Great Canadian Donors: Shirley and Greg

Greg and Shirley Humphries

For Shirley Humphries, The Great Trail is a vital part of her life. Shortly after her parents came to live at her Regina home in 2003, her mother, Marya, passed away.

Perhaps as a way of dealing with the loss, perhaps as a way of strengthening the new dynamics of their relationship, Shirley and her father, John W. Humphries, set out on a quest of sorts. Although her father was 88 and with failing eyesight, they decided that together and by small sections, they would walk the 20 kilometres of the Trail through Regina.

“I’d get home at noon and he’d have lunch on the table,” recalls Shirley. “Then we’d go down along the Trail by Wascana Lake and back, and I’d return to work. On weekends we would walk different short sections of the Trail.”

Within a year they’d completed it.

John passed away during the winter of 2005, but, says Shirley, “that was a wonderful journey we did together.” Shirley retired from the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation in 2013. She has travelled coast to coast to coast for work, studies and holidays. “These opportunities gave me a better understanding of the diversity that is our Canada. This needs to be celebrated. And 2017 is the perfect opportunity!” A long-time TCT donor, Shirley and her husband, Greg Lawrence, see The Great Trail as a wonderful means to unite Canadians. “For some, the Trail may seem symbolic, but what is real is the many people across the country working together to make stronger connections with one another,” she says.