Mid career in Manitoba

So I had to say “goodbye” to Ontario and in the spring, I went to the farm in Manitoba where my father was. When I told the forelady, she said I should come to her office before I would leave. So, shortly before I left, I went to her office. How happy I was to receive a reference concerning my work! When she gave it to me she said, “Take it with you wherever you go to look for work.” I thanked her. She said “goodbye” to me with a kiss. The Russian-German girls who had worked with me and who had lunch with me every day surprised me with a very beautiful vase as a remembrance. Throughout my life, I have treasured it highly.

I said “goodbye” to all my relatives, to my friends and acquaintances and in the spring of 1927, I traveled to Manitoba.

Father lived then on the farm and had hired my cousin David Klassen to help him with the field work.

The house on the farm had only been built a few years ago. It had a large kitchen, a living room and a small bedroom downstairs. Upstairs, nothing had been finished. It was very dirty. The old house stood quite nearby.

First, I cleaned the house as well as the old house. Father had purchased a cow. There was also a garden patch, so I planted a vegetable garden immediately. We got such good rains and the vegetables grew well. The harvest was average. So we had a beginning on the farm near Fannystelle.

In that area, at that time, there lived many former estate owners from Russia: aunt Agnes Reimer with Lydia and David lived in the neighborhood of uncle David Klassen. Their daughter, Louise, lived with her parents. So, there was good company and we got together a lot. We young people really enjoyed ourselves.

When mother came in the fall, I went to Winnipeg to look for a job. I got a job as a domestic worker in a house. The people were nice and I liked it, but I would rather work in a factory. When I went to my parents on my holidays (it was at the time of threshing), my cousin Nick Classen (David Klassen’s son) came and asked me if I would go to their place to help with the threshing. They lived several miles away from my parents. They had five children and the sixth was on the way. He had cancer himself. I felt sorry for him and I went along. It was a difficult threshing time because rain caused delays, but in time we were finished. But among the workers was a man who, when he heard that I wanted to work in a factory, said that he had a friend in Winnipeg who had a shirt factory. He gave me a letter of introduction and said that I should apply there. With my good reference from Ontario and with this letter, I went there. I was hired at once. It was a small factory but I liked it. However in the summer there was too little work. There were days when there was no work. At other times, we had only a half-day’s employment. An acquaintance who worked for Eaton’s in the shirt factory said that from time to time, workers were hired there and she would let me know when they were hiring again.

So one day, I stood outside Eaton’s in a very long queue of girls who were all looking for work. But I had my reference from Ontario with me. So, when I reached the office they took me on for a two-week probation, and when the two weeks were over I was in. We got $15 a week. On my first day I met Hildegard Neufeld. We went together to the restaurant Eatons had for its workers. The meals were good at moderate prices. We became friends immediately and we had all our lunches together. Soon we became very good friends and that enriched my life very much.

I had rented a room and lived there for two years. Then Helen Rempel and I rented a room and lived together for four years. Then Helen moved to Calgary with her employers. I gave up the big room and rented a room for myself at Johann Wielers. There I lived another four years in my downstairs room. Upstairs lived aunt David Willms with Njuta, Eve and Lena. Preacher Rempel later married Lena as his third wife.

In 1936, Greta Derksen and I took a holiday trip to B.C. together. It was the first time that I saw B.C. At that time, the Jacob Janzens were the “houseparents” of the girls' school. We took the C.N. train and the areas through which we traveled were beautiful. We came to the girls' school and the Janzens received us in a friendly way. So we made our headquarters there. The first day, we visited the recreational area Wig-Mau In. It was in the mountains and a small boat brought us there and picked us up again toward evening. One day, we went to Seattle and came back by bus. Another day we went to Victoria where we saw Butchard’s Gardens for the first time. At that time, it was still in its infancy. The house was ready. The whole garden was landscaped with its many rose-covered trellises. There were also many cement-poured statues: deer, dwarfs, etc. And there were also steps leading down to the gardens. These were made to look like wood but were actually made of concrete. At one time, the garden had been a gravel pit. The owner, Mr. Butchard had a cement factory and he got his gravel from this pit. His wife was a great fancier of flowers and plants. Then they came upon the idea of making a park out of the pit and they brought that idea to wonderful fruition. Now it is such a beautiful park that many tourists visit it every day.

We also took a tour of the city of Victoria and saw many interesting things. Then we took the ferry back to Vancouver. We had a three week vacation. After two weeks I went to Calgary. Greta had met a friend in Vancouver and stayed on. At that time my friend in Calgary, Helen Rempel, was to be married and she had urgently invited me to attend as no one from her family could be there. The wedding was small and took place in a house. The whole house was decorated with many flowers. She had a long white dress with a train and a long veil, and she carried a bouquet of pink roses. Her bridegroom was Peter Friesen from Calgary. After the ceremony, there was a meal and, later, there was dancing. I didn’t see much of Calgary at that time. I did enjoy those holidays!