Growing up, “Mayme” Mary Elder Dudley was the figure I loved to learn about the most. My Gump, my paternal grandfather, has always been fond of his family history and his mother, so when I asked him about her he was happy to oblige. She was wonderful, he would say, always working on something for our family. She was one of the first farmers in Alberta Canada and ran that farm during the Great Depression. Mayme and her husband Wallace were kind people who helped to settle the small town of Magrath, Alberta. 

Magrath was a little farming town in the open plains of Alberta. There was not a tree to be found for lumber and the winters were cold and harsh. Strong winds were known to move through the valley and send the cold air right into your very soul. The coal mines were the only source of relief in those winters as the wood could not be spared for burning. Yet in those bleak conditions, Mayme and Wallace built something wonderful.

Mayme was an artist in every sense of the word. She spend much of her time sewing clothing for her children, painting the images that decorated their homes, sculpting, and writing poetry. She was the bedrock of culture and her work remains the the museum of the town’s founding. In my childhood home we had a large painting of Glacier National Park that she painted as she admired the beauty of the world. Her appreciation for those things, even in a barren land, nourished her family’s spirits. When she was not nourishing their spirits she nourished their bodies as she canned food and fruit storage that kept them healthy through those long bleak winters. 

When the Great Depression reached their little town, Mayme and Wallace found themselves in the need of a home.They were frugal, self sufficient, and very kind. Through great fortune and sacrifice they were able to move into a farm home with a well in the basement. It was very run down, and had a long way to go. They did not yet have electricity, and the car remained parked, but that home served them well.  With the help of some local boys they hired, Wallace and Mayme rebuilt that home from the foundation into something absolutely beautiful. Board by board, nail by nail they created a new layout that fit their large family, and allowed a little balcony to appreciate the land they lived on. 

Mayme was a powerful woman in every sense of the word and she continues to inspire me as well as the rest of her descendants through the stories my Gump, her last living child, shares with his descendants.