family, friends bid farewell to mother, grandmother, great ...€¦ · 14 the provost news,...

14 THE PROVOST NEWS, PROVOST, ALBERTA Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Margaret Mae Holmes, 87 liveda long, happy and productive life.

She was born on March 6, 1922in Edmonton to Annie and WilfridFerris of Hayter, Alberta.

Margaret was the youngest of alarge family that lived on the farmnorth of Hayter. She attended theone-room Goodlands School oftentravelling by horse, developing alife-long love of animals.Sometimes two children rodetogether on one horse. They walkedin the spring and fall and in stormyor very cold winter weather, theirfather would drive them by sleigh.

The farm was six miles from thepost office at Hayter—a busy vil-lage with two grocery stores,restaurant, hotel, garage, machineshop, blacksmith shop, bank and alumberyard. There was a communi-ty hall and two schools, anElementary and a High. There wereseven elevators and the CPR trainscarried passengers daily.There was no refrigerationat home, so the cellar heldany cooked food thatneeded to be kept cool.Jellied fruit or vegetableswould be put directly onthe cement floor. Theyears that were commonlycalled the “Dirty Thirties”might be assumed to havebeen unhappy ones butchildren didn't know thatthey were unusual.Clothes were handeddown from one child tothe next, sometimesaltered, sometimes turned inside out and remade. Margaretrecalls “Mother was a good seamstress and kept us looking‘respectable’ (her word for neat and clean). I had a pet pigfor a while. Pigs are not dirty animals. They are cleaner intheir habits than cows or horses. Baby pigs are pink andcute, and clean.”

“Our religious upbringing was not exactly consistent.The Ferris and MacDonald forbearers had beenPresbyterian but as there was no church of that denomina-tion in Hayter or Macklin we didn't get firmly rooted in anyone church. (There was a Presbyterian church at Chauvin,but we simply never went to Chauvin, it was too far and theroads were too poor.) In the summer months we went toStainsleigh schoolhouse where Mr. Thompson — common-ly known as Preacher Thompson, held services for a verymixed congregation. He was the schoolteacher atStainsleigh and a man who was respected —almost revered— in the area. He didn't call the meetings church, they werereferred to as Sunday School. In the winter months we did-n't go to church. At that time roads were not kept open inthe winter. Cars were put on blocks, (to take the pressure offthe tires) and batterieswere removed. It was toolong a trip to go toHayter by sleigh. Sundaywas still observed. Fatherread a chapter from theBible while we were stillseated around the tablefor breakfast. He startedwith Genesis and readthe whole book, includ-ing Revelations, whichfrightened me and proba-bly the other children,too.”

Entertainment for theyouth was simple andmostly self-made. As achild with asthma,Margaret was seldominvolved in sports. Books were her great pleasure and sheread everything she could get her hands on including herdad’s farming magazines, often reading by the window inthe fading light and by the dim light of coal oil lamps. “I

don't remember a time I couldn't read. The olderchildren would tell me what a word “said,” andby this hit and miss method, I was able to readbefore I went to school.”

She did have a pair of skis that likely her dadmade, working by hand (no power tools).

There were card parties at the school and inpeople's homes. The boys at home sometimesplayed poker with match sticks for chips whichwas considered almost gambling and wasfrowned upon by mother. No one could playcards on Sunday.

Sunday was a day of rest but for some reasonhorse-shoe playing was deemed okay. Actualhorseshoes of various sizes were used, theyoung children throwing the smallest and light-est ones.

The family enjoyed music. “We knew all thepopular tunes and sang even if our voicesweren't musical. As well as the piano, there wasa variety of instruments in our home.” Therewas also a gramophone with hollow cylindricalrecords that had a lot of use.

Recently when visiting near Provost,Margaret recalled as a child going cross-country

with her father from the farmvia oxen and wagon, throughthe Huck farm a half mile northand atop Ferris’s hill and on toProvost.

Margaret attended highschool in Provost and becamehomesick. The first term sheboarded at the Agars, who liveddirectly across the street fromthe old brick school. Provosthad electricity but no water orsewer system, until the late1940s or early ’50s. The schoolhowever, had its own sewagesystem so there were betterfacilities there.

Because she had skipped a gradein public school, her parentsbelieved her to be clever. “Actuallyit was more an accident of having agood memory that allowed me tocope with the classes.” Before theyear was over she had made friendsand started enjoying the school andthe town.

The following year, FrancisManske and her batched in a roomupstairs at the home of the Burrswho “were kind people.”

If it was necessary to get home inwinter months they took the local(train) to Hayter where they wouldbe met with the sleigh and horses.

During that summer her dadretired from the farm, and brotherLorne took it over. The folks movedto Provost where her dad took over

the bulk oil dealership forImperial Oil. When Margaret fin-ished high school she applied atthe bank, and the local stores.Banks hired only men and eventhe stores felt more inclined totake male help when so manymen were looking for work.

After she married George S.Holmes on July 31, 1941 on thefamily farm north of Hayter—another series of adventuresbegan.

During the war she followedher husband to Calgary duringbasic training and later via trainto the West Coast. With Margaretexpecting their first-born, Georgewas lent to the U.S. Army for theinvasion of Kiska, still in

Japanese hands in the Aleutian Islands in the North Pacific.During George's absence their daughter appeared. LittleGeorgia was six months old before she saw her father,returning from the war back at Provost. Margaret recalled:

“My mother arrived in Vancouver the week beforeGeorgia’s birth in mid-July. It was wonderful for me tohave her with me. She was probably more worried than Iwas about the arrival of the baby. I thought it was going tobe an interesting event. I was only disappointed that Georgewasn't going to be there. (I don’t mean in the delivery roomas this wasn’t even imagined at the time.) In the labourroom I explained to the nurse that I didn't want anesthesia.I wanted to be awake. She laughed. Natural childbirth wasnot in favour at the time, and after some hours of labour, ageneral anesthetic was administered. It was only after Iwakened that I was told I had a baby girl. She weighed 5pounds 5 ounces, was wrinkled and red, and had dark hair.The nurses were short-staffed, as many had left and joinedthe Armed Forces. We still were kept in bed for a week andonly then allowed to sit up in a chair. The following day wewould take a little walk. Most patients stayed 10 days. I wasthere for 12 as I ran a fever. A very new drug was given me,sulpha, the first of the antibiotic drugs. It involved roundthe clock administration—being wakened every few hours,but did quickly bring the fever to normal. When Georgiawas three weeks old, mother and I left by train for Provost.

It seemed the wisestthing to do until Iheard from George. Ihad sent a telegram,via the army postoffice to him, but itwas a couple ofweeks before hereceived it. I told himI'd given the babyboth our names,Georgia Margaret. Itwasn't what we’dplanned but I haddecided he should beremembered in thisway, in the event ofhis not coming back. Ididn't yet knowwhere he was. Wehad talked of naming

a girl Carolyn Anne, for both grandmothers, Carolyn beingaltered from Karalina, which I didn't much care for, andCarolyn a popular name at the time.”

They made Provost their home for many years whereMargaret kept busy with gardening, working part-time atThe Provost News, taking trips to Salt Lake and DilberryLake when the couple finally got their own car in 1955—four years after all their children were born.

Margaret developed her artistic skills, taking both pot-tery and painting classes in town. She had her own kiln andwheel and documented many landmarks from acrossAlberta and Saskatchewan in her vivid paintings—some ofwhich scenes have since vanished. The paintings wereshared over the years with friends and acquaintances begin-ning in 1967 when the first of a series of Christmas cardsappeared. The initial one was a winter scene of theHolmes’s backyard in winter, painted when she was in hermid-40s. Her 42nd annual card prepared for this winter isof St. Margaret’s Church, south east of Medicine Hat.Several people have collected her cards throughout theyears.

Margaret and George travelled countless miles teaching

MARGARET MAE HOLMES

Family, Friends Bid Farewell to Mother, Grandmother,Great-Grandmother, Painter, Potter, Writer

The Provost Community Hall.

Two of hundreds of pottery pieces shaped onMargaret’s wheel or by hand and then fired

in her kiln.

The Canadian Pacific Railway station.

A book of stories and poetry.

Continues on P. 15