This family also had another unpleasant experience some years later after their father died. The family was now grown up, and the youngest son, Cornelius, now twenty-one was working on the rail—road. One day he was thirsty, and drank some water from a nearby stream. He developed diphtheria, and died a short time later.

Celia worked in the local grocery store at the “Crossing,” earning fifty cents a week. Later, she worked in St. Peters, Moncton, and Souris before her marriage in 1940.

Life still had other hardships for Celia, who looked after Peter’s mother, who was bedridden after having a leg removed.

Seven years after her marriage, Celia developed arthritis, which confined her to bed for a year. Celia would not give up; so, with the will—power, determination and faith, she became mobile again. For a time, it was an effort for her to go for a short walk, or climb the stairs. Helen recalls that she was thirteen years old before her mother was able to climb the stairs without any help. Celia would say to Helen, “My crazy sense of humor kept me going.”

It was a beautiful spring day, April 22, 1966, and a warm wind was blowing profusely. Celia thought that she heard a noise, and she glanced out through the back window. What she saw startled her. The barn next door was ablaze, and their own barn was burning as well. She hurried outdoors to assist Peter in trying to save some animals housed in the barn. Eight cows died, as well as a mare and foal. Peter managed to get the mare to the door, but she wouldn’t come out without the foal. All they saved were four young cattle. The fire didn’t stop there. It continued to rage, burning their home, and a new home under construction, belonging to Jim and Helen Campbell. All the exterior of this new dwelling was completed, and they were ready to start the gyprock, when the fire broke out. Peter’s brother, Bill, had a small dwelling in the yard, and it was partly destroyed. The high

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