Father and his five siblings were all able came to Canada; Mother had eight siblings, of whom three stayed in Russia. When my parents married in Arkadak in 1923, Dad already had his passport to leave Russia. Mother, however, did not.

Our Regier neighbours had procured their passports but then changed their minds about leaving the country. They offered their passports to my mother and her sister; the authorities never noticed the difference in the names and dates! Mom and Dad said that they kept their distance from each other on the trip over and connected once they had docked in Quebec City. They arrived in Herbert, Saskatchewan in August of 1923.

The day after Mom and Dad's arrival in Saskatchewan, an Unger family took them out to stook wheat. Mom and Dad sat down and cried; they had no idea what lay ahead. Following the harvest, Dad taught at a Mennonite school in Chortitza, Saskatchewan. In January of 1924, Dad enrolled at Mennonite Collegiate Institute, where Heinrich Ewert was principal.

After two years, Dad failed his English language examination, gave up his studies, and took up farming in Brunkild, Manitoba.

Mennonite Collegiate Institute, Gretna, Manitoba, 1924

L to R: Jacob Wallman; Helena Neufeld Wallman; Jacob Wallman, Jr.; Henry Riediger; Jacob Riediger; Alice Riediger Baerg (holding her doll); Maria  Riediger. Brunkild, Manitoba, 1927. Mrs. Wallman and Mrs. Riediger were sisters. A carpet was tacked to the house wall to provide a backdrop for the photo.

Uncle Peter Riediger wrote a letter to my parents telling them that there was work available in Essex County of Ontario. In 1929 our family came to Ontario by train. Our destination was the Peter and Johanna Thiessen farm between Leamington and Kingsville. This farm had a large-sized main house that the Thiessen's lived in, plus two small frame houses. My parents, along with their four children: Henry, Alice, Helen, and Theadora, all born in Manitoba, moved into one of the small houses which I remember very clearly to this day.

Two months later, in fall, we moved to the Harrow Settlement. We lived on a Thompson farm. That year the stock market crashed.

When I was seven years old, my neighbours Rudy and John, sons of choir director Johann Janzen, walked the one and one-half miles to the Gilgal school in Cochester South Township with me. Here Miss Ena Lois Taylor from Kingsville, was my teacher. I spent a total of 10 years in school, worked on farms in the neighbourhood, then in 1950, I got work at Chryslers in Windsor.

I met Dorothy Block, who was born in Rosenheim, Alberta, at the Harrow Church choir practice. The Block family had moved from Alberta to Harrow in 1955. We were married by Reverend Herman Lepp at the Harrow Church in 1956. Beginning in 1971, we attended the North Leamington United Mennonite Church until we moved into the town of Leamington and joined the United Mennonite Church on Oak Street which we attend today.

My longtime interest in music piqued when I attended the wedding of Mary Goerzen and Abe Heinrichs in 1931 in Harrow. There a record was played of the Dorfkinder Waltz by Kalman. This music goes through my head to this day and I enjoy a great variety of music.

I retired from Chryslers in 1981, after 30 years. Our four children were all born in Windsor and today we have two grandchildren. Our son Martin died in 1993 following a motorcycle accident. Our daughter Janet died of an aneurysm in 2004.

AK2009

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