The Atkinson Family

Linda Fay Ethel Copas was born Easter Sunday, April 22nd, 1962 to Ethel and Arthur Copas in Toronto, Ontario. When she was six months old, the family moved from an apartment building on Keele Street in Toronto to a semi-detached house in Downsview. 

 

Linda was just a small child sitting in her highchair being fed lunch by her mother when the news of Kennedy's assassination was announced on the radio. Later on in life, her mother told her that it was a shock to them hearing the news because JFK had been such an amazing man.

 

When Linda was turning four, her mom took her to England to visit her Aunt Peggy who had recently lost her husband due to a brain tumor. 

 

At the age of nine, the family moved to Burlington, Ontario where Linda where she was bussed halfway across town to grade 4 in Ryerson Public School, as there was no school in their brand new housing subdivision.

 

She entered grade 5 at Dr. Charles Best School and also completed grade 6 there before having to move to a middle school for grades 7 and 8. In the summer of 1976, she travelled once again to England to visit her Auntie Peggy and grandfather, John A Shields. The highlight of the trip was also visiting Edinburgh, Scotland, the Tower of London, and Buckingham Palace in England.

 

After returning back to Canada, she started in the newly built highschool, Lester B Pearson High School where she was part of the first graduating class. Linda was in the band throughout high school, she played the clarinet.

 

In her early teens she would watch the Partridge Family, Mary Tyler Moore Show, and the Odd Couple on TV. Linda lived through the carefree days of bell bottom pants, and bands like KISS and Queen. Her favourite band, the Bay City Rollers swept the nation with the trend of wearing tartan clothing. 

 

In 1980, she moved with her parents to Mississauga, Ontario and got her first job at International Import Customs Brokers as a mail clerk. 

 

During the spring of 1984, she purchased her own mobile home and six months later met the man she was to marry in November of 1986. In the summer of 1987, they bought their first house together in the North end of Mississauga and in the summer of 1993 had their first child, Kieran William. Then in 1998, their second and last child, Caitlin Elizabeth.

 

When Caitlin was born, Linda left work to become a stay-at-home mom to raise Caitlin. To afford this, they moved to Tottenham, Ontario and then to Prince Edward Island in 2007. 

 

Linda returned to work as an assistant to a real estate agent for two and a half years before working for the Community Museum Association of PEI for another two years. She now works for a physiotherapist in Morell and Montague.

 

 

Stephen Atkinson was born February 8th, 1957 to Eleanor Craig and unwed mother who had gotten herself pregnant by a well to do officer in the British Army.  When his parents found out that there was a baby on the way he was made to distance himself from her.  She was very sick during the pregnancy with diabetes and when Stephen was born he was given up for adoption.  

 

When Stephen turned two his mother had to go into the hospital for major back surgery and as his parents didn't have anyone to look after him he was put into an orphanage for over a year and a half.  He can still remember the look on the kids faces when his father would pick him up on a Saturday afternoon for a visit.

 

At the age of 13 he was chasing a boy around the school yard when he tripped and fell against a brick wall knocking out a few of his teeth.  He underwent major dental reconstruction to reattach his teeth on posts.

 

Stephen was walking out of a movie theatre on July 20th, 1969. He had been with a buddy and had just seen a James Bond movie on the big screen when they announced on the radio that the Apollo 11 had landed on the moon. When everyone heard the news, they stopped and turned to stare skyward.

 

In the early 70s, Stephen was a teenager when it was the trend to have long hair, bell bottom pants, and the pasttime of listening to rock and roll on the radio. In Ireland, there was peer pressure because there was segregation between what was called the "Rockers" and the "Mods" and they were distinguished by how they dressed and the music they listened to. Rockers were more like bikers, listening to rock music whereas Mods listened to modern music, wore drain-pipe pants, pointy shoes, and rode mopeds. 

 

Back in Ireland, bullying wasn't defined as bullying. If somebody had an issue it usually got dealt with out in the school yard and that was the end of it. Things were dealt with straightforward and simple. It wasn't seen as bullying because back then people weren't as educated to know that repeated abuse was bullying and that it was wrong.

 

Stephen remembers when Winston Churchill was a prime minister through the Second World War and the Battle of Britain. He ran the show and was very powerful. When he died a lot of people realized that Britain had lost a great man. A big, very formal funeral was made for him that included a horse-drawn carriage with the coffin on the back of it with all the guards and everything else.

 

Compared to Ireland, Canada's warmth had been the first shock that came to Stephen. May 4th, 1971 was the first day Stephen set foot in Canada. All together, the environment was strange to Stephen especially because his family landed in Montreal to clear Customs first before they moved on to Toronto. Within a few days of living here, the family went to a Ponderosa and were shocked to find that a steak dinner only cost $1.89. In Ireland, costs had been higher and it was uncommon to buy steaks because meat of that quality was expensive.

 

He entered high school in Scarborough, Ontario and as most of the kids at the school as well as his teachers couldn't understand his thick Belfast accent he worked at "loosing it".  The family lived only a year in Scarborough before moving up to Brampton, Ontario where they were able to purchase a house in a small subdivision.  He entered Chinguacousy High, excelled at science and became a member of the year book committee as well as the photography club.  His interest in photography landed him a job a large department store in the Bramalea City Centre shopping mall where he worked in the camera department selling cameras. 

 

After graduating he obtained a job at the Toronto Dominion bank working 3 floors below ground and took night school courses to become a Chartered Account.  It wasn't long before Stephen decided that a inside desk job wasn't for him and he answered an ad from the Toronto Star looking for Metro Toronto Police officers.  He attended Elmer Police College in 1975 and became a police officer at 21 division in 1976.  He worked at various stations during his 31 1/2 year career with the force.

 

In the summer of 2006 the Atkinson family took a trip to Atlantic Canada to look for somewhere to relocate to.  After staying in Rustico they decided on Prince Edward Island as it reminded Steve of "back home" in Belfast.  April 4, 2007 was the date Steve handed in his notice for his retirement and in June of 2007 the family packed up and moved to Morell.  

 

Steve took at job at Charlottetown Toyota and then worked at Staples in the computer department with his passion for computers he spent over a year fixing and re-building computers until major changes in the store lead to many of the staff leaving.  He went on to train for a job as a Commissionaire a job that he holds to this day.

 

 

 

Kieran Atkinson was born July 10th on the busiest weekend in July of 1993 at Credit Valley Hospital in Mississauga, Ontario.  He was the first child of Stephen and Linda Atkinson.  Just after Kieran turned a year old he travelled with his mom and grandmother to England, and took his first steps on English soil.

 

Soon after his mom returned to her job as an accounts payable clerk and Kieran was looked after by his grandmother.  As the company was only a short drive away his mom used to come home every lunch hour to see him.  

 

When Kieran was 4 1/2 his sister Caitlin was born.  Within a month of her birth his grandmother died and his mom quit work to stay home and raise them.  The summer before Kieran entered kindergarten the family moved to Tottenham, Ontario a small bedroom community just north of Mississauga.  

 

It was here that Kieran played soccer and made friends.  In the summer of 2007 Kieran graduated from grade 8 at Tottenham Public School and he moved with the family to Morell, Prince Edward Island to enter Morell Region High.  After graduating Kieran enrolled in UPEI to fulfil his dream of becoming a school teacher.  It only took 3 short months for Kieran to realize that teaching wasn't something that he wanted to do after all and he left to work at the Gap, the Atlantic Superstore and Global Pet Foods until he was able to enroll in Holland College's Travel and Tourism program.

 

In April 2014 Kieran travelled to Halifax, Nova Scotia to work at Hogg Robinson Group for a week for his on the job training.  When the week was over he was surprised to hear that they wanted to make his job permanent.  He came home, packed up his bedroom and moved into his very first apartment. November 2014 brought about changes once again when he learned that his apartment building was going to be totally renovated and all tennants were to move out.  As the cost of rent was so expensive for him he asked if he could take the option of working from home and moved back to PE where he was able to find a two bedroom for the same cost as his one bedroom had been.  The job was a very stressful one as it was a call centre he decided to work out his full year.  When that term was up he returned to his job at Global Pet Foods where he was offered a job back at Global Pet Foods but this time as their assistant manager.  He is enjoying his job and is looking forward to returning to UPEI in the fall for a 2 year course to obtain his Bachelor of Business.