Starting Over in Canada
Margie Ewert as interviewed by Henry Neufeld

My Mom, her sister Justina, and we three children - Haedy (10), John (6), and I (8) - arrived in Halifax from Germany in June 1948. We took the train from Halifax to Tofield, Alberta where our uncle, Peter Dyck, picked us up in his Model T and took us to their farm home. Aunt Justina left Tofield for Vancouver after a few weeks since there wasn't work for her on the farm.

We were the first refugee family to arrive in the Tofield community and we were well received by the members fo the Tofield Mennonite church who were kind and generous to us, and had a shower for us on our arrival.

Uncle Peter and Aunt Sara Dyck lived on a small farm. Mom had located these relatives when we were still in Frammersburg, Germany through an advertisement a German lady helped her place in the Hausfrau magazine. A Mrs. Rempel in Tofield noticed the advertisement and took it to Uncle Peter. We spent two months there, the four of us sharing a bedroom. They were very kind to us.

Mom wanted to move to the town of Tofield to find work and we found a small unused granary where we lived. It was not insulated. Winter was drafty and very cold. The howling winds were terrible. We could see daylight through the shiplap-constructed wallboards. It was so cold the buckets of water standing beside the oven froze and Mom feared we would all freeze to death. Our wood stove was very close to the outside wall of the house and in very cold weather we'd hold wet clothes against the outer walls so the building wouldn't catch fire. Mom says it's by God's grace that we survived.

Each morning Mom would go to work at the hospital and as soon as she'd left, we'd go to school. It was far too early and the school wasn't even open, but we were scared to stay in the granary. The caretaker was kind and always let us in so we could stay warm. Mom knew we couldn't survive in the granary for another winter and somehow she saved enough money to buy a two-room house for $1,000.00. This was much better than the granary.

Mom worked at the Tofield hospital, doing all the laundry with a wringer washer. On Saturdays we three kids would help her fold diapers at the hospital.

In 1951, we moved to Vancouver where we stayed with Mom's sister. Uncle Peter thought we would all be spiritually lost in the big city.

Mom did house cleaning work and also worked at Nelson's Laundry. Later she bought her own house where she still lives. I don't know how she got enough money to buy a place. We never had much and we didn't need much. To have a can of Prem was a real treat. Mom sewed all our clothes and we had our garden. Holidays were unheard of. My Mom also paid off the Reiseschuld (travel debt) to my uncle who had sponsored us.

In summer we picked strawberries at Joe Klassen's near Langley, then rasp-berries at the Goossens in Yarrow, hops in Chilliwack and then blue-berries in Richmond. Since blueberry picking went into September we always started school a few weeks late. From our first years' picking we bought a refrigerator, and a table and chairs. We still have that table at our cottage.

I quit school after grade 10 at the age of 16 and started working at the Bank of Montreal in Vancouver. It was rare for a person with only grade 10 to get such a job. I worked there full-time for 9 years, then part-time.

Not having a father was something I didn't really think about. I probably didn't know what I was missing till my kids had a father, then I realized how important a Dad is - the presence, the things Dads do with the kids. When I saw Vic with our kids I realized how much I had missed. My father was taken away by Russian authorities in 1941. The officials came to our village in trucks and took every male over 15 years. They feared we German-speaking villagers would have sympathy for the advancing German troops.

All my friends at First United Mennonite in Vancouver were also fatherless and only two were not immigrants. We were fortunate that we had a good youth group.

In 1956 we learned that my father had remarried in Russia. This was very difficult for Mom. She said she'd rather have buried him than learn that he'd remarried. Dad said he had looked for us in Germany and blamed Mom for taking us out of Europe. She felt sad, then sorry for him. Mom wrote Dad and said she couldn't blame him for remarrying.

We tried to get Dad to come to Canada but it never worked out. We sent packages to him, things he could sell on the black market. Dad said if it wasn't for this help they would not have survived. He died in Russia in October 2003. He said we'd see each other again in our next life. We're in regular contact with my father's son from his second marriage, who lives in Kazakhstan.

We are grateful that God brought us to Canada. We feel at home here and enjoy many blessings. Through God's grace we now are able to help others.

Margie and Vic Ewert live in Richmond.