Florence Kaefer

At age five, in 1954, Edward Gamblin was sent to the United Church Residential School in Norway House and then to the Residential School in Portage la Prairie, where he continued until Grade 10. He left school at sixteen, but went back to finish Grade 12 and then carried on to the University of Manitoba. Edward became an addictions counsellor and a band counsellor, but most of all he was a musician. He sang for his people. Edward married Aurelia Monias in 1970 and they had six children. He died on July 27, 2010, just months after his beloved Aurelia.

Florence Kaefer (nee Pockett) was born in Spirit River, Alberta, in 1935. Florence graduated from Normal School in Tuxedo, Manitoba, in June 1954. For her first three years of teaching, she taught at the United Church Indian Residential School in Norway House, Manitoba; she taught for another three years at the United Church Residential School in Port Alberni, BC, where she met and married Gerd Kaefer, also a teacher. They had two sons, Ian and Glenn. In 1990, Florence completed thirty years of teaching in Courtenay, BC, where she still lives.