Aunt Ruby's Story

 As part of the HIStory Endowment Project, Square One World Media created a book for Aunt Ruby in appreciation for helping to grow the project.  "By telling their story, we can tell HIS."

Here is the book:

RUBY QUIRING

Sparkling like a Rare and Precious Jewel

Looking back on a life characterized by faith, adventure, and service, Ruby is satisfied with the choices she’s made along the way. Now, in 2023, Ruby lives in the Wintergreen Estates Retirement Residence in Regina where she continues to sparkle as she always has: like a rare and precious jewel.

Ruby Myrtle Dueck arrived in the world on October 25, 1934, in Lucky Lake, Saskatchewan. She was the second of six children born to Fred John Dueck and Aganetha (Nettie) Pauls.

Fred’s family had immigrated from Russia to Mountain Lake, Minnesota in 1886. When Fred was a child, his mother (Lena Fast) and stepfather (John W. Dueck) moved the family to Rush Lake, SK. Meanwhile, Nettie’s family left Russia in 1923 and settled in Herbert, just down the prairie highway from Rush Lake. By 1931, Fred and Nettie had met and were married in Demaine, SK.

Fred and Nettie’s first child, Rudolf, was followed soon after by Ruby. Sisters, Laura and Pauline, were born in due time. After Nettie thought she was beyond childbearing, the family was surprised with two late arrivals: Steve and Ray.

The Duecks settled on a farm near Lucky Lake where they grew crops, a large vegetable garden and fruit trees; and raised cattle, pigs, chickens and a few turkeys for Christmas. Ruby recalls, “Mother was an entrepreneur, selling cream, eggs, butter, and dressed chickens.”

There was no local church, but Ruby listened to a children’s ministry program on the radio. When she was about seven, the Main Centre M.B. Church taught Vacation Bible School in Lucky Lake. Ruby wanted her sins to be forgiven. She says, “I think I became a Christian because of the fear of hell…”. Her parents also became believers. A small group began meeting in homes for Sunday School, and a preacher from Herbert, SK came once a month. The first baptism was held in 1947 at Bert Krueger’s Dam near Lucky Lake.

Ruby recalls, “I was quite young, but I knew what I was doing. I dedicated my life to the Lord… and it stuck!”

Ruby attended a one-room school for grades 1 to 8, and also took grade 9 by correspondence there. But Mother needed help at home. Ruby took two years to complete grade 10 by correspondence at home while helping care for her younger siblings.

Eager to be better prepared to serve God, she attended Bethany Bible College in Hepburn, SK for four years. The choir visited churches to sing, and also performed The Messiah. “We were not necessarily good singers,” she says. “But we sang anyway.”

Ruby moved to Lucky Lake and completed grade 11 by correspondence and then attended the Lucky Lake High School for grade 12. She was 24 years old when she graduated in 1959. She recalls, “It was a long time coming, but I finally got my senior matriculation!”

Mother and Father were pleased to support Ruby’s education with ‘egg and cream’ cheques. But with five other children, they eventually said, “We can’t do this for everyone!”

It was time for Ruby to raise her own support.

Her first summer job was at the Lucky Lake Hospital laundry. The next summer, she was asked to train as a nurses’ aid. She agreed, thinking it was only for the summer. “But,” she says, “being a nurses’ aid—caring for other people—I knew I had found my niche!” Ruby went on to complete a 3-year program at the Regina General Hospital and graduated as an R.N. in 1962.

Ruby’s first nursing job was at the Union Hospital in Outlook, SK, about 100 km south of Saskatoon. Construction of the Gardiner Dam created many jobs and made the Outlook Hospital an active one. The

maternity ward had been Ruby’s favourite in nursing school, and here she had plenty of practice. She recalls attending the birth of twins, and also the night three babies were born on one eight-hour shift.

A teacher in Outlook—Gloria Fuglerud— had taught at the school at Esperanza, a 10-bed mission hospital on Vancouver Island that served loggers and fishermen.  Drawn by the promise of adventure, Ruby boarded a bus and then a freight boat and arrived at her new posting. She worked there for a year, assisting Dr. Herman McLean and Dr. Madelaine McPherson. Esperanza, Spanish for “hope”, was located on an isolated stretch of beach that was accessible only by plane or boat. It was said that if you  could work at Esperanza for a year, you could work anywhere! Ruby put the saying to the test: her friend, Janice Bowdon, worked at the Red Cross Outpost Hospital at Kyuquot on Vancouver Island, a place even more remote than Esperanza. Ruby went to relieve Janice for a two-week break.  She stayed for a year.

As the only nurse at Kyuquot, Ruby was on call 24/7. She learned to do suturing, incisions, and drainage. She removed objects like peas and sea urchin spikes from children’s orifices. The doctors from Esperanza came occasionally to see patients and sign prescriptions, and Ruby could call them anytime on the radio telephone.

One day, Ruby had an emergency with a child who drank diesel fuel. Ruby couldn’t reach the doctors at Esperanza. But, standing beside the radio phone was a book about poisoning. It told her how to wash out the stomach. When she later treated an adult who overdosed on sleeping pills, she knew what to do.

It was adventuresome at the Outpost Hospital, but it was lonely, too. One day Ruby declared, “If I don’t have a visitor today, I’m going to resign!” That day, a local man named Joseph showed up and they played Scrabble together.

Blackberries were plentiful on the island and Ruby’s housekeeper, Anna Wickland, made the best blackberry jelly. She also made delicious brown bread and would bring a fresh loaf into the Red Cross office. “Pat yourself on the back,” she’d say. “If you don’t, no one else will.”

When Mrs. Wickland retired, Ruby’s sister Pauline came to replace her. Though Pauline was 12 years younger, she and Ruby enjoyed being together. On Sundays, they’d host co-workers and local loggers for dinner. Or they’d take a boat and explore nearby islands. Other Sundays, they’d plan nothing at all and see what happened. Once they boated to a reserve and the first “patient” Ruby treated there was a dog with an ear infection.

After a year at the Outpost Hospital, Ruby and Pauline moved to Regina: Pauline to take nurse’s training, and Ruby to work in hospital administration. But before leaving Kyuquot, they canned salmon in pint jars to take with them to the prairies. Mother and Father were delighted!

Ruby was an evening and night supervisor at the Regina General Hospital, but she soon went back to bedside nursing—she preferred it, and she didn’t want to work evenings and nights for the rest of her life. She began attending a Stonecroft Christian Women’s Club. At the end of 1970, Ruby went to Kansas City, MO for the Stonecroft New Year’s meetings. Stonecroft’s founder, Mrs. Helen Baugh, asked: “Do they give valentines in Canada? I think it would be a nice valentine if you would give us your application.”

Joining Stonecroft was a new way to serve God. Ruby was shy, but she was assured that the God who called her would also enable her. She emptied her suite in Regina and went on the road for three years. She and a partner travelled across Canada and the U.S.A.— wherever people had requested a Stonecroft Club—and looked for women to lead, host, and coordinate the new clubs. Remembers Ruby, “Mrs. Baugh wouldn’t let us leave an area until we had appointed the Bible Study coordinator.”

Ruby felt stretched, but she enjoyed the travel. She fondly remembers each New Year’s when “we’d all meet at Stonecroft Kansas City for ‘a highly spirited meeting without the spirits’. It was a time of fun, sharing and encouragement. And we’d get direction about where to go next, and with whom.”

Laura’s husband was killed in a car accident at Christmas, 1973. Ruby left Stonecroft and moved to Manitoba to be with her newly widowed sister. She

soon moved into the dorm at Mennonite Brethren Bible College in Winnipeg and worked at St. Boniface Hospital. Ruby had lived in many different places. “I was like a homing pigeon,” she says. “I always wanted to come back to

Saskatchewan!” In 1975, she moved to Regina for good.

By then, she was dating Jerry.

Jerry Jimmy Quiring had also grown up at Lucky Lake. One Christmas, when Ruby and Pauline were home to visit their parents, Jerry offered to pick them up for carol singing. Pauline said he was interested in Ruby, but Ruby thought he liked Pauline. It turned out that Ruby was the one Jerry had his eye on.

At the time, Jerry was working at local farms, and for the City of Regina. Ruby describes their first date: “He took me to Outlook—to ‘Machinery Row’, as we called it—to look at machinery and cars.” In 1973, with the Queen coming to Regina, Jerry hauled asphalt to refurbish the streets. On the day of the parade, Ruby and Jerry were in the crowd to watch the Queen pass by.

The couple began a long-distance relationship: Ruby was travelling with Stonecroft, and then living in Manitoba. In 1975 when Ruby began nursing at the Plains Health Centre in Regina, Jerry was working at IPSCO in Regina. For the first time since childhood, they were both living in the same place. After four years of dating, Jerry suggested they could be like his cousin, Myriam and Stan, who were just going together. Ruby replied, “No way! Either we get married, or that’s it!”

Ruby and Jerry bought a house, travelled, camped, and hosted friends and family—especially their nieces and nephews. On one memorable trip to California with 11-year-old niece Lisa, they attended a Quiring Family Reunion; enjoyed the tourist attractions like Disneyland and Universal Studios; and experienced a 6.5 magnitude earthquake.

Ruby had been a member of Parliament M.B. Church since 1959. Now she appreciated Jerry’s commitment to going to Sunday School and church with her every week. In 1990, they began working at West Bank Bible Camp near Swift Current, SK: Ruby as a nurse, and Jerry in maintenance. Kids at camp, nieces and nephews in their home, and teaching Kids Clubs and Sunday School at church were ways for Ruby and Jerry to interact with children. “I’m thankful God chose to put us together with  families,” says Ruby.

In 1998, Ruby and Jerry bought their dream home at 50 McCormick Crescent. Soon after, they were joined by Ginger, a border collie who loved them unconditionally. Jerry enjoyed walking her and was pleased when people admired her. It gave him confidence to have something others appreciated.

Ruby had been working at the Plains Hospital in Regina for 23 years when she was given a cancer diagnosis that led to a lumpectomy and 25 radiation treatments. It was time for Ruby to retire. At the same time, Jerry’s heart condition was also a significant medical challenge!

In June, 2000, Jerry and Ginger went to West Bank Bible Camp to help get ready for a summer of campers. When they came home, Jerry mentioned that Ginger had done a strange thing—she had slept with her head on his lap for the whole drive home. Ginger knew that Jerry was not doing well.

They had cabbage rolls—one of Jerry’s favourite meals—and then Jerry walked Ginger as usual. Ruby didn’t know anything was wrong until the paramedics brought Ginger home because Jerry had collapsed. He died at the Pasqua Hospital a short time later. It was June 10, 2000, and Jerry was just 64 years old.

Ruby and Jerry were married for 23 years, the same length of time that she has now been a widow. Of her life with Jerry, Ruby simply says, “I’m very thankful for the years we had together. They were good for him, and good for me.”

After Jerry died, Ginger became a comfort to Ruby. Friends were supportive as Ruby learned to live alone again. One friend, Dorothy Rempel Smith, was working with 5-Day Clubs in Costa Rica. She invited Ruby to come visit after Jerry passed away. Though Ruby didn’t go right away, she went for about 6 weeks in 2002.

In the years since Jerry’s passing, Ruby has continued serving God. As always, hosting family and friends has been important, with a casserole in the oven on Sundays. Whether joining the board of the Regina MCC Thrift Store, sorting and packing books in her garage for Christian Salvage Mission, or hosting Bible Studies in her home, Ruby stays true to her commitment to serve the Lord.

With moderate to severe osteoporosis, Ruby has had many fractures. In 2019, after a broken hip, Ruby moved into a seniors’ complex. Wintergreen Estates Retirement Residence has been home ever since. Not surprisingly, Ruby hosts Bible Studies there and is part of the welcoming committee that helps new people settle in.  

Ruby began supporting Square One World Media when she was a young adult. She remembers the early radio programs from the 1940s when the

ministry was called Gospel Light Hour, and how the Henry Brucks’ children’s program influenced her decision to follow Christ. “I support and pray for Square One because they encourage people in their faith, and they tell people how to come to know the Lord.  These are basic values for me,” she explains.