Strong Women in Difficult Times

Heroes Remember

Strong Women in Difficult Times

Transcript

Well, the Depression was hard and, and mom, dad died in 1932. He died in March. The last day I saw him was on my birthday, and he died in March and my grandfather died the following December, and so, my mom was left with three young children. I was 7, Jean was 5, I just turned 7, Jean was 5, and Don was 2. So it was quite a, quite a responsibility, and, well, so mother had studied law. She had never articled and she didn't want to leave us children and go to article, and so she ran the farm, she kept the post office, and she took over my father's insurance business and sold insurance at night. Yeah, so that was, but we worked, I mean, I knew what it was to work outside because mom had a, did have a, a man that, a hired man, but in those days it was a dollar a day they, they got for pay. And then in the winter time when it was quieter, he would take the, the horses to the woods and the horses got paid, received payment too, they received payment for the horses. So, then as we got older, we had to take on the chore of milking the cows and feeding the hens and looking after sheep and all of that. But he always came home in March when the sheep were ready to lamb again. So it was a big, a big responsibility. And, you know, and I took on that responsibility as serious. Jean wasn't well when she was young, so she couldn't do any of that heavier work out in the... Interviewer: So it was left to you for a long while? Yeah, well, I mean, I didn't overwork but it was the cold. Going out in the cold in the morning in the winter was a.... Interviewer: You remember that? I remember that, yes. Wonder why the hens didn't freeze to death. But anyway. And you'd go to roll loose hay down from the barn, that we fed from the top, but, you know, the, those hatches at the top of the manger and you'd go to roll the hay down and it wouldn't roll, wouldn't break up and you'd have to pry it apart and, but anyway, that's okay. I kept the horse barn cleaner than I kept my bedroom. I loved horses. So we had to, we had an Arabian mare and I used to go horse back riding and jump fences and all that stuff, so it was exciting, I mean, there were, there were compensations for everything.

Description

After her father died Mrs Grégoire and her mother had to take over all the family businesses to carry them through the depression.

Christina Janet Grégoire

Mrs. Grégoire was born in Campbellton, New Brunswick, on March 1, 1925, and grew up in Sillarsville, Québec. In March 1943, when she was 18, she joined the Air Force in Montréal. After training at Rockcliffe and a first posting in Scoudouc she was given a Top Secret rating by the RCMP before being assigned to the Air Force Headquarters Intelligence Directorate in Ottawa. She was discharged after VJ Day and released in November 1945. She now gives workshops for the United Church and is involved in volunteering in various Hospital Veterans' Wards.

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