Miza
Davie was born Mireille Françoise Bosc in Paris, France on April 16, 1934
to Paule Fernande Metge and Louis Bosc. Her parents separated around the time
the war started and Mizas mother, who was a well known national radio personality,
was left to raise Miza, her little sister Françoise, who was two years
younger than she and her brother Robert, who was two years younger still, on her
own.
When
the Germans first invaded France, the family left for Marseilles with thousands
of other refugees. Before long, the Germans occupied the entire country. During
the first years of the occupation, Mizas mother went back to work in Paris
and the children spent the next two years staying with relatives in Vébron
near Nimes in the south of France and then Générac near Bordeaux
where the French Résistance was highly active.
After
the war ended, Miza lived with her mother and siblings in Paris. In 1950, she
emigrated to England to study nursing. Upon receiving her State Registered Nurse
degree she travelled to Houston, Texas to conduct her post-graduate work.
She
then came to Canada in 1964 and worked at the Ottawa General Hospital before being
asked to organize the Department of Experimental Surgery at the University of
Ottawa where she spent the next 30 years of her life engaged in research and teaching
surgery. In 1993 she received the prestigious Award of Excellence of the Faculty
of Medicine.
Somewhere
along her journey she was sidetracked from her
medical career long enough to
marry her husband Syd (whom she has looked after ever since).
Several
years prior to her retirement from the University of Ottawa, Miza joined the Lions
- thus making the transition from full time worker to full time SERVER inevitable.
She was an active member of the service club right up until the time of her passing
and was a champion of many youth oriented initiatives both within and outside
the club.