Following is an excerpt from Chapter Thirteen of Sarmem, Sara's Memoirs, a book written by Sally Froese Dyck of Leamington, ON 1998. Used with permission.

Finally everyone got over the flu and whooping cough and it was time to go to school. Margaret, Henry and Sara went to the Albertville School. Albertville consisted of Gerneral Store and a School. It was on the No. 18 highway between Leamington and Kingsville. It was two weeks before the Christmas holidays when they started school. The pupils had all exchanged names to buy a present for Christmas. What was the teacher to do? It wouldn't be nice if everyone exchanged gifts and the new pupils from Alberta got none. She asked the class if there was anyone who would exchange the name that they had and take a new one of the new pupil's names. Norman Bodel was sitting across from Sara and his hand flew up in a real big hurry.

"I will take Sara's name", he said. Sara was very pleased. Norman was so kind. He must want her as a friend. It was not until years later that she began to wonder if he had just been trying to get rid of the original name that he had picked. He owned a Sport Shop when he grew up and was still a kind and friendly man.

After Christmas Sara and Henry went to German School at the Leamington Mennonite Church every Saturday until they moved away. The people that lived in Kingsville would pick them up and take them along. Sara wondered what German School was all about. She remembered her first day at the church for Sunday School. She had come into the basement for Sunday School all excited, for she remembered how she had enjoyed learning about Jesus in Alberta. But, as she sat down on the front bench all alone (Margaret had gone to church and Henry was not about to sit with his sister, anyway, the girls sat on one side and the boys on the other) she looked around at the rest of the children. They were all staring at her. She looked at herself to see if she had put something on wrong, but didn't see anything the matter. The children continued to stare and none talked to her. Finally a lady came over to her. She was smiling!

"What is your name?", she asked. Sara said "Sara".

"Oh" she said, "How wonderful. That is my name too. How old are you?" When Sara told her that she was eight, Miss Wiens said, "You will be in my class and we will have two Saras. I'm sure we will be good friends".

Sara Wiens was a wonderful lady. She had made Sara comfortable when all the other children had only stared at her.

Sara enjoyed German School, but soon they moved away from Albertville and it was not convenient for them to go for awhile.

They moved to a large house on the Eighth Concession in Mersea Township. There were Mennonite families living here too. On one particular Sunday, the family was invited over to the John Dick's for the afternoon. It was April 9, 1939, a day which Sara was not about to forget. She was nine years old today. The parents were visiting inside but the girls were playing outside. It was a nice balmy spring day. Lena Dick came over to Sara and asked her to come and play with the rest of them, but Sara was just too shy. She just sat there, shaking her head. After much coaxing, Lena finally gave up and went to play with the other girls. Sara spent the rest of the afternoon watching them, but when they got home, she realized that Ma had been watching her from the inside of the house. "You have to learn to play with other children", she said. "You can't spend the rest of your life by yourself". Pa had the switch ready and the present for Sara was a spanking. Presents were not given on birthdays, neither were cakes baked. But there was a silly tradition. For every year that you were, your family was allowed to pinch you or pull your ears. Sara received no pinches, but a good lesson in how to win friends.

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