Payson Roundup

Courtesy photo

Tina and Ian Bruce (left) met with Queen Elizabeth II in 1991 in London. The Bruces have spent their careers working for various non-profits and were knighted by the queen for their efforts.

Courtesy photo

Even after both Tina and Ian were knighted (below), they continued to visit the family annually to catch up and reminisce.

Andy Towle/Roundup - atowle@payson.com

Tina Bruce was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2009 for her work in early childhood education.

Andy Towle/Roundup - atowle@payson.com

Ian Bruce has been visiting the U.S. on almost an annual basis to visit his American “family” in Whispering Pines.

Andy Towle/Roundup - atowle@payson.com

With three children, Lillian Barker never expected to have another son. Adding Ian 48 years ago was a welcomed addition.

Like a good cup of tea, a friendship takes time to seep. With a little care, love and a dab of sweetness it can span a lifetime and across oceans.

For Ian Bruce, a shy, cross-Atlantic teen plopped in the middle of the Arizona heat almost 50 years ago, his relationship with an American family has grown and stretched in directions that he never could imagine as a teen fresh off a boat from England.

From his travels through the Rim Country to being knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.

Ian explained his long relationship with the Barker family at Lillian Barker’s Whispering Pines home while preparing a pot of tea recently.

You cannot just toss a tea bag in a pot and stir it, you’ve got to take the time to make it properly, he said. Warm the pot first, get the water boiling just right, then add the tea and let it sit a bit.

“We (the English) make great cups of tea, but horrible cups of coffee,” he joked.

Unlike this proper pot of tea, Ian was thrown into the overflowing American culture at 16 years old.

It was 1961 and Ian was a foreign exchange student from England. He had just arrived in New York harbor after a five-day boat ride across the Atlantic and was now on a seven-hour flight to Arizona where a host family greeted him.

After staying with that family a short time, he said they realized it was not going to work out, so they promptly gave him back to the high school in charge of him.

The high school advisor approached Lillian and asked her to take Ian under her wing while he was in the states.

“I didn’t want him!” she joked. “I had three kids and did not want him. When I got him at 17, I did not know I would have him the rest of my life.”

Unknowingly, Ian and the Barkers would foster a unique bond that quickly progressed from friends to family.

“I had no idea it would go on all these years,” he said of the five-decade friendship.

During his first year with the Barkers, Ian explored the rustic countryside of the south and the active social scene of the Valley.

“Being young, I loved the countryside and the community feel,” he said. “That year with the family was very important. When I arrived, I was unconfident and extremely nervous about coming here, but I was very surprised when I got here.”

The Barkers brought Ian to their Rim Country home, which they had purchased in 1955 as a getaway from the Valley heat.

Lillian explained back in 1955, Payson was nothing but a small cowboy town with a post office, grocery store and two saloons, the Winchester and Oxbow.

“In those days it would take seven hours to get here from Phoenix,” Lillian said.

“You would have to go through rivers and rutted roads to get here (Whispering Pines) from Payson.”

Today it is a quick 20-minute drive to Payson from Whispering Pines.

Even though Payson was a small town, Ian noticed its modern conveniences.

“I had never seen a shopping mall before,” he said. “I took a slide of the shopping mall and showed it to my classmates in England and nobody knew what it was. When I explained you go shopping there, there was complete mystification.”

Another sight that mystified Ian was the Grand Canyon.

During his first winter, Ian said he decided, like many tourists, that he wanted to hike the canyon from rim to rim. Lillian quickly informed him you could not hike across without proper planning and training. So, although he did not hike it that winter, Ian went on to hike it five times during his return visits.

On top of appreciating Arizona’s culture, Ian said he learned what a large family is like.

Lillian and her husband Robert had three children, Bob, Lillian Jr. and Terry.

“As an only child, it was a wonderful experience to come and have brothers and sisters,” he said. “The Barkers were a safe haven during my acclimation to the states. They were wonderfully supportive and gave me confidence.”

After his first year in the states, Ian returned home to England with a sense of newfound self-confidence and appreciation of democracy.

Over the next 10 years, Ian would visit the Barkers on almost an annual basis.

Their opinion and guidance, like his family in England, became crucial.

In 1970, Tina, his then-girlfriend, came along for a visit and the family quickly gave their approval.

“I did not know I was coming to get interviewed!” Tina said of the visit.

Like Ian, Tina said she was struck by the huge differences between the rest of the world and the U.S.

“The scenery is just so much grander,” she said. “In England the landscape is miniature. We have hills and woodlands, but no forests.”

Tina and Ian later married and brought their own two children to visit the Barkers.

Spending time in America fueled Ian’s civic interest and because of this, he joined several non-profits in England. Tina, an educator, was also interested in helping others.

Respectively, the couple worked with several large agencies in their chosen causes. For Ian, it was helping older adults and the blind and for Tina, early childhood development.

Both were recognized for their non-profit work by Queen Elizabeth II and knighted Commanders of the British Empire. Ian in 2004 and Tina in 2009.

In a country of 60 million people, only 60 are knighted a year in their category, Ian said.

“It is extra unusual a couple would get it.”

While running a non-profit for the blind in 1991, Ian met Princess Diana at the opening of a deaf and blind school.

“Princess Diana was keen to support the underdog,” he said. “She had the common touch and connected with everyone. She was an icon.”

For Ian, Lillian is one of the icons that guided him. “They totally transformed my life,” he said.