Lois' mother died in the spring of 1933 leaving husband Bob and seven children, ranging in age from Roberta at 1 and Vic at 3 through Don, Ivan, and Kelly, to Lois at 18 and Lyle at 21. While the shock and sadness undoubtedly hit everyone hard, I think it would be fair to say that-- of the children -- it was Lois who was forced to make the biggest adjustments and the biggest sacrifices. After the initial period of mourning, the boys returned to their regular routines. But for Lois, the world had completely changed. In place of being her mother's helper, she now was the one in charge of all the cooking, cleaning, and washing needed by a large family. The new role involved an awful lot of work, but it also involved sacrifices. One of the early sacrifices that needed to be made, was to forgo the chance to attend the Short Course offered by the Perth County Department of Agriculture in St. Pauls during the winter of 1933. The course ran 5 days a week for three months from December 1933 to February 1934. The men studied theory of agriculture and travelled to area farms to judge livestock. The women, who met in the upstairs room over Hauke's store (which was reputed to be a very cold place in February) studied nursing, interior decorating and home economics. While the information given was doubtlessly useful, I suspect that the reason why so many young people attended was because the course offered a chance to socialize with other people in surroundings something like a "college experience." At the top, is a picture of the participants. You will notice that Lois is missing (at home looking after children) and so is Gordon (living in Stratford with his Uncle Charlie and Aunt Alice Ballantyne while he attends Teacher's College.)
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