INTRODUCTION by Shawn Murphy

What follows is a story about a most unique and interesting person who everyone in our family considers very special — our mother Kathleen.

Kathleen Murphy was born in 1927 to a large Irish farming family in the Village of Kinkora, in rural Prince Edward Island. She was the youngest of a family of 16 children. She lived through the depression, the railway years, World War II, the segregation of Catholics and Protestants, and the simpler semi—subsistence way of life then being experienced in rural

Prince Edward Island.

Throughout her life, she has seen and experienced the profound changes that came to Prince Edward Island society: the appearance

of automobiles; the disappearance of the railroad; the demise of the mixed farm; the urbanization of the province; the transformation of the economy; the secularization of Island society; dramatic changes to our systems of transportation, communication and education; and the very way in which people live, work, and raise their families.

She received an education, including a university degree, got married, raised a large family of eight children, became grandmother to 28 grandchildren. Literally hours before this book went to print, Kathleen became a great—grandmother for the first time on the birth of Archer Daniel MacDougall, born January 20th, 2012, the son of Kathleen’s granddaughter, Karen Murphy, and her husband, John Arch MacDougall. Throughout her life, she has experienced the joys, challenges and pains that come with such a full and busy life. She has lived each and every day with a pleasant, non—judgmental manner looking always for the good in every person.

One could facetiously say that Kathleen Murphy accomplished little throughout her life. Other than a wife and mother, she has held no positions, written no books, and received no awards. The Canada Pension Plan has no record of her ever having a job, and when you Google her name, the screen comes up blank.

4 KATHLEEN MURPHY, MAITRIARC