Ferrell (Gamble) Haug

Sundre

Description

Life and Work

With her mother and 11 brothers and sisters, Ferrell Gamble watched as the Stoney Indians approached her childhood home in the Nitchi Valley.

Regular visitors to the Gamble home, the Stoney people - including women with infants on cradleboards and older children on ponies - came to trade. More often than not, they came in for tea and something to eat. The rules of hospitality reigned at the Gambles' isolated homestead.

Ferrell never forgot those early lessons of sharing and accepting the other. "Learn to love your neighbour and your family. I don't believe a person could say more than that."

From the Bergen District, Ferrell writes the local news column, gardens, cooks and cares for the sick. During WWII, she worked in Edmonton as "Rosie the Riveter," the generic title given to women whose light touch made them excellent welders of aircraft aluminum.

She works with Ladies' Aid, the Women's Missionary Society, and the Sundre Thrift Shop. She brings flowers to the Bergen Missionary Church on Sundays and then greets the congregation.

Ferrell says, "We're promised three score and 10 years ... every moment after that is a bonus and I love every moment, every sunrise, every sunset"

Memoirs

Memories of Ferrell Haug by Bev Cheesmur

I've always said that every community needs "a Ferrell." She's gracious in answering questions, remembering events otherwise long forgotten, identifying birds ... she inspired us in living with four generations under her roof- an aging mother, two teenaged sons and a young grandson.