Eileen was born on August 13, 1952 while we were still staying with my Mom and Dad's in Hafford. Peter, Bill Lucyk and Peter Chuhaniuk formed the "Lucyk Construction Company" and were busy finishing Mike Deditch's home as well as building a new home for Walter and Stella Daviduk. Also, they built a new Hafford School and Rebryna's shop and put a new roof on the Arcade Cafe. That fall they started on the new school in Radisson.

The fall of 1952 when John and Carrie Gramiak moved to the new house Peter built them, we bought their little house next to the curling rink and moved from dad's to our own home. Peter added a porch and kitchen cupboards, we purchased an oil fired cooking stove which also heated our home. In 1953 Peter continued to drive to Radisson daily. After, they started building the Blaine Lake High school.

Peter joined the fourth degree of the Knights of Columbus in May, 1953. Mom and Dad Saganski had their 30th wedding anniversary. The aunt's and uncle's threw them a surprise party. On September 13, 1953 our son David was born. Peter was so delighted, him and Jack Zaleschuk REALLY celebrated David's arrival. My Dad was a wonderful grandfather and he doted on our children, especially Eileen. Almost every day during the week he would walk to our house which was close as we could see his house from the bedroom window and be ready to take Eileen out for a morning outing. He would take her uptown in a stroller or sleigh he bought that had a back for the morning, return to his place and have lunch and by 2PM would return home to me for her afternoon nap. By 4PM he was there to take her again for the afternoon. David was a tiny infant and so we stayed home, but Eileen and her Dido (Ukrainian for Grandpa) had their time together all that winter.

In spring, April 25, 1954 4PM Easter Sunday my Dad died of a massive heart attack at the age of 59. We last saw him that Easter Friday when he was up at our place playing with Eileen and David. Little did we realize it was to be the last time we saw him alive. After the funeral Eileen sorely missed her Dido and she pulled me over to his house. We walked in and Eileen said 'hi Baba' (Grandma) and she ran from room to room looking for Dido, not finding him, she ran out of their house and went home, leaving Baba and I in tears. As tiny as she was she realized he was not around to play with her anymore. Also that summer Peter's grandfather Scopick died.

That summer when Peter completed the Blaine Lake School, Lucyk and Co. was folded and Peter was unemployed so that winter he helped build the church pews for the Krydor church. On February 26, 1954 Julian joined the R.C.M.P. graduating in September 1954. Peter and I went to Regina for his graduation and from there Julian went to Ottawa Ontario for six additional months of training.

In the spring of 1955 we bought our first new car, a 1955 Mercury Meteor and Peter started working for Shoquist Construction in Saskatoon, coming home for the weekends. August that same year Peter was sent to foreman the building of the new power plant in Kindersley Saskatchewan. He found the commuting long and difficult as well as missing me and the children, so we bought a 24 foot Pathfinder trailer, sold our little house in Hafford and moved to Kindersley in September 1955 just after David's third birthday. We situated the trailer in a park next to a motel and once again were a family. At the time Eileen was four and her and David, age three, both spoke only Ukrainian. The children would greet all the elderly men and women with 'hi Dido' or 'hi Baba'.

We went to mass the first Sunday there to a country church and a Mrs. Kozicki spoke to us and welcomed us to their parish inviting us to their home on the farm for dinner. Eileen was so happy to talk to a Baba who understood her. We also met Paul Kolysher whom we knew from Saskatoon who was teaching there too. We lived through a terrible blizzard that winter as well as many smaller snow storms. The highways in some places were tunnels through the snow as in those days the snow plows didn't blow the snow away. With the highways filled with snow we became lonely for family so we drove to Torquay to visit Victor and Henrietta and spent Christmas of 1955 with them.

The end of March the Kindersley power plant was completed so we packed ourselves up and moved with the trailer to Saskatoon settling in Brown's Trailer Court on avenue A. Peter was back at Shoquist's and working in the office estimating for that year and we purchased a 35 foot two bedroom trailer to replace the one we had. It was quite comfortable and we parked it on a lot across the street from Tom Kotelmack's who were very nice and we became friends and visited often. In the trailer park we made friends with Jean and Cliff Moate and their children Diane and Wayne who baby sat our two young ones. We also made friends with Harold and Berta Breadner as well as Bob and Shirley Watson.

That year Don's Vera was pregnant and her kidney's were failing, and on October 21, 1955 she gave birth to their first son Peter. Vera stayed in hospital till December, her Mom and Dad came down from Edmonton to Indianapolis Indiana to look after Cathy and Peter. Vera was very ill and her parents were getting worn out caring for the two small children and household so in the early spring my sister Nettie quit teaching in Canora Saskatchewan and moved to Indianapolis to look after Don and Vera's household. Surprisingly Vera improved and came home and was able to help. Peter, I, David and Eileen drove to Indianapolis in December and had a lovely Christmas with them.

Jules was a constable and stationed in Edmonton during this time. 1956 we were still living in our trailer, Peter left Shoquist Construction and went to work for Dominion Sound. Peter left Dominion Sound in 1957 and was then hired as foreman for Stearns, Rogers Engineers during building of the Patience Lake potash mine.

Jules was stationed in Drumheller and on May 25, 1957 married 'Nan" Connely Eileen was flower girl. Iris and Dad Saganski came with us to the wedding. When we got back Eileen, David and I went to the farm to help Mom prepare for the wedding reception the following Saturday There was no power so all the cakes were beaten by hand and we used a wood stove for all the cooking and baking. Having an ice house was an asset to keep food for the guests at the reception and we got a lovely new member, Nan, to the Saganski family.

On November 9, 1957 Vera died. Cathy was six years old and Peter two. Peter and I, Anne, Victor and Baba Zuck drove fifty two hours nonstop only stopping for meals and fuel to Indianapolis for the funeral.

I think Eileen started in the fall of 1957 kindergarten at the Sion Convent on Avenue A in Saskatoon and the following year we puchaced a corner lot at 2624 Clarence Avenue South and early that spring we started building our new home. Peter subbed out the basement and framing. Peter and his family did the shingling and his Mom glued down every shingle on the whole roof. We painted the exterior. I helped nail the sub floor and became quite adept with a hammer, and in September we were able to move in and do the finishing inside while living there. Iris started teaching at Christ the King school, Eileen started school too so we moved into the new house as soon as we could as Iris and Eileen had a long bus ride from the trailer park.

Spring 1958 Don flew down to meet Elma Kelly, a teacher who was a friend of Nettie's. They had been corresponding for a few months, object:matrimony. Within the few days he and Elma met they agreed to marry on July 12, 1958. In July Don, Nettie, Cathy and Peter drove to Saskatchewan bringing Nettie back and taking their new Mom Elma back to Indianapolis. Nettie got a teaching job in Marengo that fall teaching home economics. I started working the afternoon shift full time at St. Paul's Hospital, third floor. Jules and Nan bought a home and moved to Calgary Alberta and on December 1958 a daughter Patricia was born, a spina bifida baby. Spring 1959 Peter completed construction at the mine and decided to stay home and in two months had finished the interior work on our house. He was offered a job to oversee the jobs for Dominion Sound in Saskatoon.

Family Years 1960's

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