#18 Dr.Mom

May 13, 2023

#18 Dr.Mom

Viola Homuth, Doctor of Optometry

Our Mom was the strong, selfless centre of our family. Sometimes overlooked was the fact that she was also a qualified optometrist. Perhaps this oversight was because she worked in the family partnership alongside my dad Carol, and my grandfather Fred Homuth. Together the three of them offered vision care to the Harriston community for a combined total of over 175 years.

After Mom and her parents “escaped” Stalinist Russia (blog#9), they lived in Toronto, then Kirkland Lake, then back in Toronto. Mom took Grade 13 courses to become a physiotherapist, but part way through that final year, (when her father convinced her that in that field she would always be working for someone else), she decided to stay in high school for another year to get the required courses for optometry. (earned 13 senior matriculation credits)

Viola attended the College of Optometry in Toronto, a three-year degree course. There were eight women in the class of thirty. She lived at home and it was an hour’s streetcar ride and walk to the faculty. For two summers, she gained experience working in the lens lab and prescription department at Imperial Optical.

Miss Quinlan--physics class

The Lab

Vi studying

In first year, she tossed a wad of paper at a friend, missed, and hit Carol, a second year student. He asked her out and that was it! She graduated on May 22, 1947, they married and moved to Harriston.

Graduation May 22, 1947

Mom and Dad were the second married optometry couple in the province. My parents enjoyed a 63 year marriage, friendship and professional partnership. Our family dinner conversations were never about sports but about patients’ myopia, plus or minus corrections, or a new line of frames.

Mom would spend her mornings working at home and her afternoons in the office. She and Dad regularly attended upgrading courses at the College. Mom was qualified to fit contact lenses (when they were the hard kind), but she was as nervous as her patients so soon decided to pass on this service. Mom spoke at career days about women working in a profession; she often visited local retirement and nursing homes to adjust residents’ glasses.

One special experience was in 1973 when she went to St.Kitts and Nevis to supervise four optometry students. This was a CIDA programme to aid developing countries in the Caribbean; it was promoted by The Faculty of Optometry at Waterloo University as a chance for final year students to gain useful experience in the work place. The team worked with the island schools to examine the youngsters’ eyes. They had limited equipment to work with, and provided glasses from a box of used glasses collected by the Lions Club and other organizations. When the prescription was not a simple one, or there were not proper lenses, they would be made up in Waterloo and fitted to the students in the fall. The team saw at least one busload of children each morning and afternoon.

Youngest patient--Hyacinth's 7 month old baby

The next year, both Mom and Dad went to Montserrat. During the two weeks, they supervised the screening of over 1200 students, the examination of 200 and the writing of 100 prescriptions. These prescriptions were filled at the University of Waterloo and fitted in the fall by another team. Two hundred adults were also examined in the remaining time, but when the team left the island, there were still many more adults unattended. The Homuths found the island people very friendly and welcoming. In their off-time, they were entertained by a steel drum band, toured the islands of Guadaloupe and Antigua and attended a crab race. The Vison Care programme was a stepping stone towards better vison care for the people of the British West Indies and it was hoped that soon the islands would have their own professional eye care.

Mom retired in 1997 after fifty years of practice. Family held a well-deserved retirement party for her. Family gifted her her first computer; friends gave her a doll in her optometrical likeness.