HAPPY 95TH BIRTHDAY AUNT VIOLA!

"GERTRUDE " irises

This morning I picked a bouquet of these irises, arranged them in a heavy glass pitcher and off I went to Estevan.  These irises grow beside a large old tree planted by Howard's dad, Horace Johnson, many years ago.  The trees grew around the old Johnson house which was just south of our log house that was built in 1979.  The cement pad that was in front of the door of that house marks the spot where generations of Johnsons, from Grandpa Ben to Horace and then Howard, came and went at that house on the prairie.  Ninety-five years ago today, a baby girl was born in that house.  She was the youngest child in a family of nine and was named Viola Geneva Johnson.  Her sixteen year old brother, Horace, didn't want to hear about that new baby as he was embarrassed that his forty-two year old mother was having a baby!  But he grew to be very fond of that little sister and they meant a lot to each other as the years went on.  Horace was the only boy who lived to adulthood.  Two brothers died as infants and thirteen year old Leonard died in a gopher hunting accident in 1922.

The Ben Johnson Family
1954

It wasn't easy being the youngest in a big family.  Viola was by no means spoiled!  One of her sisters was already a mother herself so this baby sister was Ruby's Aunt Viola as soon as she was born.  She has outlived many of her nieces and nephews.  Edith, her oldest niece, is ninety-four and is blessed to still have an auntie!

The house where Aunt Viola was born June 8, 1917
(picture used for farm centennial in 2007)

Viola worked hard on the farm, a big help to both her mother and father.  She remembers being in the field stooking the day that her nephew Howard was born.   Viola moved to Torquay with her parents when they retired and  Horace took over the farm.  She still talks about her piano that was left behind on the farm, given to Horace.  She was promised another one, but money for such items was scarce in the thirties and she had to settle for a violin instead.

On April 14,1939 Viola married Norris Palmer Halvorson from north of Torquay.  She remembers his mother crying all through the wedding until Viola was in tears too.  Later, Norris took her for a walk.  When they returned from the walk, the wedding guests started throwing rice at them and that was the end of the crying spell!  Norris' family voted for the CCF party and Viola came from a Liberal family, not a good match as far as his family was concerned. (Fortunately, both families were Lutheran!)

Well, I really didn't intend this to be a history lesson so I better shorten this story!  Viola and Norris were blessed with four children - Darlene, Hartley, Norvel, and Myron.  Sadly, baby Norvel lived only a few months after his birth in 1948.  Norris passed away suddenly on February 26, 1984 when they were living in Torquay.  Viola was one of the first residents at the new Village Pride in Torquay.  From there she moved to Trinity Tower in Estevan, then to the Regional Nursing Home and to St. Joeseph's Special Care Home where she is currently living.  She will be celebrating her birthday there on Sunday.  Her family of four children has grown to include eight grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren, four of whom live in Australia!

I will add pictures to this post after the party on Sunday but wanted to acknowledge her actual birthday today.  It's special to be living on the farm where Aunt Viola was born - SE 16 1 12 W of 2nd.  Not many birth certificates give land descriptions as the location of birth!  The following pictures are from her 90th birthday and her 94th birthday a year ago.

Aunt Viola with two of her three children and spouses
Herb and Darlene Zirk, Louise and Hartley Halvorson