|
|
To my grandma Atkinson in Hopewell Hil, New Brunswick, Canada 1890-03-02 Parents
Note: Pictures are clickable for full size |
|
|
|
Children as a rule aren’t especially aware of, or interested in how their parents basic character measures up with societies norms. It is their own relationship and how they interact with "me"
as my mom and dad that is
the relevant issue for children.
|
|
|
Mary Newcomb born 1890 .. Canada
itself was just over 20 years old when she was born ..So she grew up
in a new society of hope … but also of uncertainty. Obviously our grandma was an independent free-spirited personality. Perhaps a determination somewhat before her time in a society struggling to retain its conservative roots. However she seemed to have managed to successfully grow up to graduate from a teachers school in Fredericton and work for a year or two as teacher in NB – and then muster the courage to ‘emigrate’ to Kindersley Saskatchewan by 1913. She must have left her childhood home in Hopewell Hill as a teenager for studies. An amazing, and character strong woman even then!
|
|
|
|
|
||
|
"Emigrating" To
Kindersley Saskatchewan 1913
|
||
|
|
Saskatchewan was formed and opened for settlement 1905
One must remember that the province our grandma came to just 8 years later in 1913 lacked most of the functions that one normaly expects in an operating society. Schools, health care, roads etc etc. The little country community she came to had put an ad in a news paper in Fredericton seeking a teacher ... They had built the school on their own and now needed a teacher. |
|
|
Apparently after the first world war, soldiers returning from Europe brought the pandemic Spanish flu ... Although my grandfather wasn't in the military, it was determined that this is what he died of after a lengthy illness.
|
||
|
|
|
|
|
|
This picture must have been taken around the time that grandpa passed away as we know that mom was just 3 months old when he died. | |
|
|
Obviously, her
husbands passing was a major life tragedy for grandma .. now a
single mother with 4 small children .. With a farm that she had no
possiblity of operating, she was forced to sell and with the money
she received she could buy a small house in the little town of
Kindersley close by. The town of Kindersley gave her a part
time job of doing accounting for the town and she was able to
get odd jobs helping at the hospital and doing other cleaning work
in town. |
|
|
|
||
|
I don't have alot of information of the teenage years of these 4 girls ..but do know that they all turned out to be wonderful persons and all of them left their home with grandma to build families that were an important part of my upbringing. I believe I had 18 cousins from that side of the family. Apparently grandma had said she would't remarry until all her girls had become adults on their own. |
|
|
|
|
This is where my personal memories of grandma began. At the farm outside Kindersley where Ernie farmed. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grandma and Ernie moved to Calgary the late 1950s and that is where most of my memories of grandma Atkinson are from. This is the only picture I have from Calgary . Even just the gate brings memories! We lived with grandma and Ernie a few winters in the early 50s when dad worked in Calgary with a ventilation company. Her quiet and
careful way made impressions on me even as a small boy ... But It is
first now, as an adult that I have taken the time to think and
understand the depth of character that she has tried to pass on to us. Not
only through our mother ... but also in the memories she left behind
hidden in our own personal history. |
|
|
She passed away 1983-07-14 at 93 years old -- I lived in Sweden then so wasn't able to be at the funeral in Calgary. |
||
