Text Box: In the afternoon a young man dropped in at Kateri House. Ralph reminded us that we had met in 1988 when he was a young teen. He wanted to do some work for us in exchange for a few days’ worth of food. Then he would go to a seasonal job. In record time he finished the work we needed done. We next saw Ralph when he had a few days off from his job. He came to discuss what to do with his life now that he is 29 years old. He had decided to return to school in the fall but had not yet chosen a particular direction. As we talked, he was excited to discover that so many choices were open to him. He left with a new sense of possibility, and promised to maintain contact. Later in the day, we stopped at a restaurant for supper. The young woman who waited on us gave us a radiant smile and shared with us the wonderful news that she was going to get married. Her fiancé had asked her the night before, and had also told her that he wants to be baptized. Waltera had baptized the young woman as a toddler 18 years ago. Now we will be preparing the young man for baptism and the couple for marriage. It is so wonderful to see the grace of God at work from one generation to the next. As evening came, we wondered what the next day would bring. Text Box: Page 2 Text Box: Kateri House Notes

 

Full Circle in Fifty Years

      August 12, 2002, will mark  Waltera’s 50th anniversary of her first arrival in Prince   Albert. The journey, first by ship across the Atlantic and then by train from Halifax, had begun on July 31, 1952. The Van Gennip family arrived in Prince Albert from The Netherlands at a time when the government told immigrants where to settle. It was a major culture shock for this family of six who came from Eindhoven, then the fifth largest city in Holland. Waltera was the oldest of four girls; the youngest had been born only three months before the emigration.

     The Department of Immigration had promised work and lodging for new immigrants. There was work but no lodging. The Prince Albert Daily Herald featured a picture of Mary Anne Van Gennip and her four children, with a large front page headline: “No Room for Them”. In the meantime the Dept. of Immigration had found the family a spot in a cabin just behind the drive-in theatre in what is now Nisbet Park. Each day Bart Van Gennip walked across the bridge to go to work at Leach‘s Farm Implements.

    

     Soon they were offered a house for rent on 15th Street West. Other immigrants considered them a bit snobbish, because the house was made of brick and the rent was $60 per month, much higher than average.

     The Saskatchewan winter was very cold; the family used to go for Sunday walks on the frozen North Saskatchewan River. Bart and Mary Anne knew some people in Ontario, and they moved to Hamilton the following spring.

     In 1983 Waltera returned to Prince Albert, where she and Pat Grisé started Kateri House. Her parents have each come to Prince Albert in the completion of the circles of their lives. Bart was visiting Waltera in 1988 when he found out that he was terminally ill. He was lovingly cared for in the Holy Family Hospital, and then returned to Ontario to take his final leave of the rest of his family there. Mary Anne returned to Prince Albert in 1998. A year later she had a stroke and was hospitalized for 3 months. Since then Waltera has been caring for her. Mary Anne knows she will not be here much longer, but she is happy and contented at all that has transpired in these fifty years since she and her husband first brought their family to Prince Albert.