52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Week 4 Prompt -- Memories

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 4

Prompt – Memories

A few years ago I gathered my memories of my maternal grandmother, Elisabeth Dyck.  In part I had decided to write a cousin in Saskatoon to tell her what I remembered about my grandmother; her great-grandmother.  Like so many memories from a long long time ago, I discovered that they were quite faded.  I asked some of my siblings about her.  I got the most information from my oldest sibling, Betty.  She was a young teenager when grandma and grandpa Peters lived in Saskatoon and the family would visit them.

Betty remembers visiting them quite often when Grandma and Grandpa lived on Avenue C in Saskatoon.  Betty's memories of their rented home were quite vivid.  She remembers it looking quite run down.  Our grandparents lived on the top floor of a two story home and you had to get to them by way of an outdoor staircase which Betty termed a “rattletrap”.   Betty said grandma and grandpa Peters were very poor and on welfare.  And apparently this was due, in part anyway, to The Hague Mennonite Colony and their fallen out which resulted in a colony split in half with one half going to Mexico taking all of the colony's money.  There is a grain of truth in this in that some of the colony did leave for Mexico.  They wanted to live in their old ways.  The government of Saskatchewan passed an act that all the colony children need to go to an approved public school taught by a qualified teacher and in English.  This was the exact opposite promised to them prior to their immigration to Canada.   However the money issue is something I have yet to discover as truth. It was costly for the Mennonites to go to Mexico via train.  Who knows how the communal property and monies were divided up when the colony split.   None the less my grandmother and grandfather were very poor.  I believe they left the colony around 1929.  Grandpa Peters Obituary of 1952 stated he was a resident of Saskatoon for 23 years. 

 Betty also thought that Frank and Elisabeth Peters' daughters; Mary and Katie (aka Shirley) lived with there spouses in Saskatoon at this time.  Betty remembers visiting them often and especially during the time that dad was away at war.  Mary's children, Alice and Ruby were about Betty's age and she remembers having a great time socializing with her cousins while the adults visited and spoke only in German.

Betty said that grandfather Peters loved sunflower seeds and always had them in his pocket. She remembers him as very tall and thin. He was very quiet. He rarely spoke English although he knew some English.

Betty thought that Grandma was not always blind. Apparently at the age of 42, Grandma caught measles which caused her blindness.

Grandpa Franz Peters died in 1952. Their is a family story that after his death, dad's siblings had a falling out.  Apparently my mom and dad were left to pay for the funeral expenses because  he was the only working sibling and deemed to be rich.  It was shortly after the funeral that most of the family moved to Vancouver.  That is all but my dad, Jake and Uncle John.   I guess things were never the same after that.

My recollection of Grandma was when we went to Vancouver to visit grandma, Mary, Katie and the and all their children.  The trip was long and dad was always uptight about driving in the huge Vancouver city.  We never knew where to find them as they were on welfare and were regularly evicted from their rentals.  So it was not uncommon for grandma to have two or three different addresses in one year  There was one family member that we had to call to get their latest address and directions to it. And I do not know who this one 'stable' relative was.  I do remember more than once dad drove down a one way street the wrong way.  In hindsight I hoped that dad's Saskatchewan license plate granted him forgiveness.

They lived in a very 'nasty part' of Vancouver and mom and dad kept a tight leash on us because of all the ne'er-do-wells out there.  Mary and Katie lived with grandma.  Mary was the one who took care of grandma after moving out to Vancouver and for the rest of Grandma Peters' life. 

Circa 1960's Lt to Rt. Mary Holding Unknown Baby, Elisabeth and Katie 

Finally we would arrive at Grandma's place.  Visits started out the same and that was with Grandma Peters “feeling us up” as my younger sister and I giggled through the whole thing.  She would have us stand in front of her and starting at our head she would feel our hair, face, shoulders, abdomen and sometimes our legs.  She would always be talking to my dad in German.  My dad like his father was a very quiet person who only spoke when spoken too.  Thus to see dad carry on a conversation and in German struck us dumb.  Dad was a different person when he was around his mother and siblings.  He looked relaxed, but that could be that he was on holidays. Dad also smiled and laughed with his sisters.  So nice to know this side of dad.

The last time I saw Grandma Peters, she was so frail, so hunched over and so so deaf. She sat next to the stove for warmth and had her radio blaring. Her most favorite thing to listen to was hockey games. Go figure. 

When it was time to leave Vancouver the grandchildren would line up in front of grandma who always gave us candy for our trip home – which was usually some very yummy salt water taffy.

Grandma died in in 1972. Mom and Dad went alone to Vancouver to be at the funeral. 

Grandma Elisabeth Peters Funeral - January 21, 1972. 

I knew she was buried somewhere in Vancouver but never really knew exactly where until a few years back.  My daughter lives in Vancouver and on one of my visits to her, I decided it was time to search it out and visit her graveside.  The office staff at City of Vancouver Mountain View Cemetery were so helpful.  They found her grave site and then said she was buried without a headstone because she was handled as a city case ( welfare recipient).  They then said they would put up a marker if I could come back a few days later and would be able to visit her exact location. 

2016 Fall - Grandmother Elisabeth Peters Unmarked Grave. Marked With the Yellow Flag. 

I didn't think it would be an emotional thing for me as I felt I hardly knew her, but it was.  I bought a couple of flowers and placed them on her grave site.  I was likely one of the few people who have ever visited her grave after she was buried.  It felt very right and I am so glad that my daughter helped me go after this information while visiting her in Vancouver.

These are most of my sisters and my recollections of our Grandmother Elisabeth Peters. I hope it sheds a little light on a small part of her life and that maybe some family members might have other memories they would like to share.  Sometimes it is the darnedest details that come to one's memory.

Today is February 2, 2021.  It seems fitting that I chose to blog about my grandparents this past week because Franz and Elisabeth Peters were married 119 years ago today on February 2, 1902. Franz Peters was 26 years old, a farmer who lived at Blumenthal Colony. Elisabeth was 21 years old spinster from Schoenthal Colony.  They were married at Blumenthal. Saskatchewan was actually not an official province thus they would have been married in the “NWT".  Their presiding clergyman was Peter Klassen from Neuanlage.  I wonder what their wedding day looked like.   Was their a banquet put on by the Mennonite colony?   Maybe it was only a blip in the day of a farmer's life on the colony.

The Rosthern Reserve of Mennonite Colonies.

Wendy H.