What's In a Name

by

Nettie Stadnyk

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"I want to be a farmer's wife," was the first sentence of my composition. It was 1928 and I was in Grade III. This was a homework assignment: What I want to be when I grow up.

I followed this rash statement with no details about a wife's work on a farm. Instead I wrote mainly about my future thrilling rides on a John Deere tractor which first appeared in our neighbourhood that year.

Unfortunately this "farmer's wife" was the brunt of teasing for years and years. SAD!

Thirty years later in Santiago, Chile, while I was visiting the zoo, I head a familiar voice behind me. "I know you. I can't remember your name, but aren't you the farmer's wife?

Well, I'll be damned! Must I carry this identity to my grave?