Lady with ‘OCD’ always in a pickle

By Lyonel Doherty lyonel@aberdeenpublishing.com

Sophie Timothy is always in a pickle, and there’s nowhere else she’d rather be.

In fact, she suffers from OCD - “obsessive canning disorder.” Ahh, that explains it.

The ‘pickle lady,’ as she is affectionately known, needs no introduction in the Columbia Valley where she operates Sophie’s Original Choice in Edgewater. And she has an accomplice named Dean, who’s also renowned for his amazing garden towers.

Sophie was born in Brantford, ON to Polish immigrants who had a stupendous garden. “My mom canned everything,” Sophie recalls.

She met Dean in high school and later moved out west, settling in Edgewater in 1995 when she began working in School

District 6 as a teacher’s aide and casual custodian. She subsequently took a fulltime job as a custodian, retiring this year.

“Some of the kids were dear to my heart; they were more than students,” she said, noting she had the pleasure of watching these kids grow up and have their own children.

She was a friend who listened to them. If they needed something they would seek her out and say, “Hey, Miss Sophie.” She often surprised them with acts of kindness that they never forgot.

While she was working at David Thompson Secondary School, she brought in a Japanese fighting fish in a bowl and displayed it in the cafeteria for students and staff to admire. The fish soon stole the heart of Grade 12 student Ariel, who named the fish “Avocado” and cleaned his tank regularly.

“She loved that fish. Well, grad was

Notice of Intent

Rocky Mountain District Road Closure

Notice is given, pursuant to Sec tion 60(2) of the Transpor tation Act, that the M inistr y of Transpor tation and I nfrastruc ture has received an application to permanently close the unconstructed right-of-way of Stoddar t Boulevard in Winder m ere, B C

The unconstruc ted r ight- of-way to be closed is adjacent to proper ties located at Lots 2 through 9, District Lot 20, Kootenay District Plan NEP2125

The closed road will be vested pursuant to Sec tion 60(2) of the Transpor ta tion Act soon approaching and Ariel was sad to leave Avocado. I couldn’t let those two not be together, so I gave Avocado to Ariel. We hugged and cried happy tears.”

Ariel went off to college to become a helicopter mechanic, and guess who followed – Avocado. Ariel is a mother now, and when she comes home she visits the Farmer’s Market and talks about life with Sophie.

The pickle lady reminisces about the messes she had to clean up in school, saying if there wasn’t a mess, it wasn’t a school. The students respected her and gave her a hand when needed. She’ll never forget one bathroom where the boys kept missing the garbage can with their paper towels. So, she took the can home and painted it to look like a basketball hoop.

“The kids liked it. I liked it. Problem solved!”

Sophie was born into the gardening/ canning world since her mom and dad knew the importance of growing your own food in the Second World War era.

Her father fought in the Polish army and became a prisoner of war in a concentration camp until freed by American General George S. Patton.

Her mother was a war child who escaped Poland and ended up in a camp in Africa.

“The stories my mom shared broke my heart. When growing up my mom had to raid garbage cans for food. She found potato peels and brought them home where her grandmother made soup.”

After the war her parents came to Canada and moved to Brantford, four blocks away from where hockey legend Wayne Gretzky lived. They had four girls and a garden.

“Not an inch of space was empty. I was afraid to walk in there; you had to walk one foot in front of the other (like a driving under the influence test). It was the best garden on the block, and that garden was our grocery store.” Sophie said.

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For more information or a copy of the plan, please contact Rocky Mountain Distric t Development Ser vices at 250 420-6550 or at rmddevapp@gov.bc.ca