Convent school was well-known

From our February 2013 issue

By Lauren (Lebeau) MarcqWinnipeg, Man.

Before the advent of consolidated schools, the convent boarding school of Ste. Marie, Bruxelles was well-known – nestled in a small town that could have rivalled an Alpine village, located approximately 100 miles southwest of Winnipeg.

Boarders came from near and far, some of them from P.E.I. and New York. I came from the family farm, about 15 miles away near the town of Glenora. The principal, Mother Angela, also hailed from the Maritimes.

The convent consisted of two, three-storey buildings with corridors linking the two buildings on the main floor and also on the top storey.

The kitchen and dining room were on the main floor, the classrooms and chapel on the second, and the dorms on the third floor.

I took Grades 11 and 12 with some of my siblings joining me for my last year. I graduated in June 1945, along with Sister Mary DePape and Armandina (DePauw) Cornock.

It was probably the smallest Grade 12 class in the school’s history perhaps because WWII was going on at that time. There was very good enrollment in the preceding classes.

Unfortunately, Bruxelles Convent was destroyed by fire in 1954.

 

Bruxelles Convent in an undated photo.

 

 

At Graduation in 1943 are Armandina (De Pauw) Cornock, Sister Mary Depape, and Lauren (Lebeau) Marcq

 

Undated photo of Bruxelles Church with a rainbow following a rain.


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