"holding fast to memories of summer"...

by Yolande Herman

I had a busy summer. I went camping with my daughter and my aunt Mary and Uncle Paul at Lac Ste. Anne at Alberta Beach. My other sister Evelyne and my brother Terry, they came from La Loche. It was great. I have gone for four summers to Lac Ste. Anne. I feel a lot better when I am there and I want to go back every year.

Years ago my grandparents and my parents used to go to Lac Ste. Anne from Turner Lake. They went by canoe to Buffalo Narrows and then by bus to Lac Ste. Anne. I stayed home and looked after the other eleven children (four brothers and seven sisters). They were away for seven days. I was only about seventeen and I was very, very busy looking after the children.

One time my mum and grandparents went to Lac Ste. Anne by canoe and I was alone with the kids at Frobisher Lake. All the people that lived there had moved to another place and my dad had gone fishing for three days. My brother was sick, so I sat up all night in the tent with a candle. I could hear the wolves crying. When I think about it, it seems kind of scary, but at the time I wasn't afraid.

In the morning, I went down to the lake and sat on a rock with my brother. It was so quiet and I was listening for my dad's motor. Finally he came back. We moved to the place where the other people had moved. When my mum came back, my mum and dad took my brother to Buffalo Narrows to the hospital. He was ok.

I always wanted to go to Lac Ste. Anne when I was young. I finally got there in 1990 after I moved to Edmonton.