Cape Breton's Magazine

I was away then. And my mother really needed her home. So, when (Sadie) saw the little one (Louise) she wanted to--she wanted her bad. And she was 11 months old, and she thought she was so sweet. She asked my father first, and of course my father said, "Okay. You can get her if you want her." Then she asked my brothers; oh, they didn't care. Then she asked my moth? er. "Oh," she said, "no. I'm not going to take a child now. Nearly 60 years old, and I'm not going to start again." But then (Sadie) said, "Oh," she said, "when you'll see her, you'll want her." "Well," she said, "okay. And you'll have to stay home and look after her yourself." (That was the deal.) That was the deal. So Sadie gladly did it. So Sadie was hardly ever out to work. She was home. She looked after Louise. Well, my mother did too, they all did. They all just idolized her, you know. Spoiled her, but they didn't spoil her much. They didn't spoil her at all. She was sweet. (She was well loved.) Oh, my, she got all the love in the world. I asked my mother one time, "Now, did you think as much of her as you did of us when we were small?" "Just as much," she said. "Perhaps more." You know, she was smiling. And I was so glad to hear that, you know, because we all just adored her. She was the cutest little thing. And she was so sweet. She was talking Gaelic when she was a year old--a few weeks after she came. My fa? ther 'd always talk Gaelic to her, you know, just for the fun of hearing it. And she picked it up so fast. I think she got a pretty good home. (And she's married now in Boisdale.) She has her own family--? girls and a boy. There's 4 of the girls married. That's where we were visiting this summer.... But Lord, it was the best thing that ever happened. She was the dearest little thing, you know.... (But there was a lot of that....) Adopt? ing, oh, yes. If they took them from the MUNGIE CONTINUES ON NEXT PAGE coMMU'rrcou',,,,, P.O. 0,2086. Station M B37 3B7 Sadie, Mother and Father, with Louise seated In front Louise Remembers: Louise MacNeil. Boisdale: They adopted me when I was 11 months old. And Mungie wasn't home at the time; she was away. So Sadie was the one who was looking after me. I was Sadie's charge. She was the one that wanted me, and so she looked after me. (I hear they all wanted you.) Oh, I suppose they all probably did. But the mother in the family was 63, and I don't know whether she was up to • maybe she was up to looking after a small child or having a small child around, but I don't think in later years she was up to putting up with a teenager, when she was in her 70's. She was involved (in my upbringing). But I didn't really look to her as my boss. If I wanted to go somewhere, I didn't ask her, I'd ask Sadie or Johnny. Because if I asked her, I'd never go anywhere! Until I was 40! My generation was the generation that was becoming quite aggres? sive and going places. Going places when you were 14 and 13 wasn't something that her children did. Her own children didn1 do that. I did it. Mainly because I was by myself. I didn't have any children to play with in the house. I had to go where there were children, and go off. (Going to the dances when you were 14 • 1 guess that caused a bit of an uproar?) Well, it caused an uproar with (Mother). It caused an up? roar with me going out, until I was married. Because she just couldn't understand it, the ways of these teenagers that were a generation or two behind her. So when I went to a dance at 14 • I had to go with someone from the house. So that meant taking my brother (Johnny) who was 45. Twisting his arm to take me. It was a wedding, I remem? ber specifically, in the fall. I don't remember who got married. But, anyway, he came with me, and we walked out. And he died about a month later. I was 14 when he died, when he took a coronary. And that was very, very traumatic for me. The same as Sadie and Mungie. He was the same type of person. Very, very • never • I think he spanked me once. I talked back to my mother one day, and I was running, escaping. But he grabbed me and he gave me a wallop on the behind. Of which I should have got? ten many more! Laughs. And it would have made life easier for me as I had my own children, I guess. (Sadie was more like the mother to you, was she?) She was, yeah. (How much difference was there in your age and Sadie's?) Twenty- nine years. She was the one who looked after me. But Mungie made all my clothes. She sewed beautifully when she was younger, and she cooked beautifully. And she made all my