CANORA - Pauline Schinborn had a special party for her 100th birthday on June 18 at Rainbow Hall in Canora with 46 family members in attendance. Among those joining her to mark this special occasion was her only surviving sibling, her sister Rose Konjolka of Sturgis.
Pauline, daughter of John and Pearl Lutzko, was born on June 20, 1922, according to information provided by her family. She was the third child in a family of seven. She was raised on the family farm near Goodeve and attended Robert School. After she left school, Pauline stayed at home on the family farm and helped with the work. She then worked for a farm family in the Balcarres area.
On January 27, 1941 Pauline married Joseph Schinborn. They took up farming in the Tullymet municipality, south of Ituna, where they farmed for four years. They later sold the land and bought a farm in the Hazel Dell area.
Pauline and Joseph had a family of nine – four boys and five girls: John, Leona Wolkowski, Joanna Langille, Rosanne Heimark, Lawrence, Leonard, Clarence, Annette and Teresa Born.
Pauline Schinborn has five grandchildren: Carey, Dwayne, Jeffrey, Tanis and Ashley, along with two adopted grandchildren, Naomi and Michael. She has five great-grandchildren: Logan, Walker, Priah, Jessie and Matthew.
Life on the farm at Hazel Dell was mostly hard work, continued the information. This included milking cows, gardening and canning to raise her children. Picking wild strawberries and wild saskatoons also helped. At the time there was no freezer to put food away for the long cold winter months. Everything was canned. There was a lot of butter to be churned and many loaves of bread to be baked.
Joseph Schinborn passed away on June 2, 1973. Pauline still had four children at home at the time. She remained on the farm for another five years. She worked hard planting a garden and harvesting the garden to feed her family. She still had a couple of cows that she milked to supply milk and butter for the family. Pauline didn’t have a driver’s licence so she had to be creative in finding ways to manage living two miles from town. She had arranged with one of the stores in town to have her grocery list phoned in and her groceries delivered. Her older children tried to be out there to help as often as they could.
Pauline then decided it would be easier for her if she moved off the farm. In 1978 she moved to Canora where her eldest daughter Leona lived. Pauline still had three children attending school. It was a big change for her to leave the farm and live in town.
However, she was now able to walk to a store and do her grocery shopping instead of depending on someone else to deliver them. She soon began to have an interest outside of her home. She was able to walk to the Bingo Hall and play bingo. This gave her a chance to be with other people. Later she took up bowling and enjoyed it very much. She has many trophies to show for her efforts.
There were many long evenings spent at home after the children had all graduated and left for lives of their own. Pauline filled in a lot of those hours with various projects. Puzzles were one of her pastimes.
But the one she is proudest of is her works of art. Pauline loved to quilt and has created some of her own patterns. Each child and grandchild has proudly displayed a quilt she made for them. She also enjoyed crocheting. Her huge chest of crocheted treasures from doilies to baskets to doll dresses “leaves one in awe of all the long hours of work,” according to family members.
Her cross-stitching is one hobby that she talks about and wishes she could still see well enough to continue. She has many such works of art framed for members of her family. Her first pieces were from books she bought but her later ones were of real-life items, such as her daughter’s house, an old tractor that still sits out at the family farm, and the grotto in Rama.
Pauline also enjoyed her trips to Yorkton with her daughter. They would stop at the casino. As much as she enjoyed trying her luck at winning, she also enjoyed meeting people. This was a place where she sometimes would see an acquaintance from home or a niece. She probably spent as much time talking to people as she did playing.
Pauline’s great-grandchildren found that they had a huge hockey fan. She tried to attend every hockey game that she could. She was proud of her great-grandchildren and wanted to attend sports events in which they participated.
Pauline was able travel across Canada. She travelled with Joseph by train to Hamilton, Ont. to visit with her son and daughter who lived there at the time, and she also visited with some cousins. They were able to fly back home, which was an exciting experience for them.
The following year her son took them to Joseph’s homestead in northern Alberta, and to visit with her oldest sister-in-law.
She spent time visiting with her children in Calgary on a number of occasions. She flew to Fort St John, B.C. to attend her youngest daughter’s wedding. A few years later she visited Fort St. John again to visit her daughter and also an uncle who was 98 years old.
She travelled with her son to Vancouver. She also travelled with her daughter and a friend to Vancouver and then up to William’s Lake, sleeping in the back of a pickup truck that had a topper, sleeping on a mattress and cooking on a campfire.
Having a large family allowed her to travel different places and see much.
Pauline’s mother Pearl passed away three months short of her 113th birthday. Pauline spent a lot of time helping her mother. She would spend months at a time helping with gardening and house work, until Pearl moved into the Ituna Lodge at the age of 103.
In the fall of 1985 Pauline moved into a home on Parker Crescent in Canora. This was her home for 36 years. She always planted a garden and was proud of her flowers.
Pauline later decided that living alone in her own home and trying to cook meals or depending on her children to help her was getting too difficult. She decided that she would like to move into a care home.
In January of 2022, Pauline moved into the Kamsack and District Nursing home. Since then, she often comments on how busy she is. She participates in any activities they have available and enjoys the care and respect she receives from staff. She is happy to call this her home.
Pauline and one of her daughters talked recently about the move. They looked at the changes in one’s life, from being a baby, to going to school, to getting a job, getting married, having your own family, losing a spouse, children leaving home, living alone, to one more change in moving to a care home.
It has been a positive change for her. She has adapted well and is looking forward to many more happy years, concluded information provided by her family.
