Melvina McGregor (Great-Aunt)- Humility

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I asked my great-aunt what object in her personal possession sparked significant memories of her life.  She chose to include a hand-coloured self-portrait taken in the 1940s.  This portrait represents the strong, independent and beautiful woman she became.  She has overcome many personal tragedies in her lifetime, surviving residential school and dealing with death of her husband at a young age.  She carried herself through life with great dignity and humility and went on to raise her three children on her own.

 

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Melvina McGregor was born on March 20, 1917 on the Spanish River Reserve (Sagamok).  She is the daughter of my great-grandparents, Jossette Fournier and Louis McGregor.  She is my grandmother's sister.  The photograph on the left was taken in the early 1920s.  Melvina is the young girl in the white dress on the extreme right.  She is posed with the family of Steven Buzwa.  Steven Buzwa was my great-grandmother's half-brother.  The photograph on the left was taken just before she was forced to attend Residental School.  She is holding her older sister Margaret's son, Leonard Carr. 

 

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By the time she was six years old, Melvina was taken away to the St. Joseph's Residential School in Spanish, Ontario.  The photograph on the left was taken by my grandmother who was visiting Melvina with my father around 1923.  The residential schools were legislated under the Indian Act, 1876 and funded by Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa.  They were run under the auspices of various religious denominations, whose primary purpose was to assimilate Indians into mainstream society. They were vocational schools based on religious indoctrination, where boys were taught trades and girls were given domestic training.  Indian language, culture and spirituality were prohibited, and children were not allowed to leave.  Melvina remembers the boys were separated from the girls, and she was only allowed a few minutes a week to see her brother, who was in the next building.  She said many children tried to escape from the school, but were always brought back and severely disciplined.  My father remembers, as a young boy, standing on shore of Aird Island with my grandmother, watching, as his uncles George and Clayton rowed towards them in a wooden boat.  My grandmother said they were running away because the priests were abusing them.  Melvina remembers that during the winter, they were not allowed access to coats to prevent them from escaping.  She distinctly remembers one night waking up and noticing the bed opposite her empty.  In the morning, she looked out the window, and saw the priests coming towards her across the snow covered field.  They were carrying the frozen body of the young girl who had tried to escape.  

 

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After leaving the Residential School, she worked at various domestic jobs, cleaning rooms and doing laundry at tourist lodges and mining camps.  When the Second World War broke out, she had moved to Hamilton, Ontario, finding work with Connaught Photo Studios, hand-colouring photographs.  In the photograph on the left, Melvina is the young woman working as a domestic in a boarding house in Skead, Ontario.  In the photograph on the right, she had just returned home from Hamilton to visit her family.  Melvina is on the extreme right, her sister Margaret's son, Leonard Carr is in the center, and her younger sister Pearl is on the left.

 

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Melvina met and fell in love with Wallace Jordan.  They were married in 1945.  In the photograph, Wallace is on the right, Melvina in the center and her brother, Duncan McGregor, on the left.  They had three children; Linda, Joanne and Barry.  Melvina and Wallace bought some property on Manitoulin Island near the West Bay Reserve.  Only seven years into their marriage, tragedy struck.  He suffered a massive heart-attack and died.  Melvina was left alone to raise their three children.

 

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Melvina never remarried.  She raised her three children on a small pension and took work whenever she could.  She lived in close proximity to her extended family.  My grandmother and father helped out, but she was a resourceful and independent woman.  She devoted her entire life to raising her children, and gave them everything a mother could possibly give.  Wallace's family also remained close to Melvina and their grandchildren.  Despite the obvious difficulties facing a single mother in the 1950s, she persevered, giving her children love, care and guidance.  Linda, Joanne and Barry all grew up, and they remain very close to their mother.  In the photograph on the left, Barry is on the right, Joanne in the center and Linda is on the left.

 

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In 1985, Melvina returned to the St. Joseph's Residential School for a reunion.  The school officially closed down in the 1960s. The boys school remains standing, but the girls school was gutted by fire several years ago.  It was an extremely difficult journey for my great-aunt to make.  She was accompanied by her daughter Linda and sister-in-law Annie.  The Anishinabai writer Basil Johnston was there, and he had just release his book, Indian School Days.  Together they toured the building.  She saw the sinks, where they washed up in the morning with cold water; the desks where they sat in silence;  the chapel were they prayed for mercy;  and the tin embossed ceilings that she stared up at every night.  Today, Melvina is the oldest female survivor of the St. Joseph's Residential School.  Although she was never sexually abused, the memories of loneliness and isolation and the cries in the night are still entrenched in her memory.

 
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This photograph of three sisters was taken in the early 1980s.  Melvina is in the center, Mary is on the right, and Margaret is on the left.  Three sisters who have endured much in their lifetime and have lived to see tremendous change during this century.  At the age of eighty-two, she is the last surviving sibling of my great-grandparents.  I respect and honour her for the great sacrifices she has made in her lifetime, and the inspiration she continues to give me today.  She is a kind, loving and gentle woman, who maintains a great sense of humour, despite the circumstances surrounding the early years of her life.  My great-aunt continues to carry herself with great dignity and humility.  She is loved by her extended family, children and grandchildren.  She is a strong and independent woman, whom I respect and love very much.  My great-aunt is truly an inspiration and has taught me the true essence of humility: understand and accept yourself as a sacred part of Creation.