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april 28, 2021
Well travelled Life of new Centenarian Nellie Wasyleski
FINDERS FEE $7,500
Rosanne Fortier News Correspondent
Nellie Wasyleski was born on March 26, 1921 on the family farm, about 15 km northwest of Vegreville, north of Royal Park. Her parents were Olena (Helen) and Metro Wynnychuk. For the successful referral to a Nellie grew up on the farm, and has always lived in the Vegreville Law Firm with proven successful area. Nellie had four brothers (Alec, Mike, Edward and Walter. litigation vs RCMP Alec and Mike died in infancy) and four sisters (Lena, Mary, Ann TEXT and Elsie). “I had a very good childhood, although my father passed away in 1923, when I was just two-years-old. My mother, Olena, was left 24 Hr. with a large farm to operate and four young daughters between the ages of 13 and 2. My COUNTY OF MINBURN NO. 27 mother remarried around 1927, and we remained on the family farm. Oil/Calcium Dust Control Program “One of my earliest childhood memories on Roads in Front of Farmland Sites is riding in my mother’s Model T Ford. My mother was one of the first people in the Dust control applications will now be accepted until vicinity to own and drive a car – very April 30, 2021 (deadline) remarkable for a woman in that era! as per County Policy PW 44, Another of my most vivid childhood Dust Control with Oil/Calcium. memories is from approximately 1926, when my mother took me to a Chautauqua in If you have any questions, please call the Nellie Wasyleski who turned 100 on March 26, 2021. Vegreville. I clearly remember the big tent, (Joan Mettauer/Submitted Photo) Superintendent of Public Works Office at ferris wheel, and merry-go-round set up in a (780)632-3715, Ext. 3 or (780)632-9330. big empty field, I think it was where the and inside it was a handcar. We lifted it out of the Homestead Seniors’ Lodge is now situated. It was boxcar and onto the train track. We headed east on Applications are available at the County of Minburn there I saw an elephant for the first time, and I was the tracks toward Lavoy. When we got close to Website: www.minburncounty.ab.ca fascinated by the huge creature. Lavoy, I, who was facing east, told my cousin a Around the same year, I had my first ride in an train was coming. My cousin didn’t believe me. By airplane. One of my uncles had a small, open cock- this time we were at a crossing, and luckily there pit plane that he used to haul fish from northern were some CN workers there who got us off the Alberta. He landed in the field at their farm one day handcar and lifted it off the tracks. and offered to take the girls up for a ride. I was the I remember the train engineer shaking his fist at only one brave enough to take him up on the offer. A us! The workers put the handcar back on the track few years later, my uncle disappeared while on a fish when the train passed, then took us back to Vegreville run up north. The site of his crash was discovered on it. I had to confess our prank, but I don’t rememmany years later.” ber any punishment. Everyone was likely just happy Nellie went on to say she was very anxious to start that we were safe! school, the main reason being she wanted to sit at a “After Grade 12 I took a Stenographic Course at TAKE NOTICE that the Council of the Town of desk! “I loved to learn, and loved school. The first the Alberta College in Edmonton, which I never put Vegreville gave First Reading on Monday, April school I attended was a renovated, thatch-roof build- to very good use. 12th, 2021 to Bylaw No. 03-2021 which will, upon ing that had previously been a home to some of the Then, following in one of my older sister’s footfinal passage and approval, authorize the proper area’s first settlers. Classes eventually moved to the steps, I decided to become a nurse and began my officers of the said Town to, pursuant to the new Kolomea School, which was a mile or so north training at St. Joseph’s General Hospital in Vegreville. of our farm. However, after the first year I realized that I did not authority of the Municipal Government Act, During the summer my siblings and I walked, but have the ‘stomach’ for nursing and gave it up! I preprovide a loan to the Rotary Club of Vegreville in I remember frigid winter mornings when we were ferred typing the reports to patient care. the maximum amount of $75,000.00. loaded into a horse-drawn sleigh and driven to Because I married just a year later, I did not pursue school, warmed by hot water bottles and huddled another career other than farm wife and mother, A copy of the proposed Bylaw may be inspected at under heavy quilts. I was a good student, and I although I did work part-time at the Provincial the Town of Vegreville Administration Office, skipped Grade 5. I attended Grade 12 at the Vegreville Building and various stores in Vegreville over the located at 4829 – 50th Street, between the hours of High School, graduating the Matriculation program years. The one thing I truly enjoyed was my many 9:00 am and 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. in 1937 at the age of 16. very successful years as an Avon Lady, which some “When I was about 15-years-old, one of my people may still remember! Any person with questions or concerns regarding the uncles worked at the CNR Train Station in “I met my future husband, Andy Wasyleski while Vegreville. I was best friends with his daughter. I was in nurses training. I was living in the nurses’ Bylaw can email vegtown@vegreville.com or call 780One Sunday my cousin’s parents went out and residence, and local boys would often wait outside 632-2606 on or before Friday, April 30th, 2021. asked us to milk the cow. But instead, we sneaked the residence at night hoping to meet the young into the CN roundhouse, nurses. One night a few other nurses and I snuck out which was used to service the residence window, and the rest is history! and store trains. There was a I married Andy on October 8, 1940. I began my box car in the roundhouse, married life on the Wasyleski farm, two miles south
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