Remembering Peggy Fitzpatrick, a nanny for the Eaton family StarTogether
As a nanny for the prominent Eaton family, Peggy Fitzpatrick had a close working relationship with the department store president and his wife. The job prepared the Irish immigrant for the most important roles — mother, foster mother and grandmother — of her life.
Peggy would often climb a tree with a book just to have some time to herself, says daughter Teresa Fitzpatrick. She began work at 16, caring for children at a nearby private school that housed English children during the Second World War. “Many English families sent their children over to Ireland to avoid the Blitz,” says Trish, “as Ireland was neutral during World War II.”
Pat moved to England to help rebuild after the war, then to Canada in the early 1950s, where he worked as a bricklayer near Pickering. “Due to the poor economic prospects and limited opportunities for women in a largely rural country,” Terry says, “emigration was the only ticket out for young women.” So Pat and Peggy planned her move to Canada.
At the Eatons’ Forest Hill home, Peggy lived in luxury. Her duties included looking after the family’s four sons, John Craig, Frederik, Thor and George, making sure they were fed, clothed properly and did their homework. “She got the younger children to their extracurricular activities,” Teresa says, “and kept an eye on the older boys and their social lives.”
Seven years after meeting, the couple married in 1956, and at the Eaton family’s request, Peggy continued working until she was a few months into her first pregnancy. “She was sad to leave her job,” says Teresa, “but she looked forward to the life with Pat that they had worked for so long for.”
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