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Tape 1 of the QMUNITY interview with Shirley Buchan.
Shirley Buchan was born in 1933 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where she was a musical child, and used to hold impromptu concerts on the school steps with her playmates. At the age of ten, Shirley moved from the prairies to Vancouver, which became her home base for a number of journeys that were to follow. Shirley became a teacher, and spent her first two years of teaching in Trail, BC. She then returned to Vancouver and attended UBC where she studied English and Criminology. These studies led to a brief career as a prison guard at a Women's Prison. Shirley quickly returned to teaching and taught in a number of different environments including Vancouver, Vancouver Island, and Seattle.
Shirley, her husband, and their two daughters lived an adventurous life together. They lived for a time on Lasqueti Island where they did their “chopping wood, and carrying water kind of lifestyle, with no electricity and no indoor plumbing”. They then moved to P.E.I. where they lived in a 100 year old farmhouse and experienced a life of farming for a few years. Shirley remembers spending the whole summer preparing for the winter, with the power of only 200 watts of electricity, courtesy of a wind generator they placed upon the roof. While in P.E.I., Shirley worked at a transition house for battered women. After a few years on the East coast, Shirley returned to Vancouver where she worked as a homemaker, before adopting a new career as a fitness instructor.
In 1983, Shirley shifted into a new relationship that would turn into a twenty one year long partnership. Shirley and Dorothy taught together years prior, and had remained in very close contact through all of Shirley's adventures. They united and developed a very creative union, where Shirley explains that she became “freed up, artistically”. They self-published a number of children's books, in which Shirley wrote the poetry, and Dorothy illustrated.
After Shirley sang Dorothy into eternal sleep, she asked herself, “if I was fully living, what would I be doing?” In the past decade, Shirley has answered that for herself by developing her musical abilities, as she had always dreamed of doing. She took voice lessons, and established her talents as a soloist. She began leading singalongs at seniors’ centers, and has now made her own album of jazz standards. Shirley has been involved with the Quakers for over fifty years, and she has found a supportive community in the Queer Quakers. She has found great fulfillment through using her music and busking to raise funds for charities in Kenya.
Over the past decade, Shirley has become increasingly aware of her spiritual path, and of her position in life as an elder. She wants to be a more effective force for good in this world, by sharing the wisdom that she has gained. Through her music, Shirley aspires to lift the spirits of her listeners, and to inspire people to go for their dreams, no matter what their age. Dorothy is in a position to be out as an older lesbian woman in a number of different situations, and she hopes that this encourages and inspires young people to see life a little bit differently. What would Shirley like to accomplish in the next ten years? She just wants to get in as many gigs as she can!
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