Ruth L. Byskal was a Northern girl born in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, December 13, 1935. Her father, W.O.Harper, was a true pioneer, a merchant, fur buyer and a friend of the settlers and aboriginal peoples in that rugged new land of the Peace River country. Life was simple in that little town of 500 residents until in March of 1942 construction began on what became known as the Alcan Highway. Five Hundred residents became ten thousand and more, as soldiers, construction crews and labourers poured into town. She saw the military police with their high leather boots and the billy clubs dangling from their belts as she sat playing on the wooden sidewalk. The crowds of men pushing their way into the narrow café doors and the noise of trucks and train always coming with more soldiers and tents and equipment. Merchants found it difficult to keep shelves filled. Those were exciting days and Dawson Creek was called "A boom town." And Ruth would see Eddie. He came from somewhere and left again. She would see him at the little gospel church or at the store. He was always going "up the Hi-way" or "up to this camp or that camp," and they became friends. In 1952, Ruth graduated from Grade 12 and became a legal stenographer with the firm of Carmichael & Dodd, Barristers & Solicitors and continued in that position until she and Eddie were married on May 26, 1954.