Percy Preston married Alice M Brown in 1909. At first the couple lived in the Wabamun area which was also their postal district. Their place was located north of the Old Wabamun Mine, one and one-half miles away and in the district of Rexboro. My parents lived there for a short time. I was born here in 1910. My father did some carpenter work; he built the original school house in the Smithfield area.
The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was extended from Stony Plain to Wabamun about 1911. The railway now permitted my family to move easily from Wabamun to Edmonton.
We went to Edmonton to live for a short while. My brother and sister were born in Edmonton in 1912 and 1914 respectively. We lost our brother when he was only a few months old. Father became finishing carpenter and worked at many types of carpenter work while living in the city. We eventually came back to the farm near Wabamun. Next, Father enlisted in the First World War, in 1916. He went overseas but he was never in the front lines, due to a hearing disability. Cecil Bowen stayed on the farm with Mother and the children during these years. Cecil was Mother's nephew.
We were visiting my uncle when the war ended; all the whistles blowing scared us terribly as we were only children.
There was no school at Rexboro as yet, so Mother took us to Edmonton where we attended Alex Taylor School.
We returned to Wabamun again. Later we progressed in Rexboro School as far as we could. We had a wonderful teacher at Rexboro named Miss Elizabeth Merryweather. She is still living in Edmonton and my sister Nora and I visit her periodically. Nora took her high school at Eastwood - I had earlier completed a business course at Alberta College. I only worked a short time before I took a holiday. It was at this time that I met my huband - John Edward Akins, whom I married in 1927.
Mother had left Wabamun in order that Nora could attend high school in Edmonton. Later my sister Nora married Roy William Akins, a nephew of my husband. Mother remained with Nora after her daughter's marriage. She had separated from Father since the end of the First World War. Mother was ill and in the hospital during part of her twilight years. I also helped to look after her until her death in 1965.
Father lived in Calgary for many years. Recently, he has been in hospital and in June, 1975, he should be celebrating his ninety-fourth birthday.