most every school summer holiday week day afternoon there could be found upwards of 20 kids enjoying Jane and Helen’s pool with many parents sitting and chatting nearby. Jane was always in attendance, initially as pool life guard and then later as swimming instructor. This summer afternoon treat continued for almost 30 years until the year of Jane’s death in 2007.
Both Helen & Jane much involved themselves in the island community becoming loved & respected members. Among the many local organizational responsibilities they took on, for many years, was Helen being the Secretary of the South Galiano Volunteer Fire Department, Jane being the Treasurer for the Galiano Club. Jane was eventually awarded both the Order of Canada and the Order of BC, the investiture ceremony for each being held, at Jane’s insistence, on the island. Helen Sonthoff died in 2000, Jane Rule in 2007. Their ashes are buried together in the Galiano Cemetery just a short walk away from their island home.
