On my days off from the Hafford Hospital I used to take the bus to Krydor to spend time with Nettie and Victor who were both teaching at the school there. Nettie taught grades 1-8 while Victor taught Grades 9-12. Peter Saganski taught school not far from Krydor and he used to come and visit Victor and Nettie some evenings and that's how we met. We started 'dating', going to movies at the Hafford Hall and when I worked the 7PM-7AM shift Peter came and spent the evenings with Ann Smyshak and I in the 'nurses station'. Then Ann would take the earlier shift 12-3AM off and Peter would keep me company while I looked after the patients. Later in the spring we went to 'sport days', ball games and on the long weekend in May 1949 we got engaged. That summer was very dry and the crops poor so there was very little harvesting done. So we got married on July 30, 1949 - 10AM. at Hafford's Holy Eucharist Church. There was a luncheon reception at our home in Hafford and about four PM we left for Peter's home on the farm for the continuing reception with the Saganski's.We were showered with numerous wedding gifts; table cloths, water pitcher with six glasses set, towels, sheet sets and more, as well as $600 cash. Sister Nettie gave us as a wedding-honeymoon gift of a train trip to Victoria British Columbia. She was foresightful to book us on Canadian National Railway for the trip out and Canadian Pacific Railroad for the return, so we got all the scenery thru the mountains. In Victoria we stayed with Bud and Doris and their little Vivian who was just 6 months old. All in all we had a lovely time in Victoria for one whole week. When we got back it was already time to pack up and go by bus to Nipawin where Peter had a Grade V class to teach. We got a one room cottage behind Fourneaux Real Estate on Main Street. It was cute, 12 X 14 foot, situated in the tall pines and partially furnished with a wood fired heater and a pot oven insert on the stove pipe which we used for baking, two chairs and a sofa. We wrote Dad to send a chiffonier for our clothes. Peter made us a folding table and a book case, a wooden base for a lamp, an oak end table and a small oak storage cabinet that I still regularly use.

Nipawin was a very active town for curlers and had a large curling rink with about ten sheets of ice and held a famous 'car bonspeil' every year. Curlers from all across Canada would come, we were exposed to top tier curling like the famous Watson's rink from Winnipeg. The scenery around Nipawin was quite lovely, lots of pine trees. I relieved nurses when they took time off and occasionally Dr. Wright would come and take me to the hospital to special nurse an acutely ill patient. So I could bring in a few extra dollars, otherwise we lived on Peter's monthly stipend of $149 minus the $20 that was deducted for rent and power. To add comfort to our cottage we bought an Eaton's davenport to sit and sleep on as well as a piece of linoleum for the floor and they made a great improvement to our home. We made friends with some of the single teachers and they dropped by often for meals and to visit. Jules, Peter's brother, was teaching in Aberdeen, west of Saskatoon, and he came and visited by bus for a weekend. We slept three on the davenport for a couple of nights. Cozy, but we were skinnier back then and didn't need as much space. We got our water from next door, Morris and Nina Belowich's. Morris had a dry goods store in the front and living quarters in the back. Nina and Morris were sure nice to us, Morris had a son, Eugene, and Nina had a daughter Marlene from previous marriages and then together they had Loretta and Gail.

In 1950 for Easter break Peter and I decided to make a trip home by train. I remember the train from Nipawin to Prince Albert had gas lamps that had to be lit by the trainman. It was quite a trip, we had to stay the night in P.A. and the next day we took a different train line to Krydor. We arrived in time for supper, a 24 hour trip from Nipawin to Krydor! When we got to the Saganski's, Nettie was there to tell us my Dad was very ill in the Hafford Hospital with a gallstone attack. It was a very critical night, he had to pass the stone or he wouldn't make it. It was a morning of thanksgiving when he passed the stone and was up shaving.

We all decided on a plan of action to get Dad and I to fly to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota to see what could be done for him That evening Dad and I took our first flight ever to Winnipeg, stopped overnight and flew into Rochester, I found two sleeping rooms walking distance from the clinic. Dad went through a series of tests and doctors. The result was a repeat choleeystectomy. Dad had surgery at St. Mary's hospital, I had moved to a sleeping room closer to St. Mary's and I spent nights, and most of the days with him. I would bath and shave him before they started the I.V.'s around six AM when the staff came on, and then I would go to my room for a sleep, returning to stay till the next morning. When Dad was discharged we moved to the Samaritan Hotel that catered to discharged patients. I got a room next to Dad's and at bedtime I would connect his T-tube to a drainage bottle, take off his binder from his abdomen and settle him for the night. There was a nurse stationed at the hotel that gave out sleeping pills and other meds. The dining room was separated into regular and special diet sections and Dad was on a low-fat diet and I ate in the regular section. We met some nice people who were also convalescing. Dad's incision wasn't healing so we went daily to the Mayo Clinic for heat lamp treatments to try and heal the wound. Don and Vera drove down with a Hindu friend from Wisconsin one Sunday afternoon to see us. It was wonderful to see some of the family as dad and I were getting quite lonely as we'd been away most of a month. The Monday after Don and Vera left Dad developed severe chills and spiked a high fever. They diagnosed a incisional abscess and we returned to the St. Mary's O.R. and they drained the abscess. There were only limited antibiotics in those times but they treated the infected area with sulfa and a few days later we were back in the Samaritan Hotel. Dad improved and six weeks after leaving home we were on the return flight for home. I took the bus back to Nipawin and Peter and I were together again.

Peter finished teaching the end of June and we moved into Saskatoon where we rented a house for the summer. Peter and Nettie took summer classes and I started work at St. Paul's Hospital in July of 1950 in 'Female Surgery'. That summer Peter decided not to return to teaching and instead started work at a cabinet shop and later apprenticed in construction under Stan Kotelmech. We moved to a basement suite at Stan Patola's on avenue I south. The Patola's were nice people just like Mom and Dad and we enjoyed their two sons, Wally and Nick. In 1951, Peter joined the Knights of Columbus and in August I started work at the Tuberculosis Sanatorium. We found a two bedroom house at 100 block 8th Street, put down a $300 down payment moving in in October. We were excited with our first house. That fall, Andrew Roberecki was installed as the Bishop of the Eparchi of Saskatchewan at St. George's church. Peter's Mom and Dad had driven in for the celebration and a visit. They asked Peter and I to move to their farm for the winter because they needed Peter to finish the interior of their new home there.

Bronnie Talarski was doing the exterior construction before winter set in. So that fall we quit our jobs, let our own house go, and moved back to the Saganski farm for the winter. That entire winter Peter and his Mom worked in the new home. I cooked and cleaned and looked after four year old Patricia Saganski and Dad looked after the farm work. That winter Peter's brother Julian quit trucking and came back home where he helped Peter with the interior construction. During that winter Peter built kitchen cupboards for Auntie and Dick Skopyk, My parent in Hafford as well as Jack and Anne's kitchen. Spring 1952 we moved into the new house on the farm. There was no power but we did have a cistern for water off the kitchen so we had nice soft water for washing. We still had to carry water for drinking and cooking. Mom made the old house into a 'summer kitchen' which was handy to keep the main house cooler during hot weather. That spring Peter got a contract to build a home for Peter Pachoma in Blaine Lake, the next town east of Krydor, for $800. That summer Peter and I went to live in Hafford at Mom and Dad's and Peter was hired to complete the construction of John Gramiak's home next door to Anne and Jack's.

The Family Years

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