The story of a War bride and her new husband from Abbots Leigh
Written - 13 December 1996 by Nellie Alvis nee LivingsNELLIE AMANDA ALVIS nee LIVINGS was born 9 November 1899
Written - 13 December 1996 by Nellie Alvis nee Livings
Journey Of A War Bride
NELLIE AMANDA ALVIS nee LIVINGS was born 9 November 1899
at Abbots Leigh, Somerset.
The year was 1899. Queen Victoria sat upon the throne of Britain. The Empire was supreme among the nations or the world. In a small village in Somerset called Abbot’s Leigh, Nellie Amanda Livings was born. The village was close to the City of Bristol and within sight of the Bristol Channel. Nellie's father worked in Abbot's Leigh as a shoe maker. In fact, in spite of being practically on the seaside, most of the locals either worked in the village or in the surrounding fields.
Among the farmers was the Alvis family, who were neighbours of the Livings in Abbot's Leigh. Mr and Mrs Alvis had a daughter Nellie's age who, over the years, became her friend and school mate. Nellie thought that her friend’s brother John was a charming young man, though he was l2 years her senior. In 1910, at the age of 23, John had emigrated to Canada. Nellie, aged 11 years, thought little of it at the time.
John settled in Manitoba. He worked as a hired hand until l9l3, when he bought a farm in the Rural Municipality of Morton. Then, in 1914, The Dominion of Canada found itself at war with Germany. John brought in his fall crop and settled his affairs.
In April, 1915, he sold his farm. That September, he was enrolled in the 79th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, in Brandon. John's Battalion arrived in England in May of l916. In July, it was broken up to provide individual reinforcements for other Canadian units already in action in France and Flanders. John was transferred to the lst Canadian Mounted Rifles, in which he would serve out the War.
Nellie, now a young woman of 17, met John again when he came home on leave prior to going to France. They began to write letters when John was at the front, and he spent increasing amounts of time with Nellie whenever he was home on leave. Nellie was very proud when John won the Military Medal (Canada) for bravery on Vimy Ridge in 1917. The war dragged on and Nellie finished school. After the Armistice in 1918, John, now a Sergeant was shipped back to the Canadian Camps in Sussex to await demobilization. Miraculously for a man in the infantry, John survived the war without a physical wound. He was, however, plagued by a recurring nightmare for many years to come. He never spoke about the war with Nellie, saying only that it had been terrible.
John spent much of his leave in Abbots Leigh and he and Nellie decided to get married. John wanted to go back to Canada and Nellie thought it would be an adventure. Her parents liked John and were very supportive of her decision. John told her the winters would be very cold, that there were untold numbers of mosquitoes in the summer and that living on a farm would be hard work. Compared to England, though, Nellie thought that Canada seemed like a land of promise and plenty.
Rationing was still strictly in force in England. As there was no paper to be spared for wrapping sticks of butter, one had to take a dish to the store so the grocer could cut a piece for you. If she was invited out to tea, Nellie was always polite and brought her own teabags. In such conditions it was difficult for the families to save the ingredients for a cake, but they managed.
On 19 February, 1919, John and Nellie were married in the village church at Abbots Leigh. John had to return to the camp in Sussex, but took as much leave as he could in order to spend time with Nellie who remained in Abbots Leigh. The Canadian Army had decided that wives of soldiers in England would be given free passage back to Canada. In early July, Nellie said her goodbyes and took the train to Liverpool, where she and John boarded the R.M.S. Grampian. The ship had brought a load of horses to England and had been quickly cleaned up for the war brides!
In order to maximise the available space on the ship, only families with children were quartered in cabins together. The men without children were quartered and ate in the forward part of the ship, whilst their brides had similar arrangements aft. Nellie was in a cabin with two other women. The food was wartime rations and the crossing fairly rough. Nellie was quite seasick for a time after they had passed Ireland. In spite of these drawbacks, she enjoyed the company of the other girls and the numerous children. John came back and spent several hours with her each day.
As the Grampian approached the Canadian coast, there was concern about icebergs, which frightened Nellie, but they landed safely in Montreal ten days after leaving England. Nellie later discovered the Grampian’s career was indeed ended by an iceberg on a subsequent trip.
In Montreal they boarded a special train, which was rough and dirty as compared to what Nellie was used to in England. Once again the husbands travelled in separate cars, but John spent the days sitting with her. In two days they arrived in Winnipeg. Nellie who had never been to London was impressed by such a big city. John got his discharge papers and then he and Nellie went clothes shopping as he no longer had any civilian attire.
From Winnipeg the two travelled together by train to Boissevain, where they arrived on a hot July afternoon. Nellie was very impressed by the vast expanse of deep, blue sky. She had never seen a sky like that. It seemed that it was always foggy or cloudy in England. Over the years to come she would grow to love that sky, and had never tired of it, or of the beautiful prairie sunsets. Walking their way to the Queen’s Hotel on Main Street they were greeted with a big hello from Mr. and Mrs Wells Sholdice who were shopping. They lived in the Lake Max District.
John had arranged to live with the Dowker family until he could get his own farm established. The Sholdice family whom they happened to meet John and Nellie in town and offered then a ride to their farm, only one mile from the Dowker home in their Model T Ford. They accepted and that evening John and Nellie were treated to their first private meal since leaving England. They were served wild duck, preserved wild strawberries and home made bread with butter. Nellie enjoyed the food and hospitality immensely, especially after the years of rationing in England. The memory lasted in Nellie’s mind forever.
Later in the evening the Dowkers came and took John and Nellie to their farm. Mr Dowker wanted to take his family on holidays to Ontario and the USA after the harvest. He had arranged for John and Nellie to look after the farm with his oldest son, Goldie, whilst the rest of the family were away. This probed to be good practice for Nellie who had to learn about life on the farm.
It also gave John a chance to buy a new quarter section of land nearby and to get his own farm set up before he and Nellie had to move there. John worked with Goldie Dowker and a neighbour Zack Challner, in his spare time got a start clearing his new land cutting trees and clearing. He helped with the haying and stoking grain sheaves and as being fireman for the threshing machine owned by Archie Smith of Wassewa. He also built and moved a new log house to the new farm, built a log stable and dug a well. The logs were cut and hauled from the reserve.
In March 1920 after the Dowkers returned from holidays, John and Nellie moved to their own farm. That year was taken up clearing and breaking ten acres of sod with four horses. It was sown to grain the next year then a few acres of sod were broken every year until progress came in sight. About 1924 Homer Aylesworth came to Horton District owning a big clumsy looking tractor and breaking plough. He did custom clearing and breaking sod so was hired to do a few acres. This was speedier though not as tidy a job as with a horse. About that time John bought the adjoining SW quarter of land from the CPR. Over the years he bought several cows and hens.
Nellie helped Jennie Dowker with her housework, preserving fruit, also feeding calves and pigs and chickens as well as hand milking 14 cows morning and evening. Jennie taught her the art of bread making. They churned the cream two or three times a week putting bitter into one of the gallon crocks. The butter and eggs were taken to Kings and Acheson’s Stores sands traded for other food items and household essentials such as coal oil for the lamps, candles and perhaps work socks and boots.
The men camped in a reserve while putting up the hay. This was the only hay available besides what grew on the road allowance. There was a bumper crop and grain that year. So were the mosquitoes a bumper crop. They really enjoyed new blood and the only collation Nellie got from her bites was that she was told ‘a good crop and swarms of mosquitoes goes hand in hand’.
During their first night at the Dowker’s there was a thunderstorm, lightening and heavy rain. This stopped the haying so John Dowker decided it was a good opportunity to attend the Bottineau Fair. They set off in the car travelling through winding, rutted wagon trails through the bush. At the fair Nellie had her first taste of corn on the cob together with dill pickles and coco-cola tasted which she gradually acquired and got to enjoy. She was amazed at the skill of John Dowker as he drove his Model T car home after dark. At every mud hole and there were many the lights of the car would dim and passing though all remarked ‘made it again and didn’t get stuck’. Later Nellie was to discover what is like to have a car stuck in a mud hole after the rains sometimes had to abandon the car and walk home.
Nellie liked her new life, though she missed the sea and the sound of the village church bells on Sundays. A visit by a school friend from England helped ease her homesickness somewhat. Nellie though that Boissevain was a nice village, much like Abbots Leigh in many ways. Soon after she had arrived, the Boissevain chapter of the International Order of the Daughters of the British Empire had even thrown a nice party for all of the war brides in the area.
She did not get into town very often, however, as it was over 14 miles from the farm. They only had two horses, which worked hard with John clearing and farming the land. The long trip had to wait for a day that the horses were not needed on the land. She and john would come into Boissevain about once every six weeks from spring until it snowed. In the cold winter, it was too far to travel in the wagon and they stayed on the farm. Getting together with neighbours for Christmas was a nice break in the long winter. Two other veterans lived nearby. Sometimes, as Christmas gatherings wore on, they would move off to the side with John and talk about the war, but the wives were always excluded.
Nellie enjoyed farm life. Over the years they bought some cattle, which she tended. She also looked after the chickens and worked in her garden, which she greatly enjoyed. John cleared more land each year, and their crops got progressively larger. They always had enough food. The only job that Nellie really dislikes was cleaning the stove pipes. It was always so dirty and made a terrible mess. She though tit a miserable task however it was much worse when the pipes caught fire. That really scared her, so the cleaning was certainly the lesser of two evils.
Nellie grew to love the beautiful trees and shrubs around the farm, thinking of them as her friends. Their house was in the woods, which gave them shelter from the wind. The trees provided plentiful fuel for the fire. Because of the trees, her family were never cold. In the fall, Nellie was grateful for the bounty of berries that the shrubs provided.
In fact her favourite season was the fall. The stress of the spring and the summer were past and she and John could relax, especially if her gardening had been productive. The weather was still warm and there was time to sit and enjoy the immense sky, spectacular sunsets and the autumn colours on the trees. In the evenings she would mend, write letters and read. Letters home took two to three weeks each way, but it was always nice to have news of her parents and six brothers and sisters in England. John occasionally wrote a short letter to his mother but Nellie took up most of the correspondence with the Alvis family as well.
Some of her big news was the birth of their children, who also filled their evenings with games and stories. Her eldest son Roy was born in 1921. Wilfred was born in 1923 and daughter, Doreen in 1924. All of the children were born on the farm. Nellie would go to see the doctor in Boissevain to confirm that she was pregnant. She would next see him when the baby arrived. John would take his team to Boissevain to get the doctor when the time came, although they did not always arrive quickly enough. Doreen was a school teacher in the Mordern area where she met and married Clifford Ferris. They now reside at a farm in Stephenfield, Manitoba.
Nellie delivered her second son alone, before the doctor and John got to the farm. It was a stormy night. The rain had washed out the road in front of the men on their way to the farm. The detour took them too far out of their way to make it back in time, but all was well. In spite of this experience, Nellie loves thunderstorms, especially the deep rumbling when the clouds are rolling towards you and after the storm has passed by. All the children attended Lake Max School walking the one and three quarter miles to and from on very bad roads which in the winter could be blocked with snow but they managed making tracks across the fields. John Alvis served on the school board as trustee and secretary for many years.
Nellie often got her neighbour, Mrs John Ducharme, to help with her chores once her pregnancy was more advanced. Nellie did the same for her and helped deliver her son. Mrs Ducharme was a war bride from London and she was never really happy in Canada. After her husband died she went home to England, though she wrote to Nellie the rest of her life.
In 1939 another war began which would again disrupt Nellie’s life. Her eldest son enrolled in the Army in 1942. John bought a battery powered radio so that they could listen to the news of the conflict. They needed to be fugal with the battery, however, as it could only be charged in Boissevain, which was still and infrequent journey. After years of separation and worry, Roy returned home in 1945 with a war bride of his own. That year, John gave the homestead farm to Roy. He and Nellie moved to Wilfred’s farm and lived with him until he married in 1954. By that time John and Nellie moved into a small house on Wilfred’s land.
John’s sister cane to visit for three months after World War Two, which he and Nellie greatly enjoyed. John never returned to England, saying he had no great wish to do so as he liked Canada. He continued to help out on Wilfred’s farm until he died in 1965 at the age of 78 years. Nellie moved to Boissevain after John died. Over the years she grew to enjoy life in the town. Although she had never missed such things while she was on the farm, she found that she really enjoyed the social clubs and having so many friends close at hand. Nellie considers Canada he country, although she also says ‘there will always be an England’.
In 1968 Four years after John died; Nellie went on a trip back to Abbots Leigh to be reunited with her sisters and brothers. She was amazed that the village did not seem to have changed at all. She walked into the Post Office and, aside from the clerk, would have sworn that she had left for Canada only the day before. She enjoyed seeing the sea and her friends and family again. Nellie also visited the village church where she and John had been christened and confirmed. The same church in which she was married 50 years before and the site of the bells that she had so missed. The journey and the 6 month holiday were very impressive for her.
Nellie returned to Boissevain, where she has lived ever since. She currently resides at Westview Lodge. Nellie still lobes to gaze at he cast blue sky, to listen to thunderstorms rumble by and to watch the sunset. Some afternoons, when the sun is shining warmly through her window, she may even sit and reminisce of days gone by; of a garden and a log house in her beloved woods, on the edge of the Manitoba prairie.
Among the farmers was the Alvis family, who were neighbours of the Livings in Abbot's Leigh. Mr and Mrs Alvis had a daughter Nellie's age who, over the years, became her friend and school mate. Nellie thought that her friend’s brother John was a charming young man, though he was l2 years her senior. In 1910, at the age of 23, John had emigrated to Canada. Nellie, aged 11 years, thought little of it at the time.
John settled in Manitoba. He worked as a hired hand until l9l3, when he bought a farm in the Rural Municipality of Morton. Then, in 1914, The Dominion of Canada found itself at war with Germany. John brought in his fall crop and settled his affairs.
In April, 1915, he sold his farm. That September, he was enrolled in the 79th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, in Brandon. John's Battalion arrived in England in May of l916. In July, it was broken up to provide individual reinforcements for other Canadian units already in action in France and Flanders. John was transferred to the lst Canadian Mounted Rifles, in which he would serve out the War.
Nellie, now a young woman of 17, met John again when he came home on leave prior to going to France. They began to write letters when John was at the front, and he spent increasing amounts of time with Nellie whenever he was home on leave. Nellie was very proud when John won the Military Medal (Canada) for bravery on Vimy Ridge in 1917. The war dragged on and Nellie finished school. After the Armistice in 1918, John, now a Sergeant was shipped back to the Canadian Camps in Sussex to await demobilization. Miraculously for a man in the infantry, John survived the war without a physical wound. He was, however, plagued by a recurring nightmare for many years to come. He never spoke about the war with Nellie, saying only that it had been terrible.
John spent much of his leave in Abbots Leigh and he and Nellie decided to get married. John wanted to go back to Canada and Nellie thought it would be an adventure. Her parents liked John and were very supportive of her decision. John told her the winters would be very cold, that there were untold numbers of mosquitoes in the summer and that living on a farm would be hard work. Compared to England, though, Nellie thought that Canada seemed like a land of promise and plenty.
Rationing was still strictly in force in England. As there was no paper to be spared for wrapping sticks of butter, one had to take a dish to the store so the grocer could cut a piece for you. If she was invited out to tea, Nellie was always polite and brought her own teabags. In such conditions it was difficult for the families to save the ingredients for a cake, but they managed.
On 19 February, 1919, John and Nellie were married in the village church at Abbots Leigh. John had to return to the camp in Sussex, but took as much leave as he could in order to spend time with Nellie who remained in Abbots Leigh. The Canadian Army had decided that wives of soldiers in England would be given free passage back to Canada. In early July, Nellie said her goodbyes and took the train to Liverpool, where she and John boarded the R.M.S. Grampian. The ship had brought a load of horses to England and had been quickly cleaned up for the war brides!
In order to maximise the available space on the ship, only families with children were quartered in cabins together. The men without children were quartered and ate in the forward part of the ship, whilst their brides had similar arrangements aft. Nellie was in a cabin with two other women. The food was wartime rations and the crossing fairly rough. Nellie was quite seasick for a time after they had passed Ireland. In spite of these drawbacks, she enjoyed the company of the other girls and the numerous children. John came back and spent several hours with her each day.
As the Grampian approached the Canadian coast, there was concern about icebergs, which frightened Nellie, but they landed safely in Montreal ten days after leaving England. Nellie later discovered the Grampian’s career was indeed ended by an iceberg on a subsequent trip.
In Montreal they boarded a special train, which was rough and dirty as compared to what Nellie was used to in England. Once again the husbands travelled in separate cars, but John spent the days sitting with her. In two days they arrived in Winnipeg. Nellie who had never been to London was impressed by such a big city. John got his discharge papers and then he and Nellie went clothes shopping as he no longer had any civilian attire.
From Winnipeg the two travelled together by train to Boissevain, where they arrived on a hot July afternoon. Nellie was very impressed by the vast expanse of deep, blue sky. She had never seen a sky like that. It seemed that it was always foggy or cloudy in England. Over the years to come she would grow to love that sky, and had never tired of it, or of the beautiful prairie sunsets. Walking their way to the Queen’s Hotel on Main Street they were greeted with a big hello from Mr. and Mrs Wells Sholdice who were shopping. They lived in the Lake Max District.
John had arranged to live with the Dowker family until he could get his own farm established. The Sholdice family whom they happened to meet John and Nellie in town and offered then a ride to their farm, only one mile from the Dowker home in their Model T Ford. They accepted and that evening John and Nellie were treated to their first private meal since leaving England. They were served wild duck, preserved wild strawberries and home made bread with butter. Nellie enjoyed the food and hospitality immensely, especially after the years of rationing in England. The memory lasted in Nellie’s mind forever.
Later in the evening the Dowkers came and took John and Nellie to their farm. Mr Dowker wanted to take his family on holidays to Ontario and the USA after the harvest. He had arranged for John and Nellie to look after the farm with his oldest son, Goldie, whilst the rest of the family were away. This probed to be good practice for Nellie who had to learn about life on the farm.
It also gave John a chance to buy a new quarter section of land nearby and to get his own farm set up before he and Nellie had to move there. John worked with Goldie Dowker and a neighbour Zack Challner, in his spare time got a start clearing his new land cutting trees and clearing. He helped with the haying and stoking grain sheaves and as being fireman for the threshing machine owned by Archie Smith of Wassewa. He also built and moved a new log house to the new farm, built a log stable and dug a well. The logs were cut and hauled from the reserve.
In March 1920 after the Dowkers returned from holidays, John and Nellie moved to their own farm. That year was taken up clearing and breaking ten acres of sod with four horses. It was sown to grain the next year then a few acres of sod were broken every year until progress came in sight. About 1924 Homer Aylesworth came to Horton District owning a big clumsy looking tractor and breaking plough. He did custom clearing and breaking sod so was hired to do a few acres. This was speedier though not as tidy a job as with a horse. About that time John bought the adjoining SW quarter of land from the CPR. Over the years he bought several cows and hens.
Nellie helped Jennie Dowker with her housework, preserving fruit, also feeding calves and pigs and chickens as well as hand milking 14 cows morning and evening. Jennie taught her the art of bread making. They churned the cream two or three times a week putting bitter into one of the gallon crocks. The butter and eggs were taken to Kings and Acheson’s Stores sands traded for other food items and household essentials such as coal oil for the lamps, candles and perhaps work socks and boots.
The men camped in a reserve while putting up the hay. This was the only hay available besides what grew on the road allowance. There was a bumper crop and grain that year. So were the mosquitoes a bumper crop. They really enjoyed new blood and the only collation Nellie got from her bites was that she was told ‘a good crop and swarms of mosquitoes goes hand in hand’.
During their first night at the Dowker’s there was a thunderstorm, lightening and heavy rain. This stopped the haying so John Dowker decided it was a good opportunity to attend the Bottineau Fair. They set off in the car travelling through winding, rutted wagon trails through the bush. At the fair Nellie had her first taste of corn on the cob together with dill pickles and coco-cola tasted which she gradually acquired and got to enjoy. She was amazed at the skill of John Dowker as he drove his Model T car home after dark. At every mud hole and there were many the lights of the car would dim and passing though all remarked ‘made it again and didn’t get stuck’. Later Nellie was to discover what is like to have a car stuck in a mud hole after the rains sometimes had to abandon the car and walk home.
Nellie liked her new life, though she missed the sea and the sound of the village church bells on Sundays. A visit by a school friend from England helped ease her homesickness somewhat. Nellie though that Boissevain was a nice village, much like Abbots Leigh in many ways. Soon after she had arrived, the Boissevain chapter of the International Order of the Daughters of the British Empire had even thrown a nice party for all of the war brides in the area.
She did not get into town very often, however, as it was over 14 miles from the farm. They only had two horses, which worked hard with John clearing and farming the land. The long trip had to wait for a day that the horses were not needed on the land. She and john would come into Boissevain about once every six weeks from spring until it snowed. In the cold winter, it was too far to travel in the wagon and they stayed on the farm. Getting together with neighbours for Christmas was a nice break in the long winter. Two other veterans lived nearby. Sometimes, as Christmas gatherings wore on, they would move off to the side with John and talk about the war, but the wives were always excluded.
Nellie enjoyed farm life. Over the years they bought some cattle, which she tended. She also looked after the chickens and worked in her garden, which she greatly enjoyed. John cleared more land each year, and their crops got progressively larger. They always had enough food. The only job that Nellie really dislikes was cleaning the stove pipes. It was always so dirty and made a terrible mess. She though tit a miserable task however it was much worse when the pipes caught fire. That really scared her, so the cleaning was certainly the lesser of two evils.
Nellie grew to love the beautiful trees and shrubs around the farm, thinking of them as her friends. Their house was in the woods, which gave them shelter from the wind. The trees provided plentiful fuel for the fire. Because of the trees, her family were never cold. In the fall, Nellie was grateful for the bounty of berries that the shrubs provided.
In fact her favourite season was the fall. The stress of the spring and the summer were past and she and John could relax, especially if her gardening had been productive. The weather was still warm and there was time to sit and enjoy the immense sky, spectacular sunsets and the autumn colours on the trees. In the evenings she would mend, write letters and read. Letters home took two to three weeks each way, but it was always nice to have news of her parents and six brothers and sisters in England. John occasionally wrote a short letter to his mother but Nellie took up most of the correspondence with the Alvis family as well.
Some of her big news was the birth of their children, who also filled their evenings with games and stories. Her eldest son Roy was born in 1921. Wilfred was born in 1923 and daughter, Doreen in 1924. All of the children were born on the farm. Nellie would go to see the doctor in Boissevain to confirm that she was pregnant. She would next see him when the baby arrived. John would take his team to Boissevain to get the doctor when the time came, although they did not always arrive quickly enough. Doreen was a school teacher in the Mordern area where she met and married Clifford Ferris. They now reside at a farm in Stephenfield, Manitoba.
Nellie delivered her second son alone, before the doctor and John got to the farm. It was a stormy night. The rain had washed out the road in front of the men on their way to the farm. The detour took them too far out of their way to make it back in time, but all was well. In spite of this experience, Nellie loves thunderstorms, especially the deep rumbling when the clouds are rolling towards you and after the storm has passed by. All the children attended Lake Max School walking the one and three quarter miles to and from on very bad roads which in the winter could be blocked with snow but they managed making tracks across the fields. John Alvis served on the school board as trustee and secretary for many years.
Nellie often got her neighbour, Mrs John Ducharme, to help with her chores once her pregnancy was more advanced. Nellie did the same for her and helped deliver her son. Mrs Ducharme was a war bride from London and she was never really happy in Canada. After her husband died she went home to England, though she wrote to Nellie the rest of her life.
In 1939 another war began which would again disrupt Nellie’s life. Her eldest son enrolled in the Army in 1942. John bought a battery powered radio so that they could listen to the news of the conflict. They needed to be fugal with the battery, however, as it could only be charged in Boissevain, which was still and infrequent journey. After years of separation and worry, Roy returned home in 1945 with a war bride of his own. That year, John gave the homestead farm to Roy. He and Nellie moved to Wilfred’s farm and lived with him until he married in 1954. By that time John and Nellie moved into a small house on Wilfred’s land.
John’s sister cane to visit for three months after World War Two, which he and Nellie greatly enjoyed. John never returned to England, saying he had no great wish to do so as he liked Canada. He continued to help out on Wilfred’s farm until he died in 1965 at the age of 78 years. Nellie moved to Boissevain after John died. Over the years she grew to enjoy life in the town. Although she had never missed such things while she was on the farm, she found that she really enjoyed the social clubs and having so many friends close at hand. Nellie considers Canada he country, although she also says ‘there will always be an England’.
In 1968 Four years after John died; Nellie went on a trip back to Abbots Leigh to be reunited with her sisters and brothers. She was amazed that the village did not seem to have changed at all. She walked into the Post Office and, aside from the clerk, would have sworn that she had left for Canada only the day before. She enjoyed seeing the sea and her friends and family again. Nellie also visited the village church where she and John had been christened and confirmed. The same church in which she was married 50 years before and the site of the bells that she had so missed. The journey and the 6 month holiday were very impressive for her.
Nellie returned to Boissevain, where she has lived ever since. She currently resides at Westview Lodge. Nellie still lobes to gaze at he cast blue sky, to listen to thunderstorms rumble by and to watch the sunset. Some afternoons, when the sun is shining warmly through her window, she may even sit and reminisce of days gone by; of a garden and a log house in her beloved woods, on the edge of the Manitoba prairie.