Page 87 - Donnie MacDermid of Margaree Valley: "It could have been worse!"

ISSUE : Issue 73

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1998/6/1

Donnie was prepared to build anything from fibreglass, from air? planes to auto-body repairs. He made new fibreglass statues of St. Peter and St. Paul to go on top of St. Peter's Church, the beautiful stone church in Cheticamp. And for a while, he made fifth-wheel trailers, such as the trailer pictured here. And, behind the trailer is the aboveground portion of his underground house. bed had a good breakfast. There was more in the bed than there was in me. What a mess. What a thing to do to a fellow*that just had an amputation. They don't think much, do they? And they still don't today. They don't think much better today either. Fifty years, first day of March. And it was on a Saturday, and last March 1st was on a Saturday, too, I recall. So I'm very leery of the first day of March, especial? ly on a Saturday. I'm going to be very leery of the 24th of November from here on too. That's when the stroke hit me. (Were you doing anything special that brought that?) No. I just got up that morning. Went to the bathroom, went out to the kitchen, and we usually have oatmeal por? ridge for breakfast, so I usually made the porridge on the stove. I did that, and she came out of the bedroom then, and she poured the porridge in the bowls, because I can't hang on to the dipper to do that, you see. So she did. So when I went to sit down to eat. I put a spoonful in my mouth, and of course I couldn't hold it in my mouth. It just run right out again. Then I had a bottle of vitamin E on the cupboard, I went to get the vitamin E that I was taking, and I put the vitamin E bottle un? der my arm to take the top off, and of course I dropped it and spilled it all over the place. Well, we knew then that there was something wrong and it wasn't right, see. And that's how that happened. (Before you lost your hand, were you an inven? tive, mechanical...) I was kind of a backyard mechanic up till then, yeah. (You were then. You've been since, too.) More so since than I was before. I just worked in the woods and sawmills before that, basically. Sawmills most of the time. (Were you raised like that? Cutting wood, doing stuff like that?) Yeah. I went out to work. 4 • J I ' M> i actually the first job I had was up in Canso, when I was--near as I can tell, looking back--looks like I was twelve years old then. I was always saying that I went in the woods when I was thirteen, and I did. I went to work for Arthur Ingraham in the woods in Big Brook when I was thir? teen, but it's the year after I was in Canso that I went in the woods. And I was (iXtecaxiii HEARING AID CENTRE LTD. Helping People Hear Since 1961 • WCB Authorized • Counselling • Complete Hearing Assessments • Repair / Leaner Sen/ice • DVA Taps Cards Accepted Two Locations to Serve You Commerce Tower 173 Esplanade Sydney, Nova Scotia Canada B1P6H2 (902) 539-5881 Renwick Place 157 Commercial St. Glace Bay, Nova Scotia Canada BIA 3B9 (902) Wednesdays 849-8656 Toll Free: 1-800-565-5881 6. STOP AT DINO'S fresh baked goods * souvenirs magazines * film * charcoal gifts * novels * camp fuel * ice Ingonish One Stop Store & Restaurant STAY AT DING'S Trailer Park Laundromat , close to the National Park Ingonish

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