By the 1980s, significant progress had been made towards updating 
     
     standards of education, public health and medicine, community and 
     
     social services and leisure activities. 
     
    
   
   
    
     These were heady times to be raising a family on Prince Edward Island. 
     
     The Murphy siblings embraced the challenges and opportunities. 
     
    
   
   
    
     The three touchstones of Prince Edward Island’s traditional society are 
     
     hard work, frugality and a sense of community. Hard work was admired 
     
     and valued in a society where self—reliance was paramount. Often, when 
     
     a person was to be married, one of the first questions (after determining 
     
     whether the intended was a Protestant or Catholic) was, “Is he (she) a 
     
     good worker?” Frugality — waste not, want not — was often a necessity in 
     
     an economy where material goods were scarce, and it became elevated to 
     
     the status of a cardinal virtue. Perhaps the one touchstone that was most 
     
     deeply shared was the sense of community. People knew where they fit. 
     
     They worked with, worshiped with, gossiped about and looked out for 
     
     one another. When a neighbour died, everyone attended the wake and 
     
    
   
   
    
     funeral. 
     
    
   
   
    
     That was the kind of world in which Kathleen Keefe was raised, and 
     
     although the times had changed, Kathleen adhered to the values and 
     
     beliefs of that world. Those she would pass along to her children. 
     
     Although each of them achieved many successes and accomplishments 
     
    

    
     on their own, and in their own way, they are all quick to recognize and 
     
     acknowledge the profound and positive influence of their mother on their 
     
     lives. Kathleen celebrated each of their achievements and beamed with 
     
     evident pride at their successes. That is her greatest and most enduring 
     
    
   
   
    
     legacy. 
     
    
   
   
    
     Kathleen had also set an example, running a household of 10 people on 
     
     one salary. She shopped regularly at the Coop Food Market, and watched 
     
     for bargains at leading retailers around Charlottetown such as Eatons and 
     
     Henderson and Cudmore. “She knew how to stretch a dollar,” recalled 
     
     one of her sons. “She was loaded with business sense,” said another. 
     
    
   
   
    
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