Mothers play a unique and loving role in every family. For Irene Cooper, 92, her mother was the glue that held the family together, and there was “no Tom Foolery, not when there were children to feed.”
“She used to say ‘if you were in England you kids would be in jail,’” she laughs recalling her childhood in the valley. “‘First of all you don’t run into people’s yards. You don’t go over there and steal watermelons from his yard, and take carrots. You have to have manners.’”
Her mother and father came from England in 1918, to the High River area. She says they were given one acre and $10. It was a two-day trek to even get groceries. Right away her mother knew this was no place to raise a family. It was suggested to move to Lethbridge to join her husband’s brother, who was already established in the community and had 16 children, but that too would not do.
“My dad took to drinking with all the boys, and my mother forbid it. She said ‘we haven’t got enough money to eat, never mind beer, we’ll go where there is nobody by the name of Williams (her father’s name).’ So we moved to Drumheller and my father worked in the mines here.”
The family established themselves on the riverbank in Midland with her one brother and two sisters. Her mother ran a tight ship. The children tended to the garden and chickens, and she took in boarders. Irene said her mother never left the grounds with the exception to watch them swim.
Her mother also ran a shirt service for the boarders where she would hand wash and press their shirts. At Christmas and New Year’s she made sure that everyone at the dinner table was wearing a clean white pressed shirt and tie, except one year.
A couple days before New Year’s Eve, Irene’s mother rose early and went out to gather the clean linens from the clothes line, only to find them missing. The only clues were tracks along the line. One set of tracks were big work boots, the other were women’s high heels.
“We never did find them. Oh! My mother cried, she was so upset,” said Irene. “Anyway, they all came with old shirts to the table.”
As tough as her mother was, she was loving and compassionate. Their garden and chicken coop benefitted the whole neighbourhood. She recalls bringing a neighbour the mail as a young girl. The man was crying because his family had no dinner for Christmas.
“I said ‘you can come to my house, come with me,” recalls Irene. “I took them home and said, ‘Mom these people have nothing to eat.’ She said, ‘we have lots of chairs, you go get them from the garage, wash them and bring them to the table.’”
Her mother passed away when Irene was only 14. She did however provide memories and lessons to last a lifetime, including the value of hard work.
“The one thing she taught me is if you want something and if you work for it, the nickel is yours. If you really want something, you will save it until you get another nickel, but you will not charge anything. You get what you get with your nickel.”
