Wanda Carriere Frey Alice Ross Carriere Heck bert, mother of Wanda Frey, was born in the Coquitlam area on April 25, 1884, seven years prior to the incorporation of tl1e municipality. She was me one of the first- if not the first- of Coquitlam 's native daughters. Her parents were homesteaders John and Sarah Ross. Mr. Ross was the first operator of the CPR's original Pitt River Bridge, a wooden structure witl1 swing span. Mr. Ross had a demanding job; commercial traffic on the Pin was heavy in those days, and his duties included opening the bridge by hand. A new bridge \>vas built by The Foundation Co. Limited in 1913. Alice Ross Carriere Heckbert - or Nanny Heckbert, as she was affectionately called in later years - was married twice. She and first husband Arthur Carriere had two children, Bob and Wanda. A couple of years after she was widowed, she married William Heckbert, and tl1e couple raised Wanda and Bob, and me children's half-sister Mvrtle Heckbert. In 1935, the Hcckbert family settled in'the Ranch Park area ofCoquitlam, ncar Dewdney Trunk Road. Wanda Carriere frey was born Aug. 5, 1912, in her grandmomer's house in New Westminster. Her father, Arthur Carriere, died when she was six. She married Charles Johnson in 1929. The couple, who had two sons, moved to Port Coquitlam in 1936. She married her second husband, Victor Frey, in 1969. Mrs. Frey, who still resides in Port Coquitlam, has five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Mrs. Frey remembers her mother as a kind and generous woman who never allowed herself to be defeated by rhe numerous difficult situations she faced
tl1roughout her life. Nanny Heckbert survived the devastating San Francisco earthquake and fire of April 18, 1906, and looked after her son who was confined to a wheelchair &om age nine. During her lite, Nanny Heckbert received many honors for her devotion to her tamilv. She was more than 104 years old when she died ori Sept. 1, 1988, at Hawthorne Lodge in Port Coquitlam.
M
y mother was born in 1884 in the Coquitlam
area, at me foot of Pitt River Road, where the Pitt River enters the Fraser. She often told us she was born on the banks of the fraser River. She was one of the earliest pioneers born in what was to become Coquitlam in 1891. Her father John Ross came here from Wales, and her mother Sarah Bailey was born in Fort Langley. My grandmother was me first white baby born in Fort Langley. After my grandparents were married, mey homesteaded in what is now Port Coquitlam. I remember my mother and I once drove towards the end of Pitt River Road, where Harken Towing now is, ncar the Fraser Ri\'cr. She pointed our some fruit trees, and told me that's \\here me old homestead was. My grandfather was me first bridge tender tor the CPR on the Pitt River bridge where it crosses the Pitt River, where the Wild Duck Inn is now, and that was why they lived at the foot of Pitt River Road. He had
TIJe 1200 block of Brunette in tbc cm'('Y 1900s.