Margret Boudreau Humphreys was born and raised in Penny in 1934 to parents Joseph and Bessie Boudreau.
Margret was the seventh child of the eight Boudreau children; Isabelle (Pete) Motiuk, Eveline (Jack) McKinley, Josie (Marcien) Fisher, Margret (John) Humphreys, June (Lloyd) Vander Mark, Jack, Joseph (Edith Lammle) and Clarence (Olga Horn).
Margret has enough history and life experiences to fill a book of her own and she shared a great deal of those experiences with me; however since this is merely a column and not a book I can only share a few of them with you.
Her life as a child was not easy but she didn't know it at the time. The entire family had strong ties both through hard work, their love of music and their love and respect for one another. Here is her story in a nutshell.
Margret's childhood days were normal and full of outdoor adventures and chores. By the time she was 16 she could harness her fathers' team of horses and work them as needed. She remembers pulling up to the Penny Mercantile and loading 100-pound sacks of flour and sugar and other groceries and then delivering it all to families in the area. She picked up passengers along the way and delivered them to their homes as well. It was an era when people had to walk everywhere. They did not have the luxury of cars or decent roads and very few people owned a team of horses.
When Margret was 17, she married her long time friend John Humphreys. John was born is Swift Current, Sask., and like everyone else he was a hard working sawmill worker. He worked in the bush and retired as the superintendent of logging working for B.C. Forest Products in Mackenzie. Margret said, "We had three sons David, Jim (Shawneen) and Alan (Barb) and they gave us nine grandchildren and four great grandchildren and my heart is full of love for them all."
Sadly, John had a heart attack and passed away in 2006. Margret said, "We had a great life together and we loved the freedom of living the country life fishing in the mountain streams, walking and hiking, climbing mountains, hunting, boating up and down the Fraser River and breathing fresh air."
Margret proudly explained: "The entire Boudreau family played musical instruments and sang together. When Jack McKinley married my sister Eveline he contributed even more music to the family. Jack was a genius and when he played the piano for a dance he had the hall just hopping. Those were wonderful days and I have beautiful memories of it all. We all sang and played together as a family and with the combination of June, Joe and Clarence singing together - well, it was the best."
At that point in time there were close to 600 people living in Penny. They all knew one another and most of them eventually ended up at the Boudreau house.
If the family wanted to come into Prince George to shop or see a doctor, they had to board the train in the dark at 1 a.m. and when it arrived in Prince George, they had to wait in the offices or lobbies of the hotels, along with their children, until the businesses opened. It was a time when there was no such thing as appointments, you just showed up and waited.
When they were finished with all their business, they would catch the train back to Penny and arrive home at 10 p.m. that night. There were many times that it was minus 30 when they arrived home. The children did not complain because they just knew that all of this was their way of life.
Margret said, "When we lived in Penny we used to load up the children and take the river boat 39 km on the Fraser River to visit their grandparents in Dome Creek. They always looked forward to this visit and hated to leave because we needed to get back home to feed the animals."
Margret's mother played the piano, the flute and the harp, her father played the violin and then there was the guitar, piano and singing amongst the rest of the family. Jack and Eveline McKinley and Margret's brother Jack had a great band and played Prince George and the surrounding communities. Their band was in great demand and to this day the family along with the new generation still plays together.
Margret reminisced and said, "My mother-in-law was a registered nurse and she helped everyone in Penny as needed. Under her direction I helped to deliver babies on several occasions. I always found it exciting to help bring a new baby into the world. My mother actually delivered more babies than my mother-in-law in Penny and many of them were her own grandchildren."
The sawmill industry was slowly dying with the arrival of the pulp mills so John and Margret moved their family to Giscome in 1965 and then to Mackenzie in 1966.
The next ten years in Mackenzie brought new adventures. The children grew up, and graduated from school while Margret took on contracts planting trees and picking pine cones. She said, "we took a big barge across Williston Lake to pick pine cones to fill a contract to pick 300 two bushel bags of pine cones that were to be shipped to Sweden to start a forest over there. Imagine that - my husband and sons were busy logging trees while I was picking pine cones to put them back. I would love to travel to Sweden to see that forest."
Margret was able to participate in badminton, softball, crosscountry skiing, snowshoeing and curling. Curling was her all-time favorite and she was a part of a very successful women's curling club in Mackenzie. She said, "I am 82 years old, a cancer survivor and I recovered from a broken hip so now I just watch curling on television."
She has traveled extensively with her sisters Josie and Isabelle mainly in Canada and the states and has kept a great album of all of her adventures.
Margret said, "We moved to Prince George in 1999, I now live at Alward Place and I love it here. My time is spent with family and friends and going out for lunch. I just love life and everyone in it."
