Inez Bardahl (1918-2004) (52 Ancestors 2020 Week 35) Theme: "Unforgettable"

My aunt Inez Louise Bardahl ("Inee") was born on her mother's 37th birthday and was given her mother's name as her middle name. For the remainder of her mother's 103 years, the two often celebrated their birthdays together. Inee's birthday was unforgettable and all who knew Inee will attest to her being a delightfully unforgettable person! 

Inee and her mother Louise celebrating a birthday probably 1980s

Inee was the youngest of the six daughters born to John and Louise Bardahl. Two brothers would follow over the next few years. The family of 8 children grew up on the Bardahl homestead farm north of Swift Current, Saskatchewan. I spent the first 10 years of my own life in that little two-bedroom home and always have a difficult time figuring out how 10 of them managed to fit inside. 

John and Louise Bardahl family 1946 (colorized)
Inez seated beside her mother, front right

Inee was the only petite dark-haired brunette in a family of fairer-haired lanky Norwegians and one gets the sense that she sometimes felt she didn't belong. There are even a couple of family photos where she's taken scissors to cut herself right out of the picture! (It was often said that I resembled my aunt Inee; also being the shortest and the only brunette among my taller fair-haired siblings, I can likewise attest to sometimes wondering if I belonged!)

An example of Inee having removed herself from a family photo

Inee's Confirmation Photograph

On the 20th of September 1941, Inee married Robert ("Bob") McMurdo in Edmonton, Alberta. The couple, sadly, never had any children of their own, but were widely adored by nieces and nephews - and children in general.  

Inee and Bob

Inee and Bob were usually just a lot of fun and were always playing good-natured tricks and enjoying a good laugh, but never in a mean way or at anyone else's expense. Hamming it up in photographs was a common theme over the years.

 

My cousin Roger remembers Inee well from the time of the Second World War in Regina, Saskatchewan. The men were away serving in the war effort and Inee would come to help his mother care for her five young kids. Inee would always bring cookies or other treats and enjoyed spending time with the children. 

After the War, Inee and Bob moved to Edmonton, Alberta where he was a driver for Woodwards' Department Store and Inee worked as a meat cutter with the neighbourhood butcher. (This was news to me!)

Cousin Roger tells how Inee was the only family member who ever came to watch him play football. She made a point of showing up whenever he was playing in Edmonton for the Calgary Junior Broncs in 1954 and 1955. She really loved a lot of sports and in her later years had a huge-screen television set for watching the games. 

Inee worked as a Comptometer operator for Palm Dairies Ltd. in Vancouver in the early 1960s. (The Comptometer was an early version of a calculator; according to a glowing letter of reference from her employer in 1963, her work related to the computation of ice cream drivers' sheets and receipts of sales.) She continued in a similar occupation for many years with Simpsons Sears; I recall her working in the office at its North Hill Store on 16th Avenue N.W. in Calgary, Alberta in the later 1960s. 

Inee with brother Jim and mother Louise 
on Stephen Avenue, Calgary c1951

Although generally very well turned out, Inee enjoyed dressing up in costumes as well.

Inee on the right with her sisters

Her sense of humour was often in evidence. She was an excellent joke-teller and loved a good laugh. She would often dress as a clown or pull a trick on someone, catching them completely unaware.

Inee with her siblings (except for oldest sister Joetta) 1992 Family Reunion
She is decked out in hat and oversize orange sunglasses, pink shorts set, 
and orange striped socks offset by the contrasting shoes! (And what is she holding behind her back???)

Aunt Inee was very artistic and excelled at a variety of crafts. She taught me to make tiny intricate flowers using a clay made from McGavin's bread, of all things. I remember this because we NEVER had store-bought bread at our house and it seemed impossible to locate a loaf of the stuff! 

Inee was a cake decorator of renown. My recollection is that one of the families that she did many cakes for over the years was the musical Carter family (Johnny Cash and June Carter). 

All of these things made Inee who she was, but it fails to give a true sense of her playfulness. Cousin Roger recalls how she delighted in Christmas and, along with husband Bob, put on spectacular displays in her home that always attracted a lot of attention. She made many of the ornaments herself and added to her collection each year. An electric train went around the tree, and over the years she would add more and more track until it went around the room. She would start to decorate her entire home very early; over the years, her Christmas Season was extended to last from October 15 to March 15! 

She gave me one of her giant glass ornaments which I treasure and remember her by each Christmas when it takes a special place in our tree, although, unlike Inee's,  our tree always comes down the first week of January. 

Bob predeceased her in 1995. She continued to live in Turner Valley where they had made a big circle of friends of all ages. Inee died in 2004 at the age of 86. A celebration of Inee and Bob was held on 10 July 2004 in Okotoks, Alberta, the card for which indicated that  "As Inee had wished, because of their renowned love of Christmas, their ashes shall be scattered together beneath two Christmas trees, west of Turner Valley."

Inee won't be forgotten by anyone whose life she enhanced. That certainly includes her nieces and nephews, several of whom were happy to share their memories of her with me - thank you, Sandy, Louise and Roger. Three cheers for Aunt Inee!