Hazel's Early Years |
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Hazel was born on September 29, 1908 in Frobisher, Saskatchewan. Her parents were George and Melinda Merrall. George was an itinerate handyman who'd come to Canada from England as an indentured servant when he was 13. Melinda Kline was one of 14 children whose parents were homestead farmers. |
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Hazel was the oldest of six children. She's shown here on the left with Ilene, Vera, John, and Beatrice. (Georgina wasn't born yet.) When Hazel was two, her family moved to Lorlie, Saskatchewan to be near her mother's parents. Her father worked as a carpenter for 25 cents an hour. They lived in a shack her father built on a corner of the Kline farm.
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"After Beatrice was born, the shack was moved to Lorlie. I remember this very well. Grandma Kline took Vera and me to watch. They had six horses hitched to it, and had to take the fence down. I thought Mother was in the shack and I cried in fear., but Grandma said, "Stop it, Hazel. Your mother and the baby are at my place.'" When Hazel was 14, the family moved to Nelson, British Columbia, and then to Taghum. "Dad didn't have money for us to ride the train... so we walked [the six miles] and carried our family belongings in gunny sacks on our backs." When she was 16, Hazel left home against her mother's wishes to work in Nelson. Her mother had wanted Hazel to go to college and be a schoolteacher, but Hazel had already met and fallen in love with Earl and wanted nothing more than to be a housewife. More of Hazel's Childhood Stories:
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