This post is not about an Ancestor of mine but in 1983, I did live in a basement apartment in Brandon on 13th Street on the floor below Miss Delamater. When she saw my last name on the mailbox, she had to know if I was an Oak River Simms and and was delighted when I told her I was. We had a few visits over tea and she gifted me some old Oak River Post newspapers. I've used the Blanshard history books and found a few online sources to tell her story as I know it today. I'll be glad to add more details or correct my errors!
Laura Ethel Delamater was the eldest of three daughters born to Ethel (Sparling) and Walter Delamater on September 13, 1915. She grew up on her parent's farm at 11- 13-22 W1, south and east of Oak River. Her parents married in 1914 with both being members of pioneer families. The Delamaters arriving to Blanshard from the USA in 1878 and the Sparlings from Ontario in 1909. Ethel was the first teacher at Bankburn School before marrying Walter. My family has a close connection to that school as told here. 
Laura had two younger sisters, Mary who trained as a nurse and went on to marry a doctor, Robert Hoare and have a family. Youngest sister Iva married a missionary John Wood and spent some of her life in Trinidad before settling in Windsor, Ontario with her family of four. As young girls, the Delamater sisters were members of the Upland Literary Society which operated from 1932-1938 as a social group of about 30 families who took turns hosting dances, literary meetings, debates, performances, card tournaments, and relay suppers.
 |
| https://indigenoustbhistory.ca/files/San-Board-News-Bulletin-July-1961.pdf |
The most helpful biography above was found in the News Bulletin of the Sanitorium Board of Manitoba Volume 3 Number 7 from July 1961 found at this website. It tells that Laura was stricken with tuberculosis in the 1930's and was sent to Ninette Sanitorium for treatment and her mother was sick with it as well. Rest and isolation seems to be the way TB was treated. Laura was well enough to help in the laboratory and it was then that she discovered her life's calling. She graduated with a Registered Technician's Diploma in 1940 and worked at Ninette for the next 7 years until she moved to Brandon to the Sanatorium there on 10th Street and Queen's Avenue where inpatient treatment of indigenous people for tuberculosis had begun after WW2. She helped write a paper found here in 1950 and remained at that facility until it closed in 1959.
In the meantime, Laura's parents had sold the farm in 1942 and moved into Oak River where her father was a dealer for Cockshutt Equipment until he became ill. Walter passed away in 1961 and Ethel moved to Brandon to live with with Laura until she died in 1974.
Laura was the head laboratory technician for 26 years until she retired in 1973. The Brandon Sun has a picture of her retirement coffee party which was attended by 150 of her friends and colleagues at the Assiniboine Hospital. Laura was retired for 20 years before she died in 1993. She is buried with her parents in Oak River Cemetery. A life well lived.
No comments:
Post a Comment