Mary grew up on the Cape Breton shore, the youngest of six, and learned to bake standing on a chair in her mother's kitchen. She taught grade two for thirty-one years, and people she had taught as children still stopped her at the grocery store to say hello.
She married Tom in 1963. They raised three children in the same house he built with his brother, and there was always room at the table for one more. Summers meant the garden, her lilies in particular, and long evenings on the porch waving at anyone who drove by.
She kept every letter anyone ever sent her. We found them after she died, tied up in bundles by year, and reading them is how we came to write this page.
