Loretta Mae Wideen (nee Young)
Loretta Young was born in Melfort Saskatchewan, but grew up in Canwood. Canwood boasts a population of about 250 if you count cats and dogs. St. Paul’s Hospital in Saskatoon is where her nursing career began. After stints at the Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder Colorado and Riverview Hospital in Coquitlam, she ended up running the Sherbrooke Day Program, a psychiatric outpatient program at Royal Columbian Hospital. Her focus was psychiatric nursing for the 17 years prior to her retirement in 1998.
In addition to her nursing training, she has a B.A. in Psychology (on a unique 8-year program that spanned two universities) and a Masters in Education. These degrees were earned while raising 4 kids and 1 husband (the kids have grown up and moved away – well, they’ve moved away).
While she did learn to ride a bike in her childhood years, her cycling career never really got started until well into her 40s.
Her favorite car is the Volkswagen Jetta. She loves to read and see plays. And she loves to have her kids and their families over for dinner all the time. It is a burden for us, but we do indulge this maternal instinct by showing up at her place unannounced and hungry.
She also likes to travel, and has had the opportunity of living in some interesting locales. Places she has called home include Melfort Saskatchewan (SK), Canwood SK, Saskatoon SK, Regina SK, Boulder Colorado, Burnaby BC, Coquitlam BC and Oslo Norway. She speaks fluent English, better than average French for a prairie-bred soul, and a smattering of Norwegian.
Marvin Frank Wideen (nee Wideen)
Marvin Wideen was born in Township 23, SW Corner, West of the 3rd meridian, Saskatchewan (or so his birth certificate says). Roughly speaking, that is Nestledown SK. He has a teaching certificate, a couple Bachelor degrees (Biology and Education), and both a Masters and Ph.D. in Education. He started his career as a teacher in Saskatoon, then became a principal, then taught at the University of Regina before he ended up at Simon Fraser University. He is currently enjoying a research semester before he retires in August. Aside from these more academic positions, I know he savors the time he spent working as a parking attendant in Colorado while completing his Ph.D. work.
In addition to his acclaimed role as an educator of educators, he has watched Loretta raise 4 kids (all of whom have grown up and moved away – well, they’ve moved away). And, he too jumped on the cycling bandwagon in his 40s.
His favorite car is whatever is left over after either Loretta or his eldest has finished with it. He loves to explain things to his grandkids, who enjoy his experiments (especially when they’re messy). He also loves to convert conservatives to the true faith – a wee-bit left of liberal as long as you don’t tamper with the stock market.
He shares Loretta’s love of traveling, especially since he never has to worry about the travel details — either someone takes care of the details or the details take care of themselves. Places he has called home are Nestledown SK, Saskatoon SK, Regina SK, Boulder CO, Burnaby BC, Coquitlam BC and Oslo NO. He speaks fluent English. He writes good too (musta taken after him, eh?).
It should be noted that Nestledown SK is in the same area as Canwood SK, and Marvin and Loretta met in school. Loretta was the wild urban tomboy (urban being a relative term considering the size of Canwood), Marvin was the shy academic struggling to get out of a farmer’s body.
Cycling Career
Piecing together a history of cycling for the Wideen matriarch and patriarch is a little like any written history, based as much on anecdote, hearsay and conjecture as it is based on fact (apologies to any historians who have actually read this far). I shall attempt to err on the side of fact.
Three notable women helped launch Loretta’s cycling career, sometime in the 70s. While she already knew how to ride a bike, it had probably been decades since she had actually ridden one. Lynn Powell, Joan MacGregor and Ivy Pye were three of four members comprising the female mafia at SFU, all mature students. Loretta was the fourth. As a group, they decided to take a small cycling trip to start their bicycle training.
As I said, Loretta hadn’t cycled for decades. She borrowed a bike (I believe from Ivy’s husband, Len) which was too big. They embarked on what turned out to be a trip of over 120 kms between Cloverdale BC and 0 Avenue near the Linden border crossing. The trip started out well. The first 15 minutes just fine. Then, Loretta discovered that a bike seat could inflict significant pain and suffering.
The trip went on and on, and on and on, and on. And then on some more. Then Loretta was bit by a dog (small but tenacious). Bleeding, the trip when on and on some more. The advantage of riding with a group is the encouragement and strength that comes from your comrades. However, it doesn’t always work. Loretta recalls quickly tiring of the mantra, “I think it’s just around the next bend!”
Of that fateful start, Ivy says, “That she ever got on a bike again shows enormous perseverance, and perhaps some short-circuiting in the cerebral cortex.” But continue to ride she did. More impressive, she continued to ride with the very people who inflicted the pain — that female mafia. Together they enjoyed many rides, including visiting various of the coastal islands in Southern BC.
In and around this time Marvin also took up riding, enjoying trips with Loretta, and with Len and Ivy Pye. Many could see Marvin and Loretta cycling around Coquitlam, sometimes towing grandkids in the kid-trailer. They also enjoyed some bigger tours, often heading for Harrison Hot Springs. More significant tours were their trip around Prince Edward Island, a tour from Kingston ON to Toronto that ended when a bike was stolen, and an impressive trip through the Loire Valley (France) with Len and Ivy (bicycles in the Paris underground make for a good story).
So this leads us to the ultimate adventure (for a Canadian), cycling across Canada. This has been their dream for almost a decade, having planned it originally for 5 years ago. Actually, of all the dreams Marvin has had, I’m not certain whether cycling Canada was top of the list – I can never tell. But, spending four months in virtual isolation with Loretta has always been at the top.