Muriel’s Story: Sharing 93 years of memories

By Joan Janzen

KERROBERT - Muriel Neumeier from Kerrobert, who will be celebrating her 94th birthday on October 18, took time to share some of her memories throughout the years. As she sat in her recliner at Pioneers Haven, she recalled her years growing up on a farm near Estevan, Sask.

She grew up with her five brothers and five sisters. “My dad picked me out to help with outside chores,” she said, remembering helping to herd and milk cows. “I didn’t do much cooking, but I learned how to make bread and chocolate cake.”

Muriel Neumeier, a 93-year-old, enjoys playing the piano at her home in Pioneers Haven, Kerrobert. Photo by Joan Janzen

Muriel said it was wonderful growing up in a big family, playing ball and other games together, and visiting with neighbours. One of her earliest memories was feeling how hot it was walking barefoot down the road.

“My grandma and grandpa lived a mile down the road. My mother was very sick after she had a baby. I was only 5, and I remember the doctor coming to the house. My aunts were at the house, and my sister and I would walk down the dirt road to Gramma’s.”

She grew up during the Dirty 30s when their crops burned up in the field. “But I didn’t feel like we were hard done by,” she said. They walked barefoot in the summer and saved their shoes for Sundays and school days. “I remember my dad making cardboard insoles when our shoes wore out and would have holes in the bottom,” she recalled.

Throughout those difficult years the family always had their own meat, milk and took grain in to be ground into flour. Muriel’s memories of Christmas were described as “wonderful”.

“I don’t know how my parents did it because there was no money, but we always got a doll. I’ll always remember seeing those dolls in our stockings,” she said.

The family had a piano, which her mother played by ear. “She would play when we went to bed. It was always such a nice way to go to sleep,” she recalled. Although Muriel never took piano lessons, she also plays the piano by ear. “I play here sometimes,” she said. Muriel’s piano is a fixture in the dining hall at Pioneers Haven.

During winter and summer, she and her siblings walked three-quarters of a mile across the field to the one-room country school. “If we went on the road, it would have been two miles,” she noted.

At the age of 13, Muriel boarded at Estevan, where she attended high school. The announcement of the end of the Second World War was cause for a celebration. “I remember they were dancing in the streets in Estevan,” Muriel said. When asked if she was dancing in the streets, she quickly replied, “I sure was! I loved to dance!”

After two years in Estevan, her parents sent young Muriel to Regina to a Catholic boarding school for girls, “because I was having too much fun” she admitted, with a sweet smile.

During the summer holidays, she worked in the lab at the Estevan hospital. “When I graduated, I took a lab tech course. I loved it!” Muriel said. After completing the course, she discovered two doctors who were interning at the Grey Nuns Hospital were setting up a hospital in Dodsland and needed a lab tech.

“I boarded a train for Dodsland and the two doctors met me in snow up to my knees,” Muriel said. She worked at the three-story hospital and lived in the nurse’s residence on the top floor.

Her plans to save up enough money to work in the States soon changed after meeting her soon-to-be husband just two days after arriving in Dodsland. They were married on October 26, 1953 and headed off to Vancouver for their honeymoon. “Don’t ask me how we found our way around Vancouver,” she said.

Muriel and her husband, Wilfred, farmed near Dodsland and had a large family of seven children. “Having a big family is wonderful!” Muriel said. After Wilfred’s dad passed away, Muriel “graduated to running the combine for a couple of years” until her children were old enough to get behind the wheel.

“I’ve had a busy life. I was always in the church choir, and I got my pin for 65 years in the Catholic Women’s League. I went back to work in 1972 when my youngest child was in school, and I worked until 1994,” she explained. At that time, the couple moved into their new home in Kerrobert. Sadly, Wilfred’s sudden passing occurred just six months before their 50th wedding anniversary.

Now Muriel resides at Pioneers Haven. Her children live close by, except for one daughter who lives in Nanaimo. She has access to large-print books from the library and does a lot of reading, enjoys playing bingo, and watches the news. And occasionally you’ll find her at the piano playing some well-known hymns.