July 19, 1958 - Saskatoon

Deus Ex Machina

We’ve found a home—a real home—at last. The building inspectors came around a couple months ago and told us we would be evicted on July 1st. There was only one entrance and that was a fire code violation; water and mud were seeping into Jimmy and Ben’s room, too. I was searching frantically for a house. We found a good one down on Avenue W, but the owner wouldn’t rent it to us when he found out there would be 6 people. I came home crying. Wayne is in Winnipeg and I didn’t know what to do. One of Ernie’s classmates, Sam Wong, was over and asked me what was the matter. I told him and he assured me he’d find us a way out of it. I honestly didn’t know what he had in mind, but a few days later he returned with $3,000 and gave it to me, telling me to use it for a down payment on a house. He had talked to five of his friends and somehow got them to contribute 500$ each. They were all students but I supposed most of them came from well-off families. One of them is the son of the owner of Chan’s in Winnipeg.
I told Wayne to come back right away because we were going to buy a house. We found a nice two-storey place for 7,200 dollars on 27th Street and moved in right away. In the meantime Wayne has been able to find work at the new Golden Dragon because his cousin, a photographer in Watrous, knows Bing.