Jim and Evelyn Bruton, courtesy of Elanie Bruton.

This is an edited version of a conversation with a  lighthouse keeper’s daughter in British Columbia, Canada, first heard in episode 104 of Light Hearted. Jim Bruton was born in Wales in 1926, but his family relocated to British Columbia in Canada when he was just one year old. He started working in the logging industry as a boy. In a light keeping career spanning several decades, he served at light stations around Vancouver Island: Lennard Island, Discovery Island, and Chrome Island.

Sheringham Point Lighthouse, BC. Photo by Jeremy D’Entremont.

iThe Brutons eventually had four children, three girls and a boy. The family moved to Sheringham Point, a mainland lightstation in Shirley on the southwest coast of Vancouver Island, in 1968. They lived there for nearly two decades, until 1986, when Jim Bruton retired. Our guest today, Elanie Bruton, lived at the light stations with her family until she was 18. She remains an active volunteer of the Sheringham Point Lighthouse Preservation Society, which now owns the lighthouse and surrounding land.