P.E.I. Lt.-Gov. Barbara Hagerman and her husband Nelson recently bought a house in Stratford as their residency at the stately Fanningbank draws to a close.
The province’s 40th lieutenant-governor focused on three key components in the selection of her new property all influenced in part by a five-year stay at Government House.
She wanted the house to have high ceilings, which is a dramatic feature of Fanningbank. She wanted lots of trees, something that is plentiful on the property of the official residence of the Queen’s personal representative in P.E.I.
And Hagerman wanted privacy.
While recognized as a welcoming and outgoing person in her role as lieutenant-governor, Hagerman soon discovered many people wrongly viewed Government House as a public building.
Not long ago, a woman came up the driveway as Hagerman and her husband were sitting down to supper in the dining room. The woman tried to enter through the side door but it was locked. She peered in the first window, saw Nelson, and waved. She then turned away and left.
Some people ring the doorbell and say “we’ve come to see the house.’’ About half a dozen times a week, people look to pop into the house as if it was a museum or a public library. The number of univited arrivals often increase when a cruise ship is in port.
“Privacy is a strange word around here,’’ said Hagerman.
As a private residence, Government House is not open to the general public except for July and August when guided tours are conducted. The public may also visit during the New Year’s Levee or by private invitation.
Still, Hagerman has gone to great lengths to make Fanningbank accessible to as many Islanders as possible.
She has welcomed to her temporary home — and reached out in the community across P.E.I. — to young and old alike while placing particular importance on embracing the military, multiculturalism, and the aboriginal people of the Island.
She met most Island soldiers before they deployed to Afghanistan, hosting them and family members at Government House. She remained in contact with them during their dangerous tour of duty and even kept in touch with some of them after they returned home.
Hagerman has also championed UPEI’s Ambassador Family Program that is aimed at making international students feel at home and welcome on P.E.I. She and Nelson have mentored students from China, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and the Bahamas.
Program co-founder Joy Ikede says Hagerman is well loved by the international students that she took in as if they were family. The international students had supper at Fanningbank on numerous occasions while Hagerman attended several functions at UPEI dealing with these students.
Ikede says Hagerman connected with the students on a genuine, personal level that has resulted in the students remaining in contact with the lieutenant-governor even after completing their studies at UPEI.
“She was just normal, regular, laid back,’’ she said.
“You didn’t see her as someone who had this high office. She was just like an aunt to these students.’’
Hagerman’s stamp on an office she officially assumed on July 31, 2006, enthuses Ikede, is one of openness. She has been very welcoming, down to earth, and generous with her time.
Hagerman, who has a distinguished 40-year performance and teaching career, hosted at Government House more than 50 recitals featuring UPEI music students. Audiences ranged in size from roughly 30 people to over 100.
She has been a regular and enthusiastically received visitor to seniors’ homes across the Island.
She speculates she is in high demand for public appearances in part because she quickly developed a track record as a lieutenant governor that doesn’t like to turn down requests.
“My sort of goals when I came here was to make a lot of connections between the job and the people of the Island to make it relevant and to get to know people and for them to get to know the lieutenant-governor,’’ she said.
She believes her career as a performing musician she was a guest performer with the P.E.I. Symphony, a solo recitalist and church musician prepared her well for her current job that traditionally runs five years.
She is comfortable in front of the public. Speaking off the cuff is second nature.
And, she notes, a big evening function as lieutenant-governor often provides the same sort of high afterwards that she had grown accustomed to following a concert performance.
“I can’t get over the amount of respect that people have shown for this office,’’ she said.
“I have never, ever thought that they were saluting me. They were saluting what I’m the representative of but to be touched by it is quite something else.’’
Hagerman tells her friends to call her Barb unless she is at a public function in which case Your Honour is the proper form for addressing the lieutenant governor.
Certainly Hagerman’s late mother, who died in early May, was so proud of the prestigious office that she couldn’t help but pipe up.
“We would sit down in a restaurant and suddenly she would (knock on a table and say) ‘this is your lieutenant-governor, you know.’ I’d say ‘mom, we don’t know those people.’’’
Hagerman views her run as lieutenant-governor as a departure from the real world.
Having a personal chef and housecleaners is not normal.
Having a private audience with the Queen in Buckingham Palace is not normal.
Having complete strangers knock on the door hoping to drop in for tea is not normal.
“This is not really a real existence and it’s been five years from a normal life,’’ she said.
Not only has her career in classical music been put on hold one can’t work at a second job when one is lieutenant-governor even much of her past personal regiment has been sidelined.
Notably, she is unable to slot time for exercise with her sporadic daily itinerary.
She was a weight lifter for 17 years, not starting until she was in her forties. She could bench press 120 pounds.
She then shifted to bicycling. To mark her 60th birthday, she biked tip to tip along the Confederation Trail. She is planning to do the trip again on her 70th birthday health willing.
Hagerman was diagnosed in 2007 with Chron’s disease, an inflammatory bowel disease that causes, among other discomforts, fatigue.
During a four-week period, she lost 30 pounds. Her doctor quipped in reference to the many media photographs taken of Hagerman in her role as lieutenant-governor that he could give her a weekly check-up simply by picking up the newspaper and sizing up her appearance.
Today, she is coping well with her condition as she prepares for a return to “real life.”
No Thaddeus Shalto, objective articles written by qualified reporters are fine. It is just the garbage posted on this blog/comment section that is extremely offensive and disappointing to read. It is damaging to our Island community and to the paper's reputation as a credible news source. It has gotten to the point where I have cancelled my subscription as a result and have also talked to others who are considering doing the same.