Remembering our roots ~ Lil Gustavsen

John Godsman
Times Contributor

 

Lil’s father Alfred Victor Fortemps was born in 1880 in Belgium, the youngest of a family of 10. His father Victor worked in the marble business, and insisted his family work with him. But Lil’s father had no interest in this type of work and left home at an early age, actually serving with the Belgian Army in the Belgian Congo, before coming to North America.
He arrived in Vermont in 1902, then moved to Quebec where he met and married Lil’s mother Maria Bergeron, who was part of a family of 14. By this time Dad was 22 years old, and Maria was 14 years old. They had five children, and Lil was the last, born in Regina on Nov. 23, 1919. Her father served 4.5 years with the Canadian Army in World War One, and after his discharge moved the family to Calgary, where he initially worked in the marble business, before the Soldier’s Settlement Board found him a quarter section of land at Lyalta, and they moved there. Dad had never been a farmer and had no idea how to go about it, but he persevered and they were able to live and work there for about 15 years.
Although Turner School was close to where Lil lived, she had to attend Cheadle Buttes School through Grade 5, before being sent back to Turner School for the next five years. In 1938, her family moved to Calgary, where Lil attended Crescent Heights High School until she graduated, then attended Normal School to become a teacher. On graduating she applied for a teacher’s position at Turner School where she taught for about a year. Some of the students she knew from previous years, and many were older than she was! For the next five years she taught at different schools in the surrounding districts, before getting married to Aksel Christian Gustavsen, a farmer from Standard, who was born in 1917. They had originally met when they both lived in Calgary, as he lived across the street! After their wedding in 1945, they moved to Hussar, where Aksel continued farming and Lil returned to teaching after their daughter Marlene was born. In later years, Marlene married Ken Hager, and this marriage produced two boys – Todd and Troy. Lil soon found that Grade 1 students had great difficulty reading, so she enrolled in Disabled Readers Courses at the University of Calgary. After one year, she moved to the University of Oregon to continue her studies, and graduated with a Bachelor of Education, and Master of Arts, for Disabled Readers, in 1969. On returning to Alberta, she was appointed Supervisor of the Specialized Reading Programme in the County of Leduc. In order for Aksel to accompany Lil, he rented the farm out and they both moved to Leduc, where Aksel was able to secure odd jobs in the area, as well as helping out at the Hussar farm as required. Lil thoroughly enjoyed her job and spent seven years in and around Leduc before moving to Standoff, where she provided assistance to teachers of First Nations children. But this project didn’t succeed because of differences of opinion in Tribal education. So in 1992 she decided to retire to Strathmore. But after only five months of retirement, the Superintendent of Golden Hills School District, Gary McKinnon, asked if she would come back and teach Distant Learning in this area. She accepted and worked for another five years.
In 2002, her husband Aksel passed away from a heart attack, and she retired again. Lil spent four years at Lambert Village, then moved to Wheatland Lodge after her daughter Marlene passed away from cancer in March 2015.
Since 2002, the town of Strathmore has grown to 13,200 residents. The number of schools has really increased, compared to Hussar where their school will soon close for good. She is amazed at the number of Senior’s Care Residences now available.