In 1967, the Silver Valley Ladies Club completed a Canadian Centennial Friendship Bedspread project. Each member arrived at a meeting with an embroidered square. There would be enough squares altogether to create a full bedspread for one of the ladies. They’d work together stitching up rows & by the end of the meeting that bedspread would be complete. The women would feel inspired to do it all again at the next meeting. By the end of the year, they’d made a bedspread for each member.

My Mom’s bedspread had a white cotton background & solid pink cotton borders. I posted about it a few years ago. It’s been a long time since growing up in the Valley. Writing about it was a fun flash from the past. Looking at the section each woman embroidered brought up all sorts of memories about our neighbours who were also homesteading way back when.

Melvin Derkesn (Helen + Gordon’s son) is 5 years older than I am. He still farms in Silver Valley. Recently, he gave one of the Centennial Friendship Bedspreads to Laura (+ Ron) Ritchie. (Laura was still a kid when her family moved into the area in 1970. Laura wed Leona’s son, Ron.)  

Now, this is already sounding complicated, so the best advice is to start with “part one”, which introduces the key players & relationships that formed as the community was first establishing. You can read about them here.

Anyway, Laura has kindly shared photos to add to this story.

The 2 most likely recipients of this beadspread are:
Jessie Derksem, Melvin’s grandma,
or
Helen Derksen, Melvin’s mom. 
Personally, I reckon it was Helen’s bedspread because her square is nearest the centre. Perhaps that’s just a silly guess, but I’m going with it.

Most of the ladies who contributed to Mom’s beadspread are also represented on Helen’s. (Photos of their new embroidery works of art are further down in this post.)

An intriguing mystery is why Helen’s bedspread has one additional row of squares than Mom’s does. Maybe Helen’s bed was longer because Gordon was so tall? (Helen was very short — she was lucky if she was 5 feet tall.)
For whatever reason, a few extra ladies are represented on Helen’s bedspread. 

Frances wed Aganetha’s son, Frank Dyck, joining his homesteading adventure. She lived beside a fabulous tobogganing hill near Tina Remple’s place. It was always a fun gathering when we joined Frances’ kids & Tina’s kids to risk our lives on that hill.

In 1961, Carol (+ Owen) Godlonton filed their homestead in Silver Valley. I remember very little about Carol, except that she sold the farm in 1974. The Wilsons arrived & our school bus added them to the route because they had kids. Their oldest, Keith, was in my grade. (Kids prioritize memories by what’s important to us, don’t we?)

Elsie (+ Rudolf) Thomsen left Denmark with 5 kids in 1959. By the time they arrived in Silver Valley in ’66, there were 8 kids. Elsie is much easier for me to remember because her daughter, Doris, was in the same grade as my older brother, Mitch. And her youngest daughter, Bitten, was in school with me from grade one onward. Elsie also taught me how to knit. I went nuts knitting touques, scarves, mitts & slippers. Most local men made ends meet by working away in the off-season. My Dad worked winters in the Arctic, so he could really use my knitting projects. It’s best to be warm while polar bears chase a fellow around the seismic rig!

Edna (+ Leroy) Rehaume joined the Silver Valley adventure along with Audrey (+ Bill) Rehaume and Jean (+ Andy) Scarrow. Like many families, Edna’s worked to establish a homesite during the summers before moving in full-time a few years later. Even though the home was still pretty basic, Edna moved her family into Silver Valley in the summer of ’67. She was relieved when electricity reached her farm a few months later. It was so exciting the day the electricity reached our farm, too. I hadn’t even started school yet & was stoked to surprise Mitch after the school bus dropped him home. But as he walked down the driveway, he saw me through the kitchen window, flicking the kitchen light on & off, so he knew even before he got into the house.

Barbara wed Aganetha’s son, Benny Dyck, and joined the community in 1967, in time to be part of this centennial project.  When my folks were visiting them, I’d play with their daughters, Darla, Peggy, and Pollyanna.  I remember telling the kids how sweet purple clover is to eat: just pick a bloom, pull out a few petals & chew them—they taste like honey!  One of the kids (I’m pretty sure it was Darla?) told me that bees tasted like honey, too.  Yup, she said she ate bees! I asked her how she didn’t get stung.  She said she just pulled the stinger out first.  Quick as a bunny, she snatched a bee off a clover flower, held it by its wings as she de-stingered it, and popped it in her mouth. 
Respect.
I was too chicken to try that.

Now, I’m noticing a few inconsistencies between the two bedspreads …

Mom’s bedspread has a square signed as “Mrs. Helen Dyck“.
That might seem like a little thing, but back in the day, many women (especially the matriarchs) felt it was still proper to use the formality of “Mrs.” to indicate their status.
On this 2nd bedspread, there is a square that is simply signed “Helena Dyck” — Helena with an “a” at the end.
Could Helena Dyck be a different woman?
Perhaps a daughter?
In Silver Valley, this question is even more valid because, in the early years, 3 unrelated Dyck families arrived, each with enough kids to host their own baseball team! That’s a tournament of names to keep track of.

Here’s where Tales, Trails & Gumbo (c. 1991) comes in handy.
In the Family History sections, there are clues.
— Helen/Helena Dyck lineage: Tommy Dyck writes of his parents as Helena & Jake. Sharon Dyck refers to her in-laws as Helen & Jake.
Hmmm.
—Aganetha Dyck lineage: Aganetha Dyck had a daughter named Helen. But Aganetha’s Helen had married & become Helen Derksen well before 1967.
—Sarah Dyck lineage: Sarah Dyck’s family had a Helen also. Sarah’s Helen moved to the Valley with her daughter, Beverly, in 1967. Could Sarah’s Helen have referred to herself as Mrs. Helen Dyck? There was no indication whether this Helen was Sarah’s daughter or daughter-in-law.

My conclusion is that both embroidery squares were created by Mrs. Helena Dyck, wed to Jake. Perhaps, when Sarah’s Helen arrived in 1967, Helena started using her full first name to make identity easier. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

But wait – there’s more…

Another mysterious embroidered square is signed by “Helen Morrison“.
Like Mom’s beadspread, this bedspread has a square embroidered by Mrs. J.W. Morrison, aka Astrid Morrison.
Both bedspreads also have a square embroidered by Verna Morrison, Astrid’s daughter-in-law.
Right now, this Helen Morrison is a mystery to me. EXCEPT…
Remember, Sarah Dyck’s family had a Helen?
Sarah’s Helen moved to the Valley with her daughter, Beverly, in 1967.
Sarah’s Helen wed Lewis Morrison (Astrid’s son), becoming Helen Morrison, BUT that wasn’t until 1970!! — long after this embroidery was completed!

Who is this 1967 Helen Morrison?
It remains a mystery.
Unless you have some insight?

NOTE 1 – After a few weeks of back-and-forth, Laura Ritchie passes along a comment from Melvin: He remembers that the Ladies Club Bedspread Project carried on for several years. His aunt Sharon (+ Harry) Dyck has one dated 1973. So, it’s possible that Melvin’s bedspread was created after Sarah’s Helen wed Astrid’s son Lewis Morrison. Ta da!
NOTE 2 – Sharon Dyck also tells me that she has a photo of her bedspread with her twin toddlers sitting on it. Sharon’s girls were born in the early 60s. So, that means the Bedspread Project likely began years before the 1967 Centennial and continued for years beyond it.

Up next, Tena Remple.
Yup. Seriously. Another mystery.
Both bedspreads have embroidered squares by Justina Rempel (wed to Bill).
Mom’s bedspread has an embroidered square by “Mrs. Dick Rempel”, aka Tina Rempel. Tina with an “i” lived just down the road from Justina.
This 2nd bedspread has embroidery signed Tena with an “e“.
Hmmm.

I can understand why Helen might use her full first name, Helena, to clarify her identity…
But I can’t imagine why Tina might switch to Tena with an “e”.
Nobody mis-spells their own name, right?
So, who is Tena Rempel?
An aunt or cousin visiting for the summer?
(help me. please. help me.)

NOTE 3 – School friend Alison (Boisenberry) Wiebe contacted Jane Lois. Jane explains the Tina vs. Tena conundrum: Tena (+ Dick) Rempel did sign her name as Tena way back when (while the bedspread project was underway).
Then her home burned in 1979.
While replacing her documents, she found that her official ID had her name spelled Tina with an “i”… After that, she started signing her name that way. That’s why she was Tena with an “e” on the bedspread. Later, in the family history she wrote in the late ’80s, she was Tina with an “i”.
We can’t make this stuff up 🙂

The rest of the embroidered squares are made by the same women represented on my Mom’s bedspread. I’ve already talked about each of their histories in the original post, but it is so cool to see more of their artistry. Each photo is in the same order as in the first post, so it’s easier to scroll along & compare each woman’s work…

Note 4 – Maggie Rinke has been a mystery to me since I put together the first post about Mom’s bedspread. Maggie made a square on this bedspread, too.
So, I go back to Tales, Trails & Gumbo (c. 1991). There’s no listing of the Rinke’s in the Family History section. But in Sharon (+ Harry) Dyck’s history, Sharon mentions a school bus driver, John Rinke…
The Pollard girls remember that Mr. Rinke was a school bus driver.
Then, school friends Kathy (Fox) Hingley & Crystal (Cyr) Trider tell me that Magie was the school’s custodian & John drove the school bus. Finally, I found the section in Tales, Trails & Gumbo that recounts the Savanna School’s history. It confirms that both Maggie & John worked for the school, and a photo from 1965, the year the school opened, shows their daughters, Linda & Carolyn, attending class.

It’s been fun for me to cast my mind back to the ’60s when these women were building families, friendships & farms in the Northern Alberta wilderness. I felt confident about knowing the community I grew up in until I tried to fill out details about my mom & her friends’ lives (& the lives of the generation before her). What memories can you share? Can you solve some of the mysteries or fill in some of the blanks?
Much appreciated.

-30-

Here’s a link to the original post showing Mom’s bedspread:
Memories of Silver Valley: The Centennial Bedspread Project

Note 5 – It turns out that there are a few bedspreads still out there.

• I have Mom’s: Freda (+ Don) Seekins.

• Laura (+ Ron) Ritchie has Melvin’s, which was probably originally his mom’s: Helen (+ Gordon) Deksen.

• Sharon (+ Harry) Dyck has her own
  AND another—probably her mom’s: Jessie (+ Aron) Derksen.

• Sharon says JoAnn Lofgren has one. I’m guessing it’s probably her mom’s: Ruby (+ Len) Lofgren.

• Yvonne (+ Rik) Thomsen has three —
  Her mom’s: Edna (+ Leroy) Rehaume,
  Rik’s moms: Elsie (+ Rudolf) Thomsen,
  and Mary (+Dick) Fox’s bedspread.