They fell in love decades after attending the same residential school. Now they're preserving the history
CBC
Warning: this story contains distressing details.
A couple who reconnected, fell in love and got married decades after being at the same residential school are now sharing their stories to make sure the truth of what happened is never lost.
It's been more than 30 years since Tony Stevenson and Marcie McArthur-Stevenson were classmates at the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School (QIRS) in Lebret, Sask. Open from 1884 to 1998, it was one of the longest running residential schools in Canada.
McArthur-Stevenson first went as a Grade 3 student in 1979, when she was eight. Stevenson came to the school as a Grade 5 in 1981, when he was 12 years old, and was in the same class as McArthur-Stevenson's older sister.
After they left the school, they travelled different paths.
McArthur-Stevenson moved to Brandon, Man., and started a family. She had two boys and two girls.
"When I graduated, I never looked back, I never talked about anything," McArthur-Stevenson said.
Stevenson went to university, but said the trauma stemming from sexual abuse he suffered at the Lebret school caused him to spiral and he didn't finish.
"Unfortunately, I was going through a rough time, a rough patch in life, because I went to the Crown prosecutor to press charges against the pedophile that I'd come across, who was an employee of the residential school," Stevenson said.
"It caused a lot of dysfunction with my growing up."
After decades apart, Stevenson and McArthur-Stevenson met again in 2017, when he came to see her father in the hospital to help the older man appeal his residential school settlement claim.
Stevenson's mom and McArthur-Stevenson's dad had also attended the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School.
"I was waiting there with dad and [Stevenson] walked in. He just looked at me and he's like, 'Marcy. Little Marcy,' because I was small in school," McArthur-Stevenson said with a laugh.
Stevenson was working as an agent for two law firms in Regina that were acting on behalf of survivors. He said he came across many fellow residential school classmates through the process.
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