“My life began on a farm on Ninth Line at Snider’s Corners,” says Christena. It was a farm that her family rented in Trafalgar Township, and the place where she and her siblings (four brothers and two sisters) were born. She was the middle child of seven children born to Agnes and Joseph Forster.

“When I was five-years-old,” states Christena, “Mother gathered up us kids and we moved into a house behind Munn’s United Church.” The year was 1931. Agnes and her seven children (the youngest, a baby, and her oldest child, age nine), settled into a house just north of the church on the northeast corner of Sixth Line and Dundas Street, in an area known as Munn’s Corners. With financial support from Mothers’ Allowance and with careful planning, she explains, “My mother managed to feed us well and pay seven dollars a month rent for the house.” The house was heated by a wood stove, and the glow from an oil lamp provided dim interior lighting. But with such poor lighting, she says that it was difficult to study, so “homework had to be done right after school while there was still daylight.”

Another inconvenience, Christena recalls, was when her mother didn’t have a car. It was a few years before she acquired one. In the meantime, she states, “We had to walk to church.” Then she clarifies that they didn’t worship at the church next door, but rather at Knox Sixteen Presbyterian Church, on the east bank of the Sixteen Mile Creek, near Fourth Line. Christena clearly remembers Sunday mornings, and the long exhausting trek (about 2.5 kilometres) along the Dundas Street roadside to get to church — and back home again. She adds, “We always hoped that someone would stop and give us a ride.”

In the same year that her family moved to Sixth Line, Christena began her education at Munn’s School. It was a one-room brick schoolhouse with a grand arched entryway, and was located on the south side of Dundas Street, between Sixth Line and Seventh Line (now Trafalgar Road). Christena says that she enjoyed attending Munn’s, thanks largely to Mrs. Mannell, a matronly and experienced teacher. She was also the only educator who taught each one of the Forster children. Most of all though, Christena remembers Mrs. Mannell as a teacher who used kindness in the classroom.

“Yet my fondest memories,” Christena says, “are of the friendships during those years.” One such childhood friend, she points out, was Mary Hoey, who lived across the street from her. She adds, they “became great life-long friends.” Christena recalls that in those days, a favourite place to go with friends and siblings was to the Sixteen Mile Creek. They hiked and explored, and on hot summer days they swam in the waterway that snaked through the valley at the bottom of steep wooded embankments. And in the winter, they skated along the creek.

In 1935, “Mother bought a Ford automobile and learned to drive,” Christena says. It was life-changing for the family. “By this time, all of us children were attending school and Mother began to work at Bradley’s General Store on Seventh Line.” She also assisted Dr. Bremner with home births. Later, she “worked at Jacob’s Jam Factory on Randall Street and at Beardmore’s factory,” a fruits and vegetables dehydration plant.

At age 11, Christena was hired as a live-in babysitter for the Jennings family on William Street in Oakville. That fall, she became a student at Central School on Navy Street. “I lived with my employer, an army captain and his wife who was a nurse, and their two young children,” she says. Her duties were to “bathe the children, dress them in their jammies and put them to bed.” The Jennings family treated her well and she became quite fond of them. “I joined the family at meal times,” Christena adds, “as if I was one of their own.” Sunday was her day off — the only day of the week when she could travel the long distance to visit her mother. On these occasions, the children always wanted to go with her. “Sometimes they would cry when it was time for me to leave for the day,” she says. A few years later, when her mother moved to Brant Street, Christena would take the children with her on these visits.

While employed by the Jennings family, Christena gave her babysitting earnings to her mother. “It was my contribution to our family expenses,” she says, then pauses. “I think most of my siblings also contributed when they could.”

In the summer of 1941, “Mother purchased the two-story white clapboard house at 21 Brant Street from Nellie Hughes,” Christena says. “She paid $1,000 in cash!... It was necessary at the time for my brothers Bruce and Don to have title to the house. Six years later, to make things right, they sold the house back to Mom for ‘Love + $1.’” By then, Agnes Forster’s youngest child was 17 years old. Agnes would live in her Brant Street house for a total of 23 years.

When Christena’s live-in babysitting job came to an end, she decided to work full-time as a cashier at Loblaws on Colborne Street. But before being hired, she needed to get a work permit because at the time she was 15, and school attendance was compulsory until age 16. She was able to obtain one from Police Chief Kerr.

As a young woman, Christena “loved” to attend the local dances on weekends. These events largely featured home grown talent, and were held at Victoria Hall on Reynolds Street, the Royal Canadian Legion, and at Ortona Barracks. Admittance to the Ortona dances, however, depended on sponsorships by community groups. Christena was eligible to attend.

“In those days, according to my mother,” Christena says, then pauses, “it wasn’t proper to be chatting with war veterans on the street. Instead, my mother encouraged us to invite them into our home for a meal. On one occasion, a veteran from Saskatchewan stayed at our home for the entire weekend.” Several months later, “to our surprise, a turkey was delivered to our home for Christmas as a thank-you from the serviceman.”

Christena clearly remembers her first date with Bill, her husband-to-be. “It was in 1948,” she says, “and what a spectacular date it was!” She explains: “Our friend, Flying Officer Ken Marlatt, a flying instructor with the Royal Canadian Air Force, asked us if we might be interested in taking a flight to Ohio in his five-seater plane. Well, of course we were! So with friends Evelyn and Art Bullied as chaperones, we flew from Hamilton Airport to Dayton, Ohio to watch the Dayton Air Show.”

Two years later, on July 1, 1950, Bill and Christena married. By the following year, they were the first buyers of a plot of land on Maurice Drive and they began the ambitious project of building a house. “We hired experienced builders to help us, and received an overwhelming amount of assistance from family and friends,” she recalls. They lived with Christena’s mother until their house was partially built. “Then we decided to move into the basement of our new home while it was still under construction. We lived in that basement for four years! It had been our dream to build the house, and once completed, we enjoyed living there together for many years.”

Christena worked for a few employers over the years, including the Oakville Basket Company. Yet all the while, she recalls, “I had a yearning to go back to school. So, at age thirty, I enrolled at a school for hairdressing in Hamilton and became a hair stylist.” She enjoyed this work until retirement.

As she reflects on her life, Christena says, “My husband Bill and I had 67 wonderful years together and I take comfort in the memories of the life that we shared. Family — nieces and nephews have always played an important role in my life, and today, they continue to take good care of me.”

​Story told to and written by Patricia Stephenson