Cape Breton's Magazine

Gwennie with a quilt she is currently working on Well actually, to be honest with you--I don't care who knows--I'd never call that place home. (West Tarbot.) No. I could never take it in my heart that it was my home. I was taken from my home. And I hate boats, because of that boat that took me here and didn't take me back. (Though you say it wasn't your home, it did well by you, and you inherited it, and you brought up your own family in it.) I know. But still.... And God forgive me for it. When I stood on the hill--out where the barn is today--I stood on the hill. And I said, "I wish the place would go in blazes." I hated.... SWITCH ON TO NOVA SCOTIA'S LARGEST SOURCE OF ELECTRICITY - COAL' Coal is the world's leoding fuel for electrical generation and one of Nova Scotia Section coal olso hoppens N So, whether QJor fuel for 1 flick 0 generating electricity in c to light your house, warm your oven, or turn on the television, chances ore pretty good that you're using electricity created from cool. As well, dollars spent to generate electricity using coal mined in Novo Scotia stay at home to provide jobs. Bottom line? All of Novo Scotia benefits when you switch on to Nova Scotian coal. J' SOCIETY ot That I was going to give up everything I ever wanted to do. That I was going to give it up at that age, to look after an old lady that was nothing to me. And to work on a farm that I had--actually, I bad interest in it, in a sort of way--to get out--you know, to get out of the house. But as far as being interested in--with interest--I really didn't. Because I want? ed to be something else. I wanted to be something more. And if I'd have stayed in the Middlemore Home (in England) until I was of age, I could have been whatever it was I wanted. They'd put me through school. Even if I'd have to pay it back when I'd get a job. They'd still give you what you wanted. (When you went to Sydney, did you ever feel that here was your chance to maybe go for more?) I could have done it. But, I still had to come back. I'd get so many weeks. Like I said, (a lady) would stay with her maybe 5 or 6 weeks or 8 weeks, whatever the vacation was, and then she'd go back home to put her children in school. So I'd have to come back to look after the old woman. So what was the use of me going and taking up what I wanted to take up? I did take up typing through the mail. But what was the good of it? I took up dressmaking through the mail. But to get a certificate, I had to go away to prove that I could do it, you know. That was the trouble with me. I was too darned soft-hearted. When I was 21. I could have walked out of that house. And I could have said, "The heck with it all. Let her own look after her." But heck, (her own) couldn't leave New York. They couldn't leave their jobs to look after her. And of course, in the long run, I was the one she wanted. When we were up in the Annapolis Valley --Lauchie was (working) in the Valley. They sent word to me, they were trying to put her in the old people's home. Not the one they have in Baddeck now--it was up by where the hospital is today.... Well, the woman that was running that home wouldn't take her. because she was a cripple and they'd have to get a spe? cial nurse. And the government wasn't helping them then like it is today. So. Lauchie came home from work, and I showed him the letter. And he said, "Well, what do you want to do?" I said. "Well, there's one thing I don't want to do. I don't want to put Aunt Mary in the old people's home.... I'd sooner go home and take her home than see her going in the old people's home." So then we made up our mind and we came home here at Easter, myself and the kids. And I took her home with me. And I had her in this house for 6 years on a bed--that she never came off it. till they took her off to bury her. But. I