My life has been a mixture of hard work, great adventure and enjoying the passing of time.
I was born on February 9th, 1911 in the town of Petit Etang, in Cape Breton, N.S., with a population of about 300 people. My parents were William and Marguerite Broussard. The other kids in the family were Charlie, Ethel, William, Joe, Louisa and Mary Helen. These were difficult times for the Family. My dad was a fisherman to provide for the Family’s needs. My mom died in 1919 during the Spanish flu that wiped out thousands of people. From then on it was every child for himself and helping out in every way possible. Some of the children were taken in by relatives or friends to help out with household chores. After grade six I stayed home to work in the house.
In 1929, at the age of eighteen I met this charming, handsome widow by the name of Johny, who owned a Ford car (one of the few in town). He had four children from his previous wife. So I became a young bride and new mom to Lucie, Marie Cecile, Charlie, and Joseph all at once.
I had my first baby, Clifford, in 1932. In 1934 another boy named James. In 1936 a baby girl name Ethel, and in 1939 another girl named Muriel. Yea, you could say I was busy. In case raising 8 children wasn’t enough, we moved to Cheticamp in 1942, bought a big house, hung a sign on the door that said “Rialto Hotel” and we were in business. We turned the front into a candy and smoke shop. I did the cooking, cleaning and reservations.
The meat wagon would come around in a horse and wagon to the houses to sell all the different kinds of meat, and the “Watkins” man used to sell dry goods. We bought other foods from the local farmers, and everyone had their own vegetable garden.
My days started at 5am, stoking the big coal furnace in the mud basement to get heat in the house, then making 6 or 7 pies for our hotel guests. The rest of the day was spent cooking, changing beds, washing clothes and floors, and bringing up eight children. There were no clothes dryers, clothes were hung a line outside, and the washing machine was a ringer hand roller to squeeze the water out of the clothes.
Johny went to work on the CNR railway trains where he was a cook and stayed there for many years and would come home on his free time. Finally he got tired of the train business and came home to stay. He started bootlegging from the main floor of the hotel. That a drew even more traffic to our very busy life.
By 1955 all my kids had moved away except for the youngest, Muriel. Then one day she said, “I’m leaving.” I said, “If you are going, I’m coming with you”. We moved to the big city of Toronto. That was quite an adventure. I spoke very little English so I did what I knew best. I rented a 5 bedroom home on Church Street and took in boarders and got a job at the St. Regis as a Chambermaid.
In 1956 Muriel married, and in1957 she had a son named Andrew, making me a Grandmother. She also had a daughter named Debra. Joseph had two daughters Adele and Rena. Ehtel had three boys; Daniel, Robert and Richard. Mary Cecil topped the charts with 5 children; Roland, Almina, Wayne, Freddy and Elaine. My grandkids had kids and I have 17 great-grandchildren. I even have five great-great-grandchildren.
In 1959, a luxurious hotel opened on King St. called the “Lord Simcoe Hotel”. I applied for a chambermaid job and got it. I was quickly promoted to head of housekeeping. Not bad for a girl from a town of three hundred. While I wasn’t working I was happy to spend time helping Ethel and Muriel with cooking, cleaning and babysitting.
I retired in 1976 at the age of 65. I moved back to Nova Scotia for a few years, and I loved it there. I got to spend time almost every day with my son James, but when he died it completely broke my heart. There was nothing really left there for me and I moved back to Toronto.
I don’t miss working. In fact I enjoy a simple life and travels with my family. I’ve been to Europe, Hawaii, and the carribbean. I’ve ridden donkeys, slept through a major earthquake, parasailed, and climbed volcanoes at sunrise. But I’m just as happy playing euchre, (as long as it’s for money!), watching my grandkids play sports, enjoying the birds outside my kitchen window or following the Blue Jays and the Maple Leafs (we’ll take the cup one of these days). I’m always up for whatever is going on. I don’t believe I’m too old to try new things. In fact, I golfed for the first time at 94 years old. And I have to say I wasn’t too bad!