Cape Breton's Magazine

ing the school bus. and he got stuck on the road, and he came home and he was all soaking wet. And his clothes were frozen on him. And I was trying to thaw them off of him. so that he could take them off. And I found myself really concerned. And it was then that I really thought. Well. you know. I really care, I really cared, in a sense, but it was then that I really knew that I really, really did care. Then when I got sick--a year after. I got sick. I got hurt out here--I got squeezed between the horse and cart and the hen? house. And it was then that I knew that he really cared. Because he was so concerned over it. And I think that's when the real bond got--so that we really knew we cared about what happened to each other and what happened to the children. Because I went that year--about a year and a half after I was married--and I had a cystic tumour removed. I got pregnant, just about a year after I was married. But I was only about two months pregnant, and I had a miscarriage. But the reason for the miscarriage was, I had a cystic tu? mour. So. as a result of operations and tests, the specialists decided that I couldn't have any children, unless I had another operation. And if I did. my chanc? es of having a healthy pregnancy were very slight.... So I was very disappointed that--I always thought, you know. I would love to have had a child. But Neil came in that night to the hospital, after I had the operation and had the cystic tumour removed. And I was going to have this other operation. So he came down that night. And he came in. And he said. "I talked to Fr. Danny"--Fr. MacDonald. "And as far as I'm concerned, I'd like you to come home." He said, "I think you have enough responsibility." He said, "You have four children. How many more do you need? And they're yours as well as mine." And it was then that I really felt that I really--we really had a close bond.... Because he said--one of the things he said to me up on the road that night (at Gillis Point) was, "Don't expect me to love you like I loved Kay," The night he gave me the ring, upstairs in the hall--now, that was the first time he kissed me. And I said, "Oh, get out!" You know? I kind of didn't want him to kiss me. Because I was always standoffish with the people that I worked for. Make sure that they knew where they stood right from the start, you know. He said, "Oh, come on now, if we're going to make this work, both of us will have to cooperate a little bit." So that's the first time he showed me that he really wanted to try to make it a good marriage. So I said to him, you know, why did he spend so much money, and he said, "I'm not going to give you any the less than I gave Kay," And he didn't. He was very good to her. Like he often told me about how good she was and how happy she was, and how good they got along when they worked together and everything. How well she was. You know, he still talked about his love for her 30 years after she was dead. And it didn't bother me one bit. But when I went in to have one of the operations that I had, I asked a priest in there to have a Mass said for her. I said, "She will in? tercede for me to get over this and get home to look after those children." And that priest said, "I've been long a priest, and I've never heard of a request like that. You bet you'll get better! And you'll be home, and you'll look after your children...." So I had a close attachment to her, too. But in the letter that Neil wrote to me in Baddeck, before I ever left there, he said in the letter, "If I'm not being too bold. SIMEON'S II Family Restaurant 427 Grand Lal

Cape Breton's Magazine