National Adult Literacy Database

March 23, 2009

This week, we have a story from Thunder Bay, Ontario. The Learner, Susie, is a mother of four children – two boys and two girls. She has five grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. They bring her a lot of joy. Susie is a residential school overcomer who loves to bring joy to all walks of life, and she loves to help people. Susie is enrolled in literacy classes at Thunder Bay Literacy Group Adult Learning Centre.

The Day I Went To Residential School

by Susie

I vaguely remember two people a man and a woman coming to our house and talking to my parents. I was about six or seven years old. The next thing I knew was my mom putting my jacket on, she was crying but did not say anything to me. I remember the man taking me by the arm and taking me to a car also the woman was pulling me, I was crying and trying to get back to my mom I did not want to go with these people. I don't recall if the man was a priest and the woman was a nun all I knew was I did not want to go.

When I got to the car, there was another child in the back seat. I remember riding for a long time, I was crying off and on, eventually crying myself to sleep. The next thing I remember was being shaken awake to be brought into this big huge house and taken to this big room where there were lots of beds, she took me to a bed where I was to sleep. I remember I was hungry and thirsty and I was afraid to say anything for fear that I would get hit as they were very rough when they were taking us in the house, I do wish I could remember who this other child was as I often thought about her. However when you are a child and have been taken away from your parents it is a traumatic experience. Also it felt like we were riding forever, I remember feeling scared and lonely thinking that I will never see my mom again. I remember having to go to the bathroom during the night but was afraid to get up as I was scared to make noise also I did not know where the washrooms were till the next day. The next morning we were woken up with a bell and had to get ready for breakfast but before we were to go we had to make our beds, and leave everything tidy. (There was this one time I forgot to fold my blanket and was taken back to my bed I was pulled by the ear. This was done in front of the other children I remember feeling scared and lonely for my mom. I wanted to go home and see my mom.)

I followed the other children to go for breakfast and there were a lot of other kids there. I remember trying to eat a bowl of sticky porridge it was so sticky that I felt like throwing up when I tried to eat it. I remember I could not eat it, as for punishment I wasn't allowed to eat anything until suppertime.

I am not sure how long I was there the only thing is I wanted to go home and see my mom. I remember it was summer time when I got home and that was the happiest day of my life, I was with my mom once again.

After that, this incident was never brought up again by neither of my parents. I tried asking but never got any answers. I always wondered why I was one of the siblings that were taken from my parents.

After that, I was enrolled to Indian Day School.

[This story was taken with permission from Plain Language, January 2008, published by the Thunder Bay Literacy Group Adult Learning Centre.]