Ruth Irene Cullingworth in 1917

Ruth is leaning on the gate outside the Cullingworth house on the Biggar farm which was on the north side of Dundas, slightly east of the Sixteen Mile Creek. The year is 1917 and she is 19 years old. Her father, Joseph, died the year before and her mother, Mary, and sister, Hazel (age 14), are moving into Toronto. Ruth will marry Ron (sometimes called Frank) Powell in 1919 and they farm the "old Caverhill place" as Ron calls it in his audio memoir. Ruth was trained as a dressmaker and worked with needle arts all her life. She always had knitting or crochet work at her side. In the nineteen twenties, she and a friend, Mrs. Cook looked into making infant clothing at home. They decided they could do better on their own so Ruth crocheted baby layettes of her own designs and Mrs. Cook sold them in her shop. Ruth also taught her daughters, Mary and Muriel, these skills. A bonnet with ribbon rosettes, jacket and booties was one layette. Daisies made with a daisy-maker incorporated into the crochet work were very popular and the family women to this day use them in their needlework. Ruth always had a beautiful flower garden. Ruth also bred and raised budgies and family budgies today carry on one of the favourite names, "Pippi". The poems she wrote to family members are still treasured. In his taped memoir, Ron said his years of marriage to Ruth were the happiest years of his life.