During a busy Christmas season in 1958, Ruth Justice began a new job as a night shift chocolate dipper at Rogers' Chocolates - a career that would span 52 years.

"I already knew how to dip chocolates by hand," she says. "I just thought it would be a nice job to have because you could make your own hours."
In the back of his small grocery store, Charles "Candy" Rogers began to make his chocolates in 1885. Six years later, he moved the business to the landmark storefront, where it stands today on Government Street in Victoria - the aroma of decadently delicious chocolates taking hold of unsuspecting passersby. Ruth remembers the tiny working area at the back of the shop during the Christmas season.

"There was all the equipment, including 10 people to make the fillings and to dip the chocolates. You couldn't turn around without bumping into someone," she recalls. "We all went home smelling like chocolates!"

Ruth later moved to the spacious Factory Outlet in Saanich, where the chocolates are still made, then shipped around the world.

Ruth searches through 52 years of chocolate memories and recalls some of her favourites: "I remember a lady who special-ordered a chocolate bunny for her wedding. It was three-feet high and dressed like a real bride in white lace. It was only the bride bunny, no groom, but it was a lot of chocolate! Another time, Lorna, one of the chocolate makers, made and decorated a special order for full-size chocolate footballs."

But Ruth's all-time favourite chocolate-covered story happened at Easter. "One year, a young man came in and ordered a customized chocolate Easter egg," she says. "He wanted to surprise his girlfriend and asked that we put his engagement ring inside the egg. We did and thought it was very brave of him to trust us with the precious ring."

In those early years, Ruth confesses one difficulty she had to conquer was the fragile plastic moulds used for shaping specialty chocolates, such as the Easter bunnies. When she "popped" the bunnies from the moulds, there were always broken pieces, until they brought in better-quality moulds.

Ruth recently visited her old workplace. Pausing to watch chocolate maker Lana Zhou tapping the bunnies out of the moulds and setting them on a tray, ready for the wrapping stage, Ruth marvels, "It's so easy now with perfect bunnies every time!"

As she watches today's workers busily wrap the popular Victorian creams, Ruth recalls the old-fashioned process of how the chocolates were made.

"There were four cooks who would make up the batches of sweet creams in these great big vats - each one doing a different flavour. The creams were cooled, cut to size and delivered to the hand-dippers on a large board. The creams were then dipped into 10 pounds of melted dark chocolate, which is almost bitter. Because the creams are so sweet, it complements the bitter chocolate."

Today, machines and conveyor belts replace the "Ruths" of yesteryear. However, human-wrappers still wrap and box the famous chocolates.

"It's not just the act of making chocolates, but the pure delight of knowing so many people are enjoying the chocolate experience from one of the oldest chocolate companies in Canada," says Ruth.

Rogers' celebrated its 125th anniversary in 2010.

Starting out at Rogers', Ruth was a single mom raising four young sons. The starting salary was low, but the hours suited her family's schedule.

"I had my children to think about, so I stayed a little longer," she says. "There were lots of changes that made working more fun. I enjoyed the work, the people I worked with and the years just flew by. Before I knew it, my boys were young men."

Today, two of Ruth's sons are married with families of their own. She has five grandchildren, the youngest of which is 14.

"One minute they're babies, and the next they're grown-up."

Ruth has learned to enjoy retirement.

"At first, I did sleep in, but now I'm up early," she says. "You do need a bit of time to adjust to a different kind of schedule. I love to knit and I'm a BC Lions fan."
Reflecting on her 52 years with one employer, Ruth realizes things are much different today for young employees. Throughout her career, she held firm to her work ethic: "Always do the best you can at whatever job it may be. It builds self-confidence to know you can do the job and do it well."

APRIL 2011 SENIOR LIVING MAGAZINE VANCOUVER ISLAND