When I was about three years old, I got my new Sunday dress dirty. I was afraid my parents would punish me so I looked for a place to hide. Our home was just two houses back of the village variety store; I ran and hid in the barrel where the store owners kept their boxes. My parents looked high and low for me and finally found me in the barrel, sound asleep.
I was one of four children: Olga and Peter were older than me, Herman was younger. Herman died of diphtheria at three years of age. He had been named after my father’s twin brother.
Our village of Kronsthal was 12 kilometres from Chortitza. My father, Peter Neufeld, was an attorney in Chortitza and so our family moved there in about 1926. We rented a home from Mrs. Hamm near the Chortitza oak tree. Two years later we purchased a large brick home in Osterwick and moved there.
At eight years of age, I started school in Kronsthal. Beside Mennonites, the student body included three or four Russian children, about seven Jewish children, and two French girls. After four years, I needed to go to Mittelschule (middle school) in Osterwick. Here there was a beautiful, large Mennonite Brethren church which my grandparents attended. By 1935, the church building was used to store grain.
In 1937, my father Peter and his twin brother Herman were put into a concentration camp in Saporozhye, so we were not allowed to continue our education. Mother worked on a collective farm nearby.
My future husband, Henry Hoch lived next door to my grandparents. We were married in Osterwick in 1940 and lived with my mother in one room in Kronsthal. Our three children were born in Kronsthal, Austria – after the War, and Canada.
In May of 1949, we arrived on the Manitoba farm of Jacob Heide. One year later we moved to Leamington, Ontario and lived in the garage on the Jacob Martens farm. Mr. Martens went to the Boschman and Klassen Second Hand Store on Mill Street of Leamington (where K&W was later located) and purchased a cooking stove and bed for us. Jake and Johanna Derksen, across the road from Jacob Koop, Senior, on Concession Six hired me to work in their celery, tomatoes, and peaches. That was in 1950; wages were 50 cents per hour, nine hours daily. Jake was good to us and bought us all Christmas presents: two chickens, two pair stockings, one pair socks and toys for the children.
Then we got jobs cutting tobacco for Andy Pretli on the Sharp farm. Mr. Pretli explained to us beforehand that we would be paid when the kiln was full and the tobacco was sold. We borrowed money from our brother in Winnipeg and others to see us through the winter months. Then in spring of 1951, he gave us a little over $1,000 that we had earned. We began looking for a house immediately. Milroth and Schuster Real Estate on Talbot Street East sold us a house on John Street near the railroad. The price was $3,800; we paid down $1,000. The house didn’t have a telephone but it did have an inside bathroom!
Shortly after, in 1952, cousin Frank Neufeld from Brazil (father of Katie and Elsie) wanted to come to Canada with his family; they had four children. The price was $4,500 to bring them here, but Jacob Riediger contacted MCC and as a result, they could come for $3,000 cash. The Neufeld family came as far as the US border, then took a bus to Leamington. The bus driver said that he didn’t know where Leamington was located and he finally dropped them off at Wheatley. There Mrs. John Krueger gave them supper. This was in May. Frank Neufeld had brought his accordion from Russia to Brazil and on to Canada. They came to Leamington to our house on John Street where they stayed for 10 days. Frank got work at Spitznagels near Walodja Unger’s farm. They lived in a kiln. When Frank got work at Ford’s in Oakville, the Neufeld’s moved to Burlington, Ontario.
During that same year, the Peter Mantlers, whom we knew well from living in camp together, called from Gretna, Manitoba. They wanted to come to Leamington. At that time, they had three children. They lived with us for one week, then moved to Fraser Road. After that they worked at Wienses on the townline picking cherries and lived in a room in the Wiens barn.
In 1953, Helmut Hamm, a cousin of my husband, wanted to come from Paraguay to Canada. The family first moved to Germany to his sister and then on to St. Catharines, Canada. They also lived with us for a short time.
In the meantime, my husband Henry was laid off at Ford’s in Windsor. He got work building shelters in Point Pelee Park with Arthur Pletz, Erna’s father. Later in 1953, we both applied for work at the H. J. Heinz Company in Leamington. We were very fortunate to be hired in the can fill department. I worked there for 17 years. Henry worked at Heinz until he was 60 and was the first Heinz employee to be pensioned at 60 years.
My husband loved to fish. In 1977, we went to Pelee Island and stayed in a cottage. We filled the freezer with fish. Our children Vic and Hilda bought 43 acres near the cemetery and built a cottage on the Island.
When my husband died in 1995, we sold our house at Union on the Lake where we had lived for 30 years. Our son Harry died of scleroderma in 1997. I purchased a townhouse on Pickwick Drive where I live today. I enjoy volunteer work at the Mennonite Home across the street and have volunteered at the Et Cetera Shoppe every Wednesday for 23 years. I’ve sung in the Heritage Choir for 13 years and have enjoyed many good years in our Mennonite Community.
AK 2008
