Above is a picture of Cathy Lewis, Sue's friend at Algonquin College, Heron Park Campus. Cathywas from Chipman, New Brunswick. Cathie and Sue were good friends. Cathy lives in Alberta now
as far as Sue knows. Sue was 19 years old. Sue got her secretarial diploma from Algonquin College
in 1975 and started a job after two weeks of graduating and worked for the Surgeon's General's
Branch, National Defence in the Jelnor Building on Nepean Street in Ottawa. Major J.P.D. "Robbie" Robinson was her boss. Sue was the civilian secretary for the adminstrative branch.
Above is a picture of Fred Wegner, Sue's first husband taken in 1980 in the summer. Fred won$25,000 in the Cash for Life Lottery. This picture was taken at Fred's workplace at Lemieux Island
Purification Plant in Ottawa where he worked as a gardner (horticulturist) Fred was 47 years old.
Above is a picture of Manfred Wegner, Fred's oldest son taken in the late 70s. Manfred was a teenager.
Above is a picture of Fred and Sue Wegner on their wedding day in November 1975 in Ottawa.
Above is a picture of Manfred Wegner, Fred Wegner's son, he is in the background standing upin a white shirt.
Above is a picture of Walter Wegner, another son of Fred Wegner. Walter did not like his picture being taken.
Above is a picture of my first husband Fritz "Fred" Wegner taken in our townhouse on
Woodridge Crescent taken in the 1977 . I gave Fred a nice pocket watch for his birthday and he is looking at it in this picture. Above on the all is a picture of Fred and me geting married in 1975.
Near Fred are bottles of alcohol. Fred was an an alcoholic.
I got out of Brockville Psychiatric Hospital in September of 1973 and a social worker from Ottawa came to pick me up and drive me to Ottawa to the Margeurite home a half way house for women who came out psychiatric hospitals which was on Cathcart Street and run by a nun named Irene Despards.
Sister Irene was a huge woman with a big booming voice. She could be very happy and nice most of time. Sometimes Sister Irene could be nasty and get into a bad mood sometimes. She was just a regular person trying to do her job the best she knew how.
I remember sitting at the big table for supper. The group home probably housed 7 women including myself. We would have big hearty meals and there would lots of laughter at the dinner table.
Sister Irene would having all of us laughing. She was French-Canadian. I cared about Sister Irene, she was good person. We had all had turns to do dishes at the house. When it was my turn to do dishses I would go upstairs to my private room - I had a private room because I snored something awful. I would hear Sister Irene yell "Suzanne, come down and do your dished tonight". She would
laugh and say I was trying to hide in my room and not do my chore and she was right. I would hand my head down on my cheat and apologize to her. She would wrap one of her arms around me and tell me go to ahead and start doing the dishes. I had lots of dishes to do but I did a good job and got those
dishes spanking clean.
I felt sleepy most of the time as I was taken heavy doses of psychiatric medication. I would go upstairs after supper and most times would fall fast asleep. I had gained lots of weight and I was about 40 pounds overweight. I did not like how I looked at all. I looked bloated too.
I called Sayed Shelbaya on his job, my old Eyptian boyfriend and we started to go out again. He would pick me up at the group home and one night I got home late past the curfew. Sister Irene asked that I come into her office and she gave me a good tongue lashing. I was humilitated when she started to
accuse me of Sayed and I having a torrid affair. It was none of her business and I told her so. Shet told me in no uncertain terms if I did not like the rules I could pack up soon and find another place and I did. I called my Aunt Olive, my mother's sister who had roomers who lived at 951 Alpine Ave near
Lincoln Fields Shopping Center. My aunt picked me up at the group ohme and my few boxes of belongings. I said goodbye to Sister Irene and the girls at the group home. I had only lived at the
group home for a few months. I was happy to leave but I would miss some of the women who lived there as some of them had become some of my good friends.
My aunt Olive had a nice bungalow on Alpine Ave. Her son Dow lived with her and he was about the same age as me. Olive had one or two roomers. She had a bedroom downstair in the basement. Olive was married to Johnny Burns but they split up in the late 60s. Uncle Johnny had a pet monkey and it did its business everywhere and Aunt Olive did not like that. Johnny named his son Dow after the beer. Aunt Olive worked at the Carlingwood restaurant as a waitress for years. Johnny and Olive met overseas during the war. They had a daughter named Patricia "Patsy" and then had a son named Dow. Uncle Johnny could play the accordion. Johnny moved out of the house at Alpine and took up with a lady named Dot who worked at the Bay in the restaurant another waitress. He eventually married her. Aunt Olive did not date and she liked it that way.
Aunt Olive was a hyper woman who was always on the go. She come home and once a month she would take the tips out of her trunk and put them on the kitchen table and there was a mountain of coins. Olive was a good waitress and she had her regular customers who would come in to see her.
She paid for Dow to have golf lessons and he won an Ontario golf award once, and paid for his college as well. She spoilt Dow. Patsy had a more difficult time in life. She got pregnant as a teenager and giave up her son Tyrone. She then met an American Service man named Robert "Bob"Rodney and then they got married and had a daughter named "Venus" Dow named his niece after the planet Venus.
The war in Vietnam was still going on when Bob got married to my cousin Patsy. He volunteered to go to Vietnam as he was an American citizen. Patsy and Venus lived off of Scott street in a rundown apartment while Bob was away in Vietnam. He never sent his wife any money and Patsy went on
social services. Patsy did not care for Venus very well. She did not care to her baby's diaper rash
and the baby's bottom was always scarlett red. She let her baby run around on the cold tile floor with nothing on in the middle of winter in her drafty apartment and the baby got pneumonia. Her house was filthy and a mess. Her apartment stunk of dirty diapers. Her mom Olive helped her with food.
Eventually Bob came home and he had Post Trauma Stress disorder. He went to Olive's house one night when he got back from Vietnam. Venus was a toddler and sleeping on a double bed when he went into the bedroom with the light closed and took a baseball bat and started striking the walls.
Thank goodness he missed his toddler laying on the bed. He had emotional problems when he came back from Vietnam. Bob and Patsy moved to Belgium and other place in Europe. Pasty and Bob
eventually got divorced. Patsy moved in with a purple heart decorated soldier from Vietnam and he lived in Texas in a trailer with no air conditioning. Patsy got pregnant with this man's baby and he
eventually told her to go home and he would come and get her and he never did. Patsy had her baby
girl Medea in Ottawa. Medea's father was never heard of again. Patsy lived with Venus and Medea
on Stewart Street in a large three floor townhouse. One of her boyfriends Roger lived with her for a while. I lived with Patsy on and off when I had separated from my first husband Fred. Patsy would knit and crochet beautiful afghans and dresses and sweaters and sell them to people in her community.
Pasty was fun to be around. I went to a parade with once in Sandy Hill and I had a riot. I dressed up like a clown and Patsy was dressed up like Raggedy Ann. Patsy had a good heart and was kind.
Patsy did not drink alcohol and did not take street drugs. She was a square like me. She lives in
British Columbia now as does her brother. Aunt Olive retired to Hot Harrison Springs and had a
pizza parlour out there that did not do too well. My cousin Dow changes his name to George.
I would like to contact Pasty "Tricia Rodney" as she likes to call herself and I would like to contact
George Burns. I lost track of them. Pasty apparently had breast cancer. Venus and Medea her
daughters live out in British Columbia too. Patsy was good to me.
Well I moved into my Aunt's house when I was l8 years old. I had just left the group home run by the nun named Irene Despards. In March of 1974, my aunt Olive and my cousin Patsy and I went to the Bayshore hotel for a few drinks, to have an evening out.
I was sitting with my aunt and cousin when a tall man with blond hair and glasses came by. For some strange reason, I said to the man "sit down, I want to talk to you, and he did". I liked his smile and he was good looking, tall and slim. He bought me a drink and then we started to dance and then he asked me to his apartment and I did. He lived on Pinecrest Ave on the corner of Carling Ave.
He had two sons living with him. When we got to his apartment, he woke up his two boys and said I have a girl over here. He was quite proud he had a girl with him. Fred asked to me to show him some ID, he thought I was younger than 18 and I showed him some ID. I was l8 years old going on 19 years old. Fred was 42 years old. He was a real gentleman and walked me home to Pinecrest Ave.
He called me and then invited me to supper. He cooked a big roast and I ate most of it, as I was
really hungry and he could see that.
I was living on 60 dollars a month for food. I paid my aunt Olive 60 dollars rent, my welfare cheque was $120. a month. I never told Fred this as I thought he would judge me if he knew I was on welfare. I told her I worked for the City of Ottawa as a planner. Fred never said anything but I knew he knew that was not true. We started dating and I liked him a lot.
My mom bought me a black coat that looked shabby so Fred bought me a nice beige coat to look nice.
He took me under his wing so to speak and treated me like a little princess. Fred spoilt me to some
degree you could say. I feel in love with him. After a few months, I moved in with him and his sons Manfred and Walter into an apartment at 370 Forest Street on the 2nd floor.
I started to go to Heron Park College part of Algonquin College off Bank Street. I went there from May 74 - 75. I took a secretarial degree and got top marks.
In April in 1975, two weeks after my graduation, I got a job at National Defence at the Jelnor Building on Nepean Street in Ottawa. I worked for the Surgeon General's Branch. Major J.P.D. "Robbie" Robinson was my boss, the right hand man to the Surgeon General who was then Admiral Roberts. After Admiral Roberts, was General Leach.
I was the secretary for the Admin department. Eleanor Faulkner was the clerk for the St. John Ambulance. Len Turner was a clerk, and Chief Warrant Officer Ballantyne was our 'chief". Chief was a soft spoken overweight man. He was very patient with me as I started my new job. He was the nicest boss I ever had. The major was a hyper man who smoked all the time. I would take dictation in his office and he would have one cigarette in the ashtray burning and then ligth up another one. His nerves were shot.
The Major always wanted his work done right away. He would write out his letters using a pencil and using a ruler to make sure the lines were straight. The major was neurotic and was always changing his letters. I would retype the same letter with minor changes a few times. He asked me to correct his grammar which I did. He was strict but he was fair most times. He and his wife adopted a little boy as they tried to have a chiild of their own to no success. As his little boy's adoption papers were being
prepared, his wife got pregnant and they had a daughter. His two kids were cute. Sonja and Mark
His wife was a nice woman. One day I was taking dictation and his wife called him and said she had a car accident. His wife said she was ok and so were his kids. His pen flew out of his hand and landed on top of my dictation book. His car was totalled but he was happy his family was not hurt.
Fred and I got married in November 1975 in a civil ceremony by Rev Good at his house near Ottawa.
Fred was there with two friends and my brother Chris was there too. I invited my brother over the night before to make sure he got to my wedding on time. We drove up in a car. It is snowing a little bit. I had on a beautiful autumn chiffon dress and I had gone to the hairdresser in the morning at Lincoln Fields Shopping Center to get my hair done and I had little lilies of the valley in my hair.
I looked beautiful. I was so happy to get married, I was in love and had lots of hope for a good future.
My dreams were about to shatter very soon in my marriage.
Fred and I had a nice wedding reception at our apartment on Forest St. Manfred, my stepson bought
our wedding cake a three tier white cake at his job where he worked at the Britannia Bakery at the
Britannia Plaza. It was so nice of Manfred to do that. Walter was there too and helped out. One of
Fred's friend's wife came over that morning and helped to prepare some food. Fred looked happy and he drank alot at our wedding reception.
Fred and I got nice gifts and his co-workers gave us a lovely comforter for our bed. Fred and I had quite the mess to clean up after the reception. One of Fred's friend's wives had taken the lower tier of the cake to put away in a freezer for us.
Fred could be so charming you wanted to be around him all the time. When Fred drank he became a mean drunk who talked about World War II and that he was a teenager in Berlin who was forced to participate in the Nazi Youth. Fred' was born in Berlin, Germany. His father was a colonel in the
calvary. His mom was a housewife. Fred had siblings.
Fred's job in the Nazi Youth was to be on the fire brigade duty. He would pull people out of burning buildings after the bombs were dropped by the allied forces. He and some others in fire bridgade
would put the dead people in the middle of the street and pour lye on them to stop the prevention of disease. He would talk about all of this when he was drunk and he said he missed his family who he had not seen for years in Berlin because of the Berlin Wall separating East Berlin and West Berlin.
His family lived in East Berlin.
Fred was a German border guard patrolling the Berlin Wall on the East German side. Fred escaped to West Germany. He had to fight to get into Berlin Wall. Something awful happened and he said some people were badly hurt but he would not elaborate. He was investigated by the West German authorities when he escaped from East Germany. He was allowed to live in West Germany.
Fred met a young German woman and married her and immigrated to Canada. Fred and his wife
lived on farm and Fred became a farm hand.
Fred got tired of being a farm hand and then started to build his own house in Limoges. He and wife
had their first baby boy named Manfred. Then they had another boy named Walter. Then he had a girl.
His wife eventually left him for an Austrian man and she had a son by him. His wife returned to him with her son and then Fred and his wife had their other two boys and daughter. They lived in Russell, Ontario. Fred worked in Ottawa and his wife worked for Loblaws as a big supervisor for the deli
department.
Fred did not drive, but his wife did. Fred abused his wife and then she left him for good and went to live with the Austrian man again and they moved to Austria with their own son.
Fred moved to 810 Pincrest Rd at the Olympia apartments in a two bedroom apartment. When I met Fred that is where he lived.
Fred was a very generous man. He would buy me clothes when I was first going out with him.
Fred loved to laugh too. We got along good for the first while.
