Hilda Alice Hellaby

Dr. Hilda Hellaby, 1898-1983, missionary, poet, scholar, cheerfully dedicated her long life to those who find themselves at the bottom rungs of society.

Hilda Alice Hellaby was born in England and immigrated to Canada along with her widowed mother and sister. She completed her high school in Vancouver, then went on to take a shorthand and typing course.

She was called into the missionary field in 1920, learning Cantonese and serving the Chinese people for 30 years in Vancouver and Vernon. During the same period, she was the first woman admitted to the Anglican Theological College in Vancouver, winning a gold medal upon graduation in 1930. Never expecting ordination as a priest, Hilda was content to work quietly where needed; however, she was ordained later as a Deaconess. Ahead of her time, she adopted a Chinese daughter, Felicity, who later accompanied Hilda to the next 30-year call—the far North.

In 1951, Hilda was invited to go to Dawson City to look after one of the few residences available at the time for out-of-town students, which the Church felt called to provide. This hostel was located in the former Good Shepherd Hospital.

She is also fondly remembered for her work in Mayo. Dr. Hellaby had been asked by the Bishop to fill a vacancy in the Mayo church. While she was there she also decided to teach basics at the school in the old village in Mayo. She would walk three miles to the school in order to start the fire and do other chores. During these walks in severe weather she froze her nose. In later years she had an operation on her nose for cancer.

Hilda was also instrumental in the move by the native people from the separate village to the community of Mayo.

Another small Anglican hostel, St. Agnes, was located in downtown Whitehorse largely supported by the Anglican Church Women.

Later a policy was in place of providing large federally sponsored residential hostels in Whitehorse, to which First Nations students were sent each September for school. Until the 70s, Yukon enjoyed a strong fur trapping economy as well as opportunities in mining, wood camps and seasonal construction jobs.

Hilda later felt the call to work among the First Nations people in their problems with the legal system, accompanying them quietly to court; this was before the many government social services were available. She became known for her loyalty in visiting those detained in large institutions in BC, conducting a calming prayer service with familiar hymns, bringing news from home, and providing small parcels at Christmas. She was usually their only visitor. Carvings and handicraft filled her luggage on the return flight, to sell at local handicraft outlets, providing spending money for “her boys.”

Hilda had the knack for getting things her way and became a favorite with the business community. The amused publisher of the Whitehorse Star offered to send a free subscription to the jail in Vancouver, thus giving lonely inmates welcomed reading material. The management of the United Keno Hill Mines agreed to some of her practical suggestions about making allowances for local men to have time off during such times as hunting season.

Hilda Hellaby also became known to many parishes throughout the Yukon, filling in when needed, conducting Services and Funerals, even spearheading the building of the log church in Pelly. Later, she spent much of her free time in the Synod Office working with the Bishop as secretary and was editor of the Anglican quarterly magazine. With her unique experience, she was sought after as a speaker.

Most days she had visitors in the office, mainly the poor who were short of funds, and would likely share her Pension. Hilda knew fully the risk, and was canny enough not to be derailed, for there is always the hope that some will come to faith at the last hour and be given full wages and benefits. (Matthew 20)

Hilda was a familiar bent figure on the streets, wearing a shapeless coat that came in the missionary bales and with a headscarf over coiled silver braids. She had a rather high pleasant English voice and a good sense of humor, usually garnished with a bit of scripture. Many a pair of her mitts were passed along to the fellows on the street. This was before the Salvation Army arrived to provide more substantial care. Hilda truly lived the Gospel.

Hilda once said the following in an interview: “When in doubt, take the losing side. The winners don’t need you. They’re doing okay.”

Later, honors started to flow in: Honorary Doctor of Divinity from UBC 1964 (the first woman); The Order of Canada 1965; Centennial medal in 1967 as an outstanding Canadian; the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal in 1977; Citizen of the Year—Whitehorse Kiwanis 1980; Person Award in 1982 and also in 1982, she was a pleased guest of honor at a reception at Skookum Jim Friendship Center and presented with a special plaque.

The new parish hall opened as “HELLABY HALL” Then, after a wonderful reception where she humbly dismissed what she considered “unnecessary accolades” she added, “I’ll try very hard to be what you think I am.”

HILDA WAS ALSO KNOWN AS A POET AND WRITER OF HYMNS.

A PRAYER by Hilda Hellaby from her book, The Living Current Flows

Regard, we pray, O God, your family upon earth, now passing through such great changes. All we know of you, all we feel toward you, all our duty to you and the world, must be expressed in new ideas and new works.

If we have cherished the form rather than the reality, help us to change the form without losing the reality. You who are the sum total of all good, and the source from which it comes, may we never doubt your reality because we cannot define it.

Hold out your hand to us as we walk toward you on the water, as you once did for Peter— and let us not sink into doubt or fear.

Amen

Excerpts from poems:

NIGHT THOUGHTS   

I stand-alone under the night sky—

Far North am I, in June no darkness falls.

Deep is the zenith’s blue, rose flushed the far horizon,

Flaming to gold where now Tomorrow rises.

Slow breathes the earth, the Yukon rose is sleeping,

Still are the birds and no beast stirs the forest—

One with the earth I am, the same life breathing in me—

One Life Himself infuses all creation.

THE PRISONER’S SONG

One day these gates will open wide,

where freedom waits for me.

I’ll see again the world I love—

It’s waiting there for me

Until I’m free.