52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 3 Prompt - Long Line

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 3

Prompt – Long Line 

A little genealogy humour!

 

In this week's blog I have decided to include a 6 generation Ancestral Chart of my mother, Lydia Vivian Peters (nee; Sullivan). It is what I consider as a long line of dead people in my genealogy tree. 

Maybe 1950's - Lydia Vivian Peters

This week will be 33 years since my mother, Vivian died. She died January 24, 1987 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She was 64 years old when she died – younger than me!

May 20, 1978. Vivian and Jake Peters On The Occasion Of Bonnie and Doug's Wedding

She was known by her second name – Vivian or Viv. Vivian was born in Winnipeg on April 19, 1922 to Mary and Robert Sullivan. Vivian's father is the same black sheep that I have blogged about in the past. On Vivian's birth certificate he is listed as a “prisoner” living at The Stony Mountain Penitentiary.

None the less her father and mother got back together and moved to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. They had another child – a boy called George Windsworth Sullivan who only lived a few months. Vivian was growing up in a home where the marriage of her parents was falling apart. Vivian became a big sister to her brother, Wallace in 1927.

For the next 4 years Vivian and her brother were raised by their poor single mother. I am not sure where they lived or how Mary made money to support the family. At this point Mary's parents and most siblings lived in the United States although some remained in Winnipeg.

Vivian's mother worked as a housekeeper and fell in love with the gentlemen she cleaned for. They married on April 1, 1932. Vivian did not approve or pretend to like her mother's husband (Benjamin McLaughlin).  Later in life in discussion with her brother, Wally,  he stated that Vivian remained in the car for the entire wedding ceremony. Vivian gave her mother a very hard time over the next several years. Vivian quit school when she was in her 9^th grade. Vivian loved to sing and play her guitar and in fact she sang on the local Saskatoon radio station. She ran away from home at the age of 15, but returned. Vivian married at the age of 16. She married Jacob Peters. The very next spring she lost her first baby. Her and Jake struggled to make ends meet and depended heavily on both sets of parents. Vivian's husband worked odd jobs but times were tough in the job market.

Vivian's husband was enlisted into WWII in January, 1942. At the time of his enlistment Vivian and Jake had one daughter with a second child on the way. Jake was overseas in wartime until his discharge in March of 1946. Initially Vivian and her daughters lived in a room at the back of a coal shed across from her mother's home in the 500 block of Avenue K in Saskatoon. Vivian worked at odd jobs such as chopping wood or shoveling coal. Eventually Vivian and her two daughters moved back into her mother's home until Jake came back from the War.

Vivian and Jake lived in many different rental homes over the years. Jake worked at the meat packing plant to support their growing family. Vivian also worked helping her mother who was a cook at Quaker Oats Mill.

In the mid 1950's my mother was working at Joe's Diner. Their oldest daughter, Betty looked after the children while mom worked mostly after school and on the weekend.

By late 1959, Jake and Vivian bought there first house on Witney Avenue. It was a dream come true for them and there family. They had 7 children ranging from toddlers to high school ages. Vivian's last child was tragically born stillborn.

The house was an economic strain on the family. Vivian had very little choice but to go to work. She worked as a cook in various locations including her final employer, St. Paul's Hospital. Vivian went to work long before it was a thing that women with children did. In the early 1960's no one in Saskatoon locked their doors. However in a way Vivian's children were latchkey kids long before it was coined. The older siblings and sometimes grandmother helped out with lunches. School went to 4 pm and Jake came home by 4:30. Thus there was very little time that the kids were left alone.

Vivian did what she had to do to keep the house and make it a home. It could not have been easy. However she saw her children grow and thrive and eventually marry and move out. Soon her home was filled with grandchildren.

Vivian's husband of almost 45 years died in September of 1983 of cancer. Jake died at home as was his wish. Vivian was devastated and heartbroken. She was lost.

Vivian was a smoker for most of her life. She had numerous medical problems that probably were a result of this. She had Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), angina, atherosclerotic heart disease (ASHD). She developed late onset diabetes at this time. She had blood clotting issues over the years. Medically she was complicated which got worse after her husband died.

Vivian lived a little over 3 years after her husband died. In the final month of her life, Vivian spent more days in the hospital than outside. She died on January 24 of 1987 of Myocardial Infarction (heart attack). However many of those who knew her said she really died of a broken heart. 

Wendy