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Boivin siblings reunited at Villa Beausejour
Emily Plihal
for Express
Their first trek into Alberta began on July 1, 1930 when they arrived, 17 children and two parents thousands of kilometres away from home.
Despite years of hardship, miles apart, and lifetimes full of happiness, family and friends, five of the Boivin children have been reunited, now living at the Villa Beausejour in Falher.
The five siblings living at the Villa include Norma Ostiguy, Rita Pineau, Cecile Sylvestre, Maurice and Donald Boivin. Maurice’s wife Cecile also lives at the Villa, while sister Eugenie Bedard lives in Girouxville and brothers Roma and Henri live in the region.
“It’s great to live together again,” says sister Cecile Sylvestre. “We get together, play cards and sit drinking coffee together. We reminisce about times past and all the memories we share together.”
The siblings spent many of their years living apart, with some sisters living in British Columbia or southern Alberta, but they claim the Smoky River Region always remained home.
The family first arrived in Eaglesham in 1930, and they say coming from the city of Chicoutimi, Quebec, they had quite the culture shock when they arrived in the undeveloped region.
“The older sisters remember our mom crying for many days after we arrived,” says Rita Pineau.
“It was quite the culture shock going from running water to a place where the bathroom was in the bush.”
The siblings explain the region was a lot different in 1930 than what it is now, with many of the farms completely undeveloped.
“When we first arrived there was two shacks, a little store and a post office in Eaglesham,” says Maurice. “ We built a log cabin with log floors. The family worked very closely to make our lives more comfortable.”
The siblings explain they could barely speak English when they arrived in the region. Maurice says he only knew the words “yes” and “no”, which made conversation with the few people in the region very difficult.
Cecile told a story about when a neighbour came to see their father one night and he had already gone to bed explaining how little English they knew. “I just kept telling him, ‘Go to bed.’”
“He reminded me of that any times, including on the day I got married.”
They said the learning process began shortly after moving to Eaglesham. The family was forced to dig holes in the ground to have drinking water. They explain they would filter it out with cheese cloth, and then would boil the water.
The Boivin’s reminisce about the time their monther Marie-Ange had to go get some water. They say when she peaked in the hole there was a mouse in their water.
Their mother made them dig another hole that day, however; they explain once she realized no matter where they dug the hole there would be more mice in the drinking water.
“We were never sick when we were young,” says Rita. “Nothing was sterilized and we never took medication.”
The Boivin’s said much of their food came from natural sources in the environment. They fondly remember making dandelion salad, and said they lived off wild fruit and some canned meat. They explain they produced their own butter and cheese, harvested honey from bee hives, and worked hard to sustain their family.
“Oh there was definitely a large population when we moved here,” says Maurice. “Of mosquitoes.”
When they first moved here, the Boivin family had very little to their name. They explain over the years they managed to scrounge enough money to purchase livestock to raise on their farm.
“We had no money but we were never hungry and we definitely had a lot of love,” says Norma.
The family says there was an outbreak of rabbits in the region in 1940-1941.
“We would trap hundreds of rabbits each day,” says Cecile. “We would sell the fur to the army, in turn they would make beds for their soldiers.”
The family says one thing modern children should not take advantage of is the opportunity to go to school, which they say they never had the opportunity to do on a regular basis.
“We hardly went to school but we learned at home,” says Cecile, who explains she was fortunate to receive a grade eight education. “Our family had the opportunity to learn at home doing chores that taught us practical knowledge.”
Each of the Boivin siblings have special talents that they learned from hard work and determination.
Cecile says many of the women are great seamstresses, while the men are very talented carpenters. She explains the family did all the work on their home and helped families in the surrounding neighbourhood.
A specific difference noted by the Boivin’s was the difference between today’s availability of products and how they obtained their basic needs in the 30’s.
“Mom would make us dresses, knickers and other clothes out of flour sacks,” says Rita. “She had dye in either red or navy that she would use on the clothes and she would sew elastic in at the neck, wrists and waists to make the clothes more fitting.”
Coming from a big family, and also having many children between them, the Boivin family grew to one of the largest in the province.
Maurice explains for entertainment they would learn to play instruments, sing and dance with one another, a pass time which they still hold very close to their hearts.
Despite all the time that has passed and all the life lessons the Boivin family have learned, they still have the utmost respect for each other, their parents Marie-Ange and Alfred, and for the life they’ve been fortunate to live.
The group is excited to be around one another again and to have the opportunity to relive their amazing stories with one another.
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Back Rita Pineau and Norma Ostiguy along with brothers Maurice and Donald Boivin and sister Cecile Sylvestre have been reunited in the Villa Beausejour. Despite living in different parts of Alberta and British Columbia throughout their lives, the siblings have decided to move into the same residence in their home region.
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