Neighbors

While the neighbors were all excellent and generally one of a kind, a few stood out for special mention. At the Eldon end of the district lived three Protestant families. Nollie MacRae was a quiet and humorous person, he and the family much beloved in the community. The same can be said of Mrs. Archie Mac- Tavish and her family. Then there was Harry MacTavish who mainly because of his carpentry shop at the road was a very visible neighbor. A stately looking and witty man with an exceptional tone of voice, his presence and sayings are much remembered.

Most of the neighbors were natives of Iona and the few who were not came in general from our part of the Island. Exceptions to this were rare. One was Dorothy Byrne, a first-war bride from Hastings, England who came to the district in 1919 with her husband, Pat. Known as “Doff”, Mrs. Byrne had a delightful British accent and tone of voice and fitted well in the community. Scarcely fifteen years after her arrival her husband died from heart disease, leaving her with a young family of four to raise. We often reflected upon the difficulties she must have faced in leaving behind family and country and an urban setting to start life anew in rural P.E.I. Another one of the few who came from “away” was Neil McCosham. Arriving in the early 30s, he used to baffle us by saying his old home farm was part in Ontario and Part in Quebec. He was generally a jovial man and with his wife Louise and family much loved and appreciated in the commu- nity. In the mid 50s Neil, Louise and younger children left Iona