Sister Albertine....

Miss Sandy taught us Grade One. She was Native from the Williams Lake area. Really really nice lady. Mrs. Bowen taught us Gr. 3 and Miss Bowen, her daughter, taught us Gr. 4. Miss Bowen was our best teacher ever. She was so so nice. She was the one that took us up to the apartment at the new school one day to watch ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ with Peter O’toole in 1966.

Lejac Indian Residential School kept an apartment above the ‘new school’ which was sometimes occupied by teachers or other staff. When no one stayed there, some of the staff used it to watch TV or to relax.

I think Sister Henrietta taught us Gr. 6. Sister Susan was our Gr. 7 teacher for part of the year and then Mr. Toniatto. Brother McCormick taught us Grade 8.

By the late 1960s they started bringing in Subs (a substitute teacher) like Mrs. Kuziki from Fraser Lake.

Art was totally my favourite subject. A lot of us boys had our own drawing books which we drew in when in Rec Room. Especially in winter when it was too cold outside, they would let us stay inside and many of us younger boys used that spare time to draw in our drawing books. Ronnie Duncan of Tachie was a pretty good drawer. But the one to beat was Ron Solonas of McLeod Lake who really knew how to draw. I had my own drawing book and my favourite thing was drawing ‘cowboys and Indians’.....or tanks and stuff. I also made sure to keep checking other people’s stuff, to see what they were drawing, and that’s how I learned to draw, by watching others. Of course, all we used were pencils.

Then Dear John and Jimmie and them said if you think you can draw you haven’t seen Sister Albertine’s stuff. I asked them all about Sister Albertine. They explained that Sister Albertine is the Grade 7 teacher (this was in about 1967) and I was still in Intermediates back then. Ever since they told me that I always wanted to see her stuff. They said she even paints. Holy smokers anyway!!

Then one day, I think I was in Grade 5, and they sent us up to the Grade 8 class one day, along with all the other Senior classes (Grades 5, 6, 7 and 8) to study Art with Sister Albertine! I could not believe it!!! That was my dream....all my life, just to see her stuff!

She started by teaching all about how to do a ‘profile’ of a person’s face. And she explained the profile of a person’s face is when you look at a person’s face from the side, she was trying to explain it all for us....and maybe it was the look on our faces....finally she just turned around and went to the black board....and in one single motion drew the profile of a person’s face....on the board!! Holy smokers!! How did she do that? I couldn’t believe what I just saw! How she drew a person’s profile in one single motion without even lifting up her chalk or nothing! I never seen anyone do that before!

Later she explained to us perspective. And then she taught us all how to paint using water colors. I totally loved Sister Albertine. She was totally the best artist ever! Best I ever seen!

(To add to this story, I met Miss Sandy many years later while attending a gathering at the old St. Mary’s Mission school at Williams Lake in 1978. She came up to me and introduced herself and explained to me she was the one who taught me Grade One in 1963-64. I totally remembered her.)