[fat/1km? filtber John cutting sets for Potato Planting ( circa 1943) 
     
    
   
   
    
     A local widow with a large family would come to the Keefe’s door asking 
     
     for “shorts,” the residue of grain crushed at the mill into flour. Shorts 
     
     were normally thrown out or fed to animals, but the woman would take 
     
     the shorts home with her and make bread for her family. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Although the Keefes faced privations during the Depression, they were 
     
     facing an even more critical circumstance. Angelina became gravely ill 
     
    

    
     in 1934 with a heart condition, and was admitted to the Charlottetown 
     
     Hospital. One of Kathleen’s earliest memories of going to Charlottetown 
     
     was accompanying her brother Johnny during daily visits to the hospital. 
     
     After Angelina was released, she was confined to her bed for most of the 
     
     next four years. She was in the downstairs bedroom where she was able 
     
     to better receive visitors, and in the winter months, her bed was moved 
     
     to the dining room where she could be close to the wood stove. She took 
     
     a daily diet of pills to treat her heart condition, but often it would take a 
     
     turn for the worst. The priest, Father Smith, was called on more than one 
     
     occasion to administer the last rites. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Medical services were very limited during the Depression. The provincial 
     
     government’s involvement in health care was very limited. The Roman 
     
     Catholic Bishop of Charlottetown, the Reverend Joseph O’Sullivan who 
     
     was consecrated in 1931, directed that the church care for its own in 
     
    
   
   
    
     55