Erna Fast Janzen was born in 1923 in Muntau, Molotschna Colony, Russia.
I was born in the Muntau hospital in Russia. My parents were Peter and Maria Brown Fast. We, along with our grandmother Brown, came to Waterloo, Ontario in 1924 where sister Mary was born in 1926. My father worked on the Sydney Martin farm in Waterloo for three years, then we moved to our own house. Dad worked in a tire factory but couldn’t tolerate the hot rubber smell. He looked for work elsewhere and found a job in a furniture store for 10 cents per hour. Times were difficult. Our grandmother cleaned for the well-to-do Ratz family.
When I was three years old in 1926, I remember Mr. Schneider taking me to Toronto’s Sick Children’s hospital. I had tuberculosis and was unable to bend over. Here I saw children strapped to boards in order to correct their problems. During the first month, my parents were not allowed to see me, but Grandmother Maria Brown could come. Then I went to Freeport Sanitarium, where I spent three years strapped to the board. After that, I had surgery on three of my vertebrae. The doctor at Sick Children’s Hospital scraped the bones on my lower right leg and used these shavings to strengthen my vertebrae. This was in 1929.
One day, when Dad got a notice to come and get me, he found my hospital bed empty when he arrived. I had been sent back to Freeport hospital. They explained to Dad that I had to stay another year in order to heal better so that I would be able to walk and run. After spending a total of five years in the hospital, I came home on November 11, 1930, my parents wedding anniversary.
During this time, I had forgotten the German language and had become completely anglicized. I was determined to relearn the German, and I did. At that time, Bishop Jacob H. Janzen’s wife Eliese was sister Mary’s and my Sunday School teacher; she helped me relearn the German.
Our family was still living in Waterloo, but Dad had been communicating with Uncle Bernhard Konrad on Pelee Island. We moved to the Island in spring of 1931, when I was eight. We bought a Cruikshank farm on the South End near Henderson Road.
I had gotten some schooling in the hospital, and upon my arrival on Pelee I went into the fifth grade. My first teacher was Miss Finnigan, 23 years old and from Quebec. She had a boyfriend back home and when they married, she was fired. Then Miss Oliver came from the mainland. She’d sit with her head on her arm and cry! She lasted until Christmas. Then Miss Campbell from Windsor came. She married Earl Piper whose wife had died the previous year. She taught after their marriage. I spent a total of four years in elementary school.
Mennonite church services on the Island were held in the Konrad house on Parsons Road where Rev. Gerhard Thiessen was pastor.
Mother needed to stay in bed for the last two years of her life, so Grandmother took care of Mother, and all of us. When Mom died in 1939, the funeral service could not be held indoors because tuberculosis was considered very contagious. In order to keep the body cool, it was put into the corn crib. Dad and Uncle Bernhard Konrad made the casket. Then Tante (aunt) Lena Konrad and Grandma decorated it nicely. Formaldehyde was poured into Mother’s mouth to preserve the body. The funeral service was held on our yard; Rev. N.N. Driedger officiated.
I needed to move to the mainland to attend Grade 13 at Leamington High School. Here I lived with the Henry Wiens family on 88 Victoria Avenue and took the bus to school. Then I went to Teacher’s College in London where I lived with a Hopper family. When I had finished school and returned to the Island, Dad called Louis Ryersee, a trustee, to find a teaching job for me. Louis asked, “How much do you want for her?” Dad said, “1,000 dollars”. “OK”, said Louis. My sister Mary and I got some of my wages.
In 1943 Dad married Katharina Neufeld from Waterloo, Ontario. By 1945, when many Mennonites were leaving Pelee, I moved to the mainland. I attended church on Oak Street where I met Jacob Janzen. We married in 1948 and lived in a house between Ruthven and Union. Then, in 1950, we worked Dad’s farm on concession 7 on shares. In 1952 we moved to #3 Highway to the Frank Mutrie farm and worked that farm on shares with Jake’s brother George.
In 1956 three people came to ask me to teach in three different schools: on Highway 77, Belle River, and Mount Carmel. Irma Janzen, my sister-in-law, wanted me to take her school at Mount Carmel. As a result, she could return to her school after her first child was born.
In May of 1959 my husband Jake died at 34 years of age. He had been sick for five months. In December of 1958 the doctor had diagnosed him with stomach cancer. But Jake always said that he could manage. Then one day when he couldn’t get out of bed, I decided to stay home with him. He lived three more months.
I sold the farm and John Schmidt built a house for us on concession 6, near Highway 77. I continued to teach and became principal at Ridge School for 12 years. I retired from teaching in 1985. Today I have two children, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
As told by Erna Janzen in 2008 to Astrid Koop
