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UPDATE: Senior hopes to find long-lost acquaintance from Weyburn

(Editor's note: readers have identified Audrey and her siblings as the Flaten family, confirmed by Audrey's sister, Bev Hansen.
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(Editor's note: readers have identified Audrey and her siblings as the Flaten family, confirmed by Audrey's sister, Bev Hansen. She notes that Audrey is living today in Morgantown, West Virginia; she became a nurse in Minneapolis, and married a doctor, and they had four children.)

Two teenagers shared a seat on a train ride from Chicago to Weyburn in 1947, and exchanged addresses at the trip’s end after sharing two days of conversation.

His name is Roger Haines, who at that time lived in Binghamton, New York, and her name was Audrey — no last name was provided.

Roger is now 91 years of age and is living in Nevada City, California, and he reached out to the Weyburn Review in the hopes of finding whatever happened to Audrey, or if anyone knows what family she was from.

Roger and his care-giver did a search online for information, but have not been to find her whereabouts as yet. They sent a copy of her letter to Roger, sent in November of 1947, and there were some clues in the letter.

At the time, Audrey was taking Grade 9 by correspondence, and attended a country school that only had 13 pupils.

Her oldest brother Norman was attending the University of Saskatchewan, in his third year taking agricultural engineering; a second brother, Glenn, was taking Grade 12 in Weyburn; a younger brother Delbert was in Grade 5, and a sister Beverly was in Grade 2. Both her younger siblings attended the same country school as her.

Audrey was the secretary-treasurer for a baby beef club (similar to 4-H), and they were planning to hold a pie social at Trossachs on Nov. 21. Her return address at the time was Box 1055, Weyburn.

Haines called the Weyburn post office to see if they had any records of who this belonged to, but was told there were no records prior to 1998 of box-holders.

“What brought this on is my wife of 70 years passed away,” said Haines in a letter, noting he went through her and his old papers and records. He found the letter from Audrey, and thought it would be good if they could be penpals again, but hasn’t been able to find any more information about her.

“Hopefully this can be a nice turn from our present pandemic pandemonium. It’s not a book, just a plea for pleasant information,” said Haines.

If there is any reader who recognizes who the family was from the siblings names and could pass along any information, contact Greg Nikkel at the Weyburn Review.