Janie was no more than four-years-old when she arrived here at the Lake in 1915 with her parents Mr. and Mrs. Frank Griffin.
Griffin senior had come to take the job of stationmaster at the relatively new Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railroad (E & N) station.
The little girl was delighted with the move and loved living at the station (in living quarters) with its high ceilings and large rooms. She enjoyed the ticket booth where she sometimes stood on a chair to hand out tickets to passengers and frequently was allowed to take train rides sitting up high in the caboose.
In later years, she remembered the fun she had while living at the station — running around inside it and yelling at the top of her lungs because of the wonderful echoes. It was an interesting and fun filled childhood at the station for the delightful little girl named Janie (later called Jennie).
Many decades later, about 1993, she returned to Lake Cowichan to visit the station. By then it had become the Kaatza Station Museum. She was delighted, once again, to see the station she so loved. It no longer seemed as large to her as it once had. During her visit she was thrilled to see the same old station desk, telegraph machine and other memorabilia that had once been part of the train station and part of her life.
On Nov.12, 2012, Jennie Porter (nee Janie Griffin) passed away peacefully at the age of 101 — 97 years after she first arrived at Lake Cowichan.
