17 Annie Gillis

Annie Gillis was the third daughter of seven children born to William and Christine Nicholson Martin of Valleyfield. At 22, she suspended her teaching career, married Pinettefarmer Herbie Gillis, and came to live in the Belfast area. Her husband died when she was 41.

Annie later returned to her teaching and studies, becoming, in 1 95 6, the first grandmother in memory to graduate from MountAllison University in Sac/(ville, New Brunswick. During her last years she lived in Charlottetown.

I came to Pinette in ’26.... I felt that I was in a community setting, a family community. The district, the school district, seemed to be the boundary of the family in those days and everybody regarded everybody else as part of their own family. If anyone needed help or had trouble of any kind they were all there to help out, and our near neighbours were very close. Occasionally, of course, at election time and a few other times, they had their little differences of opinion. But, it seemed to be just like people rooting for one hockey team or the other. Politics were traditionally a part of the social environment and no one seemed to vary from one year to another.

The Big Snow

1905 was famous for being the Winter of the Big Snow. Sounds like an Indian name. Many people still remember this winter. Oh well, I don’t remember it: it was the winter I was born.

No one went to the hospital for their maternity in those days. Everybody was born at home, and they usually had a local doctor take care of them. They had no prenatal care, except what the old wives told them.

Annie Gillis 155