Memories of growing up in a family of 12

By Joan Janzen

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, Lorna Stenson Jantz shared memories of her own mother who raised a dozen children. Lorna lives at Caleb Village in Kindersley and was the youngest member of her family. She had one older sister and a lot of brothers, who grew up on a mixed farm near Drake, Sask. located east of Saskatoon.

“I was the princess,” Lorna recalled. “The boys were always pushing and shoving, but my mom always told them to leave me alone.” Nevertheless the princess wasn’t exempt from working. “We all had chores to do. We all learned to work.”

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, Lorna Stenson Jantz who lives at Caleb Village in Kindersley, shared her memories of growing up in a family of 12 children. PHOTO BY JOAN JANZEN

The family had a market garden with acres of potatoes and they sold produce at a farmers market at Manitou beach. They also had bee hives and made and sold honey.

Her dad was a mechanic and owned an Esso garage in Drake. Meanwhile her mother kept everything running smoothly at home and was very organized. Saturday was cleaning day. “We washed everything!” Lorna said. “My mom said we may not have much but what we have will be clean.”

The kids all shared bedrooms. One room had three double beds in it, with two boys sharing a bed. There were lots of pillow fights in the evening and her mom and dad would have to come in and settle disputes. After coming home from school it was Lorna’s job to make the boys’ beds.

On Sunday the family went to church and would visit cousins or invite a family home for a meal. “Our kitchen table was huge and it was always full,” she recalled.

Not only was her mom busy cooking, but she baked bread, buns, doughnuts and cinnamon buns, all on a coal/wood stove, which she started early in the morning. “I don’t know how she adjusted the heat in the oven,” she mused.

Her mother sewed her own dresses and always had a clean apron on every day. Lorna was also taught how to sew and cook by her mom and older sister. And no one was allowed to run around with holes in their pants.

“When I wasn’t very old I remember cutting my mom’s hair because she asked me to. I didn’t know how, but she showed me,” she said.

“Very rarely do I remember my mom raising her voice. She was very calm,” she recalled. Except on one occasion when one of the boys came home from school, grabbed a fresh loaf of homemade bread and took it out the back door. “She really reprimanded him and told him he didn’t have to sneak anything out the house!” Lorna remembered.

Monday was wash day, and a really big deal. Her mother would begin by soaking the clothes in a big tub and hand scrub them. Next she would transfer the clothes into a big canner on top of the stove, and added soap which she had made. The white clothes were boiled, and were always white as snow.

All year long the clothes were hung outside. In the winter time they would freeze and be brought inside, hung up on ropes strung on the dining room ceiling. When they were dry, they were taken down and the ironing began. “There was no boredom,” Lorna said.

On Saturday afternoon everyone, from youngest to oldest, had a bath. Being the youngest, Lorna got to bath first and there were at least four boys sitting on a bench waiting for their turn. They all used the same water, but added more to the tub. After everyone was done the water got carried out and was used to water something in the yard.

Every fall, Lorna remembered her dad coming home with cases of fruit piled practically to the ceiling. Lorna and her mom and sister would can them all.

But Lorna’s mother did get tired, and insisted on having a half hour nap every afternoon, while holding on to young Lorna’s hand to be sure she didn’t get away. Although she only had a Grade 3 education, her mom played the pump organ and accordion without having taken any lessons. And she had lots of house plants which were watered with melted snow water in the winter.

Fun family times were had at Manitou Beach where they would pick pails of saskatoons, and go swimming and eat ice cream. However now Lorna and her 91-year-old brother are the only surviving siblings. Two of her brothers died tragic deaths in their teens, and her parents died when they were in their 60’s.

Although Lorna’s family of 12 siblings is quite large by anyone’s standards, Gerard Derosier at Caleb grew up in a family of 15 children. Maybe that will be a story for another day.