letter contained some money he sent her, along with a request that she come home for a few days as he was not feeling well.

Kathleen finished her second year of university and came back to Kinkora for the summer of 1947 where she looked after the house while Lennie farmed. John had died without a will, and the rest of the family agreed that Lennie should take over the farm, and signed over each of their shares to him. Today, the original 185 acre farm is one of the last in the area, if not the last, which is still owned by descendants of the original settlers, a testament to the strong family bonds of the Keefe family.

In August of that summer of 1947, Lennie married Genevieve Carragher of Kellys Cross and the new couple settled in to the old farm house to begin a life of their own. They went on to have nine children.

After her father’s death and Lennie’s marriage, Kathleen never felt quite the same way about her childhood home. Although it was still that farm home in the middle of Kinkora where she grew up and which contained so many memories, she did not have the same connection to it that she did in the past. It was time to turn the page.

After her third year in university, Kathleen saw in one of the local papers an advertisement for work at a resort in Notre—Dame—du—Portage in Quebec. On a lark, she called her friend Alice McCloskey and suggested they apply. Their applications were accepted, and the two of them boarded a train in Charlottetown and left on what was their first time away from Prince Edward Island on their own.

Notre—Dame—du—Portage was a quiet village at the heart of the lower St. Lawrence River west of Riviere—du—Loup, noted for its breathtaking river views. The resort catered to up—scale tourists, and the standards of the resort emphasized superior service. Kathleen and Alice worked hard. They lived at the resort, waited tables, washed dishes, and had a wonderful summer. By the time the summer was over, they had saved some money, and anxiously looked forward to completing their senior year at Saint Dunstans.

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