Heritage: My Younger Brother and Sister

by Annie Coleman (Kerr) Sexton, published in Stanton Stats February 17, 1995

My only brother, Walter, who was two years younger than I, was a studious, very religious boy and the joy of my parents’ hearts. At the age of twenty he was studying Grade 12 in Deloraine and, for some reason I’ve never known, he took his own life. Mother was terribly upset and thought it was a judgement on her for leaving the Catholic church. Father had to conceal his own bitter grief to console her.

[My sister,] Sue, was a happy child, but, until she was fourteen she had bronchitis every winter. She was always a good sewer, learned dress making and worked with a lady in Deloraine for awhile. She felt the urge to go out in the world and went to Winnipeg where she sewed in a fur shop. A friend from Boissevain, D. L. McLachlan, was also in Winnipeg and their friendship culminated in marriage. He was a mail clerk on a train but later left it to follow horse races. That became the life work of them both. Their family consisted of three sons and one daughter.