Rose-Marie Ariko is succinct when asked to describe her own personality.
“Decisive and motivated,” she says. “Type A.”
Looking back on the long-time Flin Flonner’s life, it’s difficult to argue with her.
Though her generation often saw women focus on child-rearing and domestic duties, Ariko, 75, spent more than half of her life as a proud career woman.
From Flin Flon to Winnipeg to northern Saskatchewan and back, she forged a strong reputation as a dedicated worker in industry, business and education.
“I believe in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay,” she says, her dark marble eyes glistening behind fuchsia-framed glasses.
Now well into retirement, Ariko still prides herself on a work ethic she inherited from her parents.
Steady Work
Louis Francois Doll and wife Maria moved to Flin Flon in 1939. Like most early residents, they were drawn to the fledgling community by the promise of steady work at HBM&S (now Hudbay).
Originally from France, Louis Francois was a pick-and-shovel miner grateful for a job at the tail end of the Great Depression. He had met Maria in St. Laurent, Manitoba, where both their families farmed.
Ariko, the first of three children in the family, was born in September 1941. The family lived in a small First Avenue home that offered few amenities other than a scenic view of Ross Lake.
Ariko still marvels at how during the summertime her father would walk from First Avenue to the family garden on the east side of Ross Lake, load up with vegetables and walk back home – a roughly four-mile round trip.
“And then Mom of course had to do all of the canning, and in today’s world, who cans?” she says.
The Dolls’ first vehicle was a brand new 1949 Dodge. When they took their first trip to Winnipeg, the car had to be transported by train to The Pas – the nearest link to the highway. It took another two days of driving on gravel roads to reach the capital city.
As a child, Ariko found countless low-tech ways to fill the days. She remembers children floating on homemade rafts across a flooded North Avenue Park each spring.
Then there were the warm summer days at Phantom Lake.
“My mom would give me a quarter and that bought me a hot dog and a drink, and I’d spend the day out there,” Ariko says.
Ariko earned her first spending money by babysitting. In high school, she found work as a dishwasher and meal server at Flin Flon General Hospital, then operated by nuns.
She displayed natural leadership skills as secretary of the Hapnot Collegiate student council. She graduated in the late 1950s with a $200 bursary, an impressive amount back then.
After a summer of office work at HBM&S, Ariko moved to Winnipeg to attend business college. In less than a year she graduated, found a job in the city and then moved back to Flin Flon to work full-time at HBM&S.
She spent a few more months in the company personnel department before transferring to the hydro dam that HBM&S owned in Island Falls, Saskatchewan.
Island Falls was a different kind of community. The northern Saskatchewan island of about 200 people was dominated by company culture.
“We didn’t use cash,” says Ariko. “People got coupon books and you got a $50 book or a $20 book. You used those coupons in the grocery store and then that $50 or $20 came off your [HBM&S] cheque.”
While Ariko enjoyed her office work in Island Falls, she may have wondered what kind of social life she would foster in a town with about 10 single residents.
As fate would have it, a handsome (and single) twentysomething named Wally Ariko was also living in Island Falls. Rose-Marie had first fallen for him as a teenager when she saw him put his astonishing dance moves to use at the Jubilee Hall back in Flin Flon.
“He was quite a jiver,” she recalls.
Rose-Marie and Wally immediately hit it off in Island Falls. They got engaged within six months and married in less than a year, in August 1961.
Within a few years, the couple had two daughters, Melani and Michele. In a coincidence rare in today’s society, Flin Flon’s Dr. Percy Johnson, who had delivered Rose-Marie, also delivered both of her girls.
In 1967, when the Island Falls hydro dam became automated and operational out of Regina and Flin Flon, the Ariko family transferred back to the latter community. Rose-Marie continued to work for HBM&S.
Rose-Marie was accustomed to working outside of the home, but after a year back in Flin Flon she decided to give homemaking a chance. Within a year she had reaffirmed it wasn’t for her.
“It was very uncommon for [a mother] to be working when they had children,” she says.
“I guess I was non-traditional.”
Rose-Marie was ready for a fresh career path, so she joined the Flin Flon School Division as a payroll clerk, putting her love of numbers to use.
In 1976 she became secretary-treasurer, helping crunch the numbers during a transformative era for Flin Flon education.
“Our student population then was close to 2,000 and I was there for the big building program,” says Rose-Marie. “That’s when they demolished Birchview, Channing, Willowvale and old McIsaac – all those [older] schools.”
Rose-Marie retired in 1999. The following year she and Wally began spending their winters at a sunny, friendly seniors’ mobile-home park in Texas. Rose-Marie became involved in park activities and spent time as president of the residents’ association.
“Everybody’s retired and you gravitate towards people that share the same interests that you do, and we just had a wonderful time,” she says. “We made lifelong friends.”
In the course of an hour-long interview, Rose-Marie more than once mentions how fortunate she has been throughout her life, but her 75 years have not been without tragedy.
Last fall, the Arikos’ daughter, Michele, died unexpectedly at the age of 53. It was the harshest challenge Rose-Marie has ever faced, but she does her best to put it into perspective one day at a time.
“Just about everybody has something [challenging] in their family, be it their children, their brothers and sisters, their parents,” she says. “We all seem to have some sadness. Like our friends in Texas – if it wasn’t a kid or a grandkid in rehab or their own siblings that were alcoholics, it was something else. Everybody seems to have something.”
Involved
Across the decades, Rose-Marie has been as involved in her community as she has been in her career.
She spent 30-plus years curling with Willow Park Curling Club – pulling off two eight-enders – and sat on boards such as those for North of 53 Consumers Co-op and Keewatin Community College (now UCN).
Ariko is past-president of the Manitoba Association of School Business Officials, which represents school division secretary-treasurers, and maintenance and transportation supervisors. She has also driven the Flin Flon Lions Handivan.
These days, spry and in good health, Ariko enjoys cards, Mah Jongg, gardening, fishing and golfing. She sits on the Flin Flon Seniors board of directors and cherishes a family that includes three grandchildren.
When she drives down Main Street, she can’t help but think how different the downtown core is today as compared to her youth.
“There are hotels that are gone, bakeries that are gone, both theatres and grocery stores that are gone,” Ariko says. “It’s just changed so completely.”
Ariko has changed over time, too, but in many ways she’s still that determined woman who once ventured off to college to make something of herself in a male-dominated labour market.
The Type A part of her personality is obvious, but are there other parts she would like to change?
“You’d have to ask my husband,” Rose-Marie says with a laugh. “He could probably answer that better than me.”
